SINGAPORE – The spike in artificial intelligence course enrolments that some training providers saw ahead of the expiry of a one-off SkillsFuture Credit top-up is proving to be a sustained boom for the sector.
Training providers told The Straits Times that growing interest in AI has translated into larger class sizes, higher revenue and increasing demand from both individual learners and corporate clients.
With fees ranging from a few hundred dollars to four-figure sums, the courses have boosted earnings significantly for some training providers.
Heicoders Academy chief executive Min Yan said generative AI-related programmes now account for about 80 per cent of the academy’s revenue, while profit from its AI courses has grown by about 100 per cent year on year over the past three years.
Info-Tech Academy also reported strong growth in demand for AI-related training, with enrolments increasing by 2,070 per cent in 2025 from a year earlier.
This increase, the firm said, was driven partly by a surge in training activity ahead of the expiry of the one-off SkillsFuture Credit top-up in 2025, as well as the academy’s expanded AI course offerings.
Its first course focused on the effective use of generative AI tools for productivity, and it added four courses for beginner and intermediate learners in 2025, covering a range of topics from using ChatGPT to generative AI for effective business management.
Demand has continued to rise for the academy’s courses. Between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, enrolment increased by 514 per cent, reflecting sustained interest from both individuals and businesses looking to build practical AI skills.
The trend is also reflected on the SkillsFuture course portal, where “AI” and “artificial intelligence AI” topped the list of popular searches as at June 18.
Heicoders said more than 3,000 learners have enrolled in its AI-related programmes so far in 2026 alone. Most learners at the academy are working professionals.
About 60 per cent are employees sponsored by their organisations, while 30 per cent are self-funded professionals and business owners seeking to improve productivity or remain competitive as AI becomes more widely adopted. The remaining 10 per cent are mainly fresh graduates and job seekers hoping AI skills will improve their employment prospects.
AI course fees vary depending on the provider and level of instruction. At Heicoders, programmes typically range from about $600 to $1,000 after government subsidies, with learners able to use SkillsFuture Credits and other eligible subsidies to further offset costs.
Daniel Leung, country manager for Singapore at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), said attendance at ACCA’s AI-related events and courses in Singapore increased by around 12 per cent between 2023 and 2025.
ACCA’s Global Talent Trends 2026 report found that employers increasingly value AI literacy and digital capabilities, with finance professionals who develop such skills better positioned for career progression and employment security.
Artificial Intelligence and AI were top suggested popular searches as at June 18.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM MYSKILLSFUTURE COURSE PORTAL
“We are seeing a decisive shift: AI is no longer a niche interest among finance professionals. It has become a core professional development priority,” said Leung.
Jessie To, chief financial officer of RELC International, recently completed ACCA’s AI Systems for Financial Reporting and Audit Compliance course.
She said AI tools can automate routine finance tasks, enhance data accuracy and strengthen risk detection. Work that previously took weeks, such as preparing presentation decks and identifying abnormal transactions, can now be completed within minutes, she added.
For some learners, AI courses have opened up new career opportunities.
Joshua Lau, who has spent more than two decades working in business development, tertiary education and the digital economy, recently completed Heicoders’ generative AI course and said the programme helped reinforce his decision to pivot to AI engineering and workflow automation.
He paid $643.50 for the course after subsidies and attended an intensive three-day programme held at the academy’s Kreta Ayer premises. “I didn’t regret it,” he said.
He credits the course with helping him secure a managing director role at a Malaysian renewable energy company undergoing AI transformation.
The most valuable skills he gained from the course were not technical but cognitive, he said.
“(The course) sharpened my critical thinking and my ability to evaluate trade-offs in architecting solutions – when to automate, when not to, which tools to bet on, and what the real cost of a decision is.
“In AI, those higher-order judgment calls matter far more than knowing technical codes,” he said.
Training providers generally agreed that the appeal of AI courses extends beyond learning how to use AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, with many learners seeking a deeper understanding of how AI systems can be applied in real-world settings.
Chan Yu Siang, a software engineer and AI instructor at Heicoders Academy, said the most useful AI courses help learners understand how AI systems work, where their limitations lie and how they can be deployed responsibly.
“The most valuable professionals in the future will not necessarily be the ones who know the most.
“They will be the ones who can consistently combine human expertise with AI capabilities to solve problems, create value and deliver results,” he said.
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Additional reporting by Emerald Lo
Source : https://www.straitstimes.com/business/course-enrolments-soar-as-ai-fever-grips-singapore
