Statute Details
- Title: Skills Development Levy (Prescribed Purposes) Regulations
- Act Code: SDLA1979-RG1
- Legislative Type: Subsidiary legislation (Regulations)
- Authorising Act: Skills Development Levy Act (Cap. 306), in particular sections 8(2)(d) and 23
- Current Status: Current version as at 27 Mar 2026
- Key Provision: Section 2 (Prescribed purposes)
- Most Recent Amendment (from extract): Amended by S 463/2020 with effect from 15 Jun 2020
- Revised Edition: 1995 RevEd (1 Apr 1995), originally dated 23 Jul 1993
- Commencement Date: Not stated in the provided extract
What Is This Legislation About?
The Skills Development Levy (Prescribed Purposes) Regulations (“the Regulations”) are subsidiary legislation made under the Skills Development Levy Act. In plain terms, they specify what the Government may fund using money from the Skills Development Fund. The Fund is financed through the Skills Development Levy regime, and the Regulations determine the “permitted spending lanes” for that money.
The central idea is governance and accountability: the Skills Development Fund is not a general-purpose pool of money. Instead, the Regulations prescribe particular purposes—such as grants to companies and training-related organisations—so that levy revenue is directed towards skills upgrading and workforce development. This ensures that the Fund’s expenditure aligns with the policy objective of promoting skills and expertise among people in employment and those who are retrenched.
Practically, the Regulations operate as a legal gateway. They authorise the payment out and expenditure of Fund moneys “from time to time” for specific categories of grants. If an expenditure does not fall within the prescribed purposes, it risks being ultra vires the statutory authorisation framework. For lawyers advising employers, training providers, unions, or community organisations, the Regulations therefore matter because they shape eligibility, grant design, and compliance boundaries.
What Are the Key Provisions?
1. Citation and scope of the instrument (Regulation 1)
Regulation 1 provides the short title: “Skills Development Levy (Prescribed Purposes) Regulations.” While this appears routine, it is important for legal referencing, especially when grant schemes or compliance documents cite the Regulations as the authority for permitted Fund expenditure.
2. Prescribed purposes for the Skills Development Fund (Regulation 2)
Regulation 2 is the operative provision. It states that moneys of the Skills Development Fund may be paid out and expended for the purpose of specified grants and subsidisation arrangements. The structure is a list of categories (paragraphs (a) to (c)), each describing who may receive grants and what the grants are intended to cover.
(a) Grants to companies and certain organisations for consultant engagement and skills upgrading (Regulation 2(1)(a))
Under paragraph (a), the Fund may provide grants to:
- any company, variable capital company, or firm wholly or substantially owned by citizens or permanent residents of Singapore; and
- any organisation (not limited by the ownership criterion in the text of paragraph (a) itself, though the overall scheme may impose other conditions elsewhere);
for the purpose of engaging any consultant to assist in upgrading business operations or training programmes. The object is explicitly tied to promoting or developing the skills or expertise of persons in employment.
For practitioners, two compliance points stand out. First, the grant is linked to a specific activity: engaging a consultant for upgrading business operations or training programmes. Second, the intended outcome is skills development for persons in employment. This means grant proposals typically need to demonstrate both the consultant-related component and the skills-upgrading or expertise-development objective.
(b) Grants to the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) (Regulation 2(1)(b))
Paragraph (b) authorises grants to the National Trades Union Congress to defray or subsidise costs it incurs in:
- promoting or developing the skills and expertise of its members who are persons in employment; and
- retraining its retrenched members.
This provision recognises the role of trade unions in workforce development and provides a statutory basis for Fund support of union-led training and retraining initiatives.
(c) Grants to specified community and professional organisations (Regulation 2(1)(c))
Paragraph (c) authorises grants to a defined list of organisations to defray or subsidise costs they incur in promoting or developing skills and expertise of persons in employment or in retraining retrenched persons. The organisations are enumerated as follows:
- (i) the Chinese Development Assistance Council (a company limited by guarantee incorporated under the Companies Act);
- (ii) Yayasan Mendaki (a company limited by guarantee incorporated under the Companies Act);
- (iii) the Singapore Indian Development Association (a society registered under the Societies Act);
- (iv) the Eurasian Association, Singapore (a society registered under the Societies Act); and
- (v) the Association of Muslim Professionals (an institution registered as a charity under the Charities Act).
This list is legally significant because it is closed: only the organisations named in the regulation fall within paragraph (c). Lawyers advising other organisations must therefore consider whether they can fit within paragraph (a) (as “any organisation” in that paragraph) or whether they are excluded from paragraph (c) due to the enumerated nature of the provision. The legal drafting suggests that Parliament intended to channel Fund support to particular established institutions with demonstrated community and skills-development roles.
3. Limitation on “persons in employment” for paragraph (1)(c) (Regulation 2(2))
Regulation 2(2) provides an important interpretive limitation: for the purposes of Regulation 2(1)(c), “persons in employment” shall not include persons who volunteer their services to further the objects of any organisation referred to in that regulation.
This is a targeted restriction. It prevents the inclusion of volunteers (who may be engaged in activities aligned with an organisation’s objects) as “persons in employment” for the purpose of Fund-supported skills development under paragraph (c). In practice, this affects eligibility calculations and programme design for the listed organisations. If a training initiative relies on volunteers, the organisation must ensure that the beneficiaries counted as “persons in employment” are actually persons in employment, not volunteers. Otherwise, the organisation risks non-compliance with the prescribed-purpose framework.
How Is This Legislation Structured?
The Regulations are concise and structured around a single substantive provision. The instrument contains:
- Regulation 1: Citation (short title).
- Regulation 2: Prescribed purposes—authorising expenditure of Skills Development Fund moneys for specific grant categories.
Within Regulation 2, the prescribed purposes are set out in paragraphs (1)(a) to (c), followed by an interpretive definition/limitation in paragraph (2). There are no additional parts or sections in the extract, reflecting the Regulations’ function as a focused spending-authorisation instrument rather than a comprehensive administrative code.
Who Does This Legislation Apply To?
The Regulations primarily apply to the administration and expenditure of the Skills Development Fund—i.e., the entities and processes through which Fund moneys are paid out for the prescribed purposes. However, the practical effect is felt by potential grant recipients and programme sponsors.
In particular, the Regulations affect:
- Eligible companies, variable capital companies, and firms that are wholly or substantially owned by citizens or permanent residents of Singapore, and that seek grants for consultant-assisted upgrading of business operations or training programmes.
- Organisations that may receive grants under paragraph (a) for consultant engagement to promote or develop skills or expertise of persons in employment.
- NTUC, as a statutory recipient under paragraph (b) for costs of promoting skills and expertise of members in employment and retraining retrenched members.
- The enumerated community/professional organisations under paragraph (c), each of which may receive grants to defray or subsidise costs of skills development and retraining activities.
For the listed organisations under paragraph (c), Regulation 2(2) further constrains who can be treated as “persons in employment” for the purpose of Fund-supported activities—excluding volunteers who serve to further the organisations’ objects.
Why Is This Legislation Important?
Although the Regulations are short, they are legally important because they define the boundaries of permissible expenditure from the Skills Development Fund. For employers and organisations, this translates into grant eligibility and compliance risk management. For administrators and legal counsel, it provides the statutory basis for structuring grant schemes and for ensuring that funded activities remain within the prescribed purposes.
From a governance perspective, the Regulations reinforce the principle that public funds derived from the Skills Development Levy must be directed to skills development outcomes. The inclusion of consultant engagement (paragraph (a)) indicates a policy preference for structured upgrading of training programmes and business operations, rather than purely ad hoc training spending. The inclusion of NTUC and specified community organisations reflects a multi-stakeholder approach to workforce development, including union-led and community-led initiatives.
For practitioners advising on programme design, beneficiary eligibility, and grant documentation, the interpretive limitation in Regulation 2(2) is particularly practical. It is easy for organisations to blur the line between volunteers and employed beneficiaries, especially where community organisations run training activities with mixed participation. The Regulations require careful beneficiary classification for paragraph (c) programmes, and this can affect reporting, audit trails, and the defensibility of claims for Fund support.
Related Legislation
- Skills Development Levy Act (Cap. 306) — the authorising Act for the Regulations (including sections 8(2)(d) and 23 referenced in the metadata).
- Trade Unions Act (Cap. 333) — referenced because NTUC is a trade union registered under this Act.
- Companies Act (Cap. 50) — referenced for the incorporation form of certain grant recipient organisations (companies limited by guarantee).
- Societies Act (Cap. 311) — referenced for the registration form of certain grant recipient organisations (societies).
- Charities Act (Cap. 37) — referenced for the registration status of the Association of Muslim Professionals as a charity.
Source Documents
This article provides an overview of the Skills Development Levy (Prescribed Purposes) Regulations for legal research and educational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult the official text for authoritative provisions.