Q1. Are there guides and FAQs on the submission for funding support in Training Partners Gateway (TPGateway)?

For information on the submission for funding support in Training Partners Gateway (TPGateway), you may refer to the self-help guides at https://www.tpgateway.gov.sg/who-we-are/self-help-guides and the FAQs at https://www.tpgateway.gov.sg/faq.

Q2. What are the trainees’ details that we would need to collect for the funding claims submission in TPGateway?

Self-sponsored Trainee

• Full name (as per NRIC)

• Date of Birth (Actual details in DDMMYYYY)

• NRIC

• ID Type (NRIC, FIN, Others)

• Email address

• Contact number with country code^[1]

Company-sponsored Trainee

• Full name (as per NRIC)

• Date of Birth (Actual details in DDMMYYYY)

• NRIC

• ID Type (NRIC, FIN, Others)

• Email address

• Contact number with country code1

• Financial Institution’s / Singapore FinTech Association certified FinTech firm’s name & UEN

• Company course representative name, email address and contact number with country code[1]

[1] Country code is required for enrolment bulk submission

Q3. Are sponsoring companies required to furnish their staff’s personal details such as NRIC to the Training Provider?

Yes, NRIC records and other personal data of the eligible trainee are required to be furnished to the training provider for application of the course fee subsidies. You may refer to the IBF Circular on the "Advisory Guidelines on the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) for NRIC and other National Identification Numbers" for more information.

Q4. Is it mandatory to indicate email address and mobile number for grant submissions in Training Partners Gateway (TPGateway)?

For trainee enrolment, both email address and phone number are mandatory fields to be indicated for trainee enrolment. For trainee attendance, either email address or mobile number is mandatory. For mobile numbers, please note that system only accepts Singapore-registered number. The mobile number must be 8 digits and start with the digit 8 or 9.

Q5. Why do I need to indicate ‘Date of Birth’ and ‘Contact Number’ when submitting trainee enrolment in TPGateway?

Please note that the 'Date of Birth' field is for the system to determine the trainee's eligibility for funding and the collection of 'Contact Number' is for audit notification purposes. For more information on IBF’s policy on Personal Data Protection, please visit our privacy policy page https://www.ibf.org.sg/Pages/Privacy-Policy.aspx or email [email protected] for further enquiries.

Q6. Are Goods and Services Tax (GST) supported under the IBF-STS or FTS course fee subsidy?

With effect from 3 October 2022, the GST amount is no longer supported under IBF-STS or FTS.

Q7. I am a Financial Institution and have sponsored my staff for an IBF accredited course offered by an external training provider. How do I submit claims in TPGateway?

Please note that Financial Institutions no longer need to submit claims for funding support for external courses that commence from 10 October 2022 as all external courses are offered on a nett fee model. Training providers will be submitting the claims in TPGateway for the external courses attended by the trainees. Kindly refer to the table below for reference. Financial institutions will only need to use TPGateway if they have grants to submit for their own accredited in-house courses.

Q8. What is the trainee cap for IBF accredited courses?

The number of trainees for classroom and synchronous e-learning mode of training is capped at maximum 40 trainees per session.

Q9. What will happen if a trainee (a) drops out halfway through the course; or (b) does not pass the assessment for the course?

Training providers are required to upload the trainee’s assessment and select “Fail” if the trainee does not pass the assessment. No further action will be required if the trainee drops out halfway through the course.

The trainee would not be eligible for the IBF Standards Training Scheme (IBF-STS) / Financial Training Scheme (FTS) funding as the availability of the funding is subjected to the trainee’s successful completion of the IBF-STS / FTS course (including passing all relevant assessments and examinations). Training providers are expected to have clear and transparent policies on recovery of fees for such cases, which you can rely upon for claw back of the course fees from such trainees (where applicable).

Q10. The trainees have to attend make-up classes and/or sit for make-up assessments. How do I administer make-up classes and assessment in TPGateway?

Source

Please note that for funding submissions to be processed, the training provider is required to submit the attendance and assessment records for the make-up session(s)/assessment(s) within the submission deadline i.e. within 120 calendar days from the initial course run end date which the trainee was enrolled in.

Submission deadline

​^[1] Course runs and course sessions must be created before course start date for the link to the QR code for attendance taking to be sent to the Course Administrator and Trainer. 

Q11. I did a bulk upload for course run/ enrolment/ attendance/ assessment in TPGateway but it was not reflected in the system.

You may wish to refer to the guide below to check if there are any errors/failure messages for your uploads.

Step 1: Click on the bell icon

Step 2: Select the category of the upload using the filter function highlighted with yellow box. Then click into the hyperlink highlighted with the green box.

Step 3: Click on the URL highlighted with the green box.

Step 4: Scroll through the task bar all the way to the extreme right to see the "Reason for failure".

Q12. How long will IBF take to process the funding support submission in TPGateway?

IBF will take approximately 6 to 8 weeks after the submission deadline for attendance and assessment records to process the funding support upon complete and accurate submission. Longer processing time may be required in certain cases (e.g. incomplete or inaccurate submissions, Corporate PayNow not linked or nonstandard cases).

Q4. What types of organisations are allowed to submit funding support for IBF administered funding schemes in Training Partners Gateway (TPGateway)?

All IBF accredited or recognised Training Providers (TPs) would be given access to TPGateway for funding support submission.

Eligible Financial Institutions (FIs) / Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) certified FinTech Firms sponsoring their employees for IBF accredited or recognised courses will only need to pay the nett course fee (full course fee after IBF-STS or FTS funding). Whilst such sponsoring companies are not required to access the TPGateway to submit funding support, the companies are required to provide the personal particulars, such as NRICs and date of birth of their employees to the TPs and ensure that the employees complete the attendance and assessment requirements (if applicable) to facilitate the funding support submission by the IBF accredited or recognised TPs.

For Financial Institution / FinTech firms with IBF accredited or recognised in-house courses, similar access rights as a TP are made available for funding support submission in TPGateway.

Q14. Who is eligible for the IBF Standards Training Scheme (IBF-STS) course fee subsidy?

Q15. Who is eligible for the Financial Training Scheme (FTS) course fee subsidy?

Q16. For training courses under the Critical Core Skills and Future-Enabled Skills categories, how should Training Providers ascertain if a self-sponsored individual is employed with an eligible Financial Institution or Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) certified FinTech firm?

Training Providers must first verify that the trainee is employed by a Singapore-based Financial Institutions regulated by MAS or FinTech firms certified by Singapore FinTech Association before proceeding with the registration and enrolment of eligible trainees in TPGateway for IBF funding support. Training Providers must perform the verification of one of the following documents from the trainee:

• CPF statement
• Payslip
• Physical staff pass
• Any evidence that proves the trainee’s employment with the Singapore-based Financial Institutions regulated by MAS or FinTech firms certified by Singapore FinTech Association
• Letter of support (only applicable to trainees who are licensed representatives of Insurance companies or securities firms)

Q17.  Will a trainee be eligible for course fee subsidies for the same course completed and funding received within the same calendar year?

With effect from 3 October 2022, trainee is only eligible for the course fee subsidies once for the same course completed and funding received within the same calendar year.

Example: If a trainee has already received funding for a course which ended in 2023, they are ineligible for further course fee subsidy in the same calendar year. However, if the trainee enrols in a course with an end date in 2024, the trainee is eligible for course fee subsidy for 2024.

Q18. If a trainee is ineligible for funding, do we need to submit enrolment, attendance, and assessment in TPGateway?

It is not mandatory to submit the details of trainees who are ineligible for funding.

Q19. When should I create course runs and course sessions?

Course runs and course sessions must be created before course start date for the link to the QR code for attendance taking to be sent to the Course Administrator and Trainer.

Q20. When should I submit trainee enrolments?

Public courses: Trainee enrolment must be submitted before or within 45 calendar days from course run start date.

In-house courses: Trainee enrolment must be submitted before or within 105 calendar days from course run start date.

Q21. When should I submit attendance and assessment?

Public courses: For courses with synchronous e-learning or classroom mode of training, attendance should be taken digitally during the course run. For other mode of trainings, manual attendance records must be submitted within 45 calendar days from course run end date.

Assessment results must be submitted within 45 calendar days from course run end date.

In-house courses: For courses with synchronous e-learning or classroom mode of training, attendance should be taken digitally during the course run. For other mode of trainings, manual attendance records must be submitted within 105 calendar days from course run end date.

Assessment results must be submitted within 105 calendar days from course run end date.

Q22. When should I update the fee collection status of trainee enrolments?

The deadline to update the fee collection status is within 120 calendar days from course run end date. Funding will not be disbursed for failure to update the fee collection status to “Full Payment” within the stipulated timeline.

Q23. What happens if I miss a submission deadline for one of the funding criteria?

Disbursement criteria will not be met if a submission deadline is missed, hence funding will not be disbursed.

Q24. Are course runs and course sessions the same?

Course runs refers to the period that the course is available for. Course sessions are then created within the course run period with the specific course time and date.

Q25. Is it mandatory to add course sessions?

Yes. Course run sessions are required to facilitate attendance taking.

You can add course run sessions in the “Course Runs” tile via the following steps:

1. From the “Course Runs” tile, find the course run you would like to add sessions for
2. Click on the “Edit” button
3. Go to the “Course Run Schedule” tab
4. Click on the “Add Sessions” button

Upon creating course run and session(s), the link containing the attendance code and QR code will be generated. The link can be obtained from “Course Runs” tile via the “Maintain Course Run” function. Only trainer(s) indicated under the course run will receive an automatically generated email from MySkillsFuture containing the aforementioned link 3 days before the course start date.

However, the attendance code and QR code itself will only be active from 30 minutes before the session start time to 30 minutes after the session end time. For example: The session starts at 9am and ends at 12pm. The attendance code and QR code will be active from 8.30am to 12.30pm. When creating the course run, you may choose not to add the individual course run sessions. However, you will need to update the course run to include course run sessions later on to facilitate attendance taking.

Notes:

• For examinable courses, trainees’ attendance has to be captured for all course run sessions, including the “Assessment” course run session.
• Backdated course runs and course run sessions can only be created via the “Upload Course Runs” function using the Excel Template. You may refer to the Course Run Self-Help Guide for more information.

Q26. How many sessions should I create for my course runs with different mode of training (MoT)?

You should create sessions that correspond to the course run start and end dates for the course run. Further, a session should be created for each Mode of Training (MoT).

• For blended learning programme (e.g. classroom training component and asynchronous elearning component), separate sessions should be created for each MoT.
• For course runs with an assessment component, a separate session with MoT “Assessment” should be created. Trainee’s attendance has to be captured for the “Assessment” session.

Please refer to the following tables for detailed guidelines on creating sessions and attendancetaking for the various MoTs.

1. MoT: Classroom; Synchronous e-learning; In-house; Practical (Practicum); Supervised Field; Traineeship.

2. MoT: On-the-Job Training (OJT)

3. MoT: Asynchronous e-learning

*The course run start date for asynchronous e-learning refers to the earliest date the trainee is able to obtain online access to the webspace or portal where the trainee is meant to have the first training session (e.g. the date on which the trainee is given the necessary online user ID and password). If the trainee is allowed to continue accessing the training programme after the course run has ended, this is considered a separate arrangement between you and the trainee; the course run end date should not be extended due to this arrangement.

For in-house accredited courses, do note that the MoT for course runs should be indicated as ‘Inhouse’ and the actual MoT of the course conducted in should be indicated under course sessions.

Q27. For in-house courses, what mode of training should I indicate in the TPG claim submission?

Please indicate ‘In-house’ as the course run mode of training and indicate the actual mode of training (Asynchronous e-learning, Synchronous e-learning, Classroom etc.) for the course sessions.

Q28. What programme dates should I indicate for e-learning courses?

Asynchronous e-learning courses
Programme start date: Commencement date of the asynchronous e-learning period.
Programme end date: Last date of the asynchronous e-learning period.

*Note: Actual course completion/end date for asynchronous e-learning courses captured in Certificate of Completion (CoC) will likely be of an earlier date compared to the course run end date set up in TPGateway.

Synchronous e-learning courses
Programme start date: Commencement date of the synchronous e-learning period.
Programme end date: The “programme final assessment date”.

Q29. How should I create course runs and course sessions for asynchronous e-learning courses?

Course run period: Indicate the e-learning period as the course run period. For example, if the elearning course is open to trainees for access from 1 January 2023 to 31 January 2023, indicate 1 January 2023 as the course run start date and 31 January 2023 as the course run end date.

Course session: Create 1 session for the entire course run period. Using the same example above, create 1 course session with start date 1 January 2023 and end date 31 January 2023.

Assessment session: For courses with assessment component, please create a separate session for the assessment component and indicate the last day of the e-learning period as the assessment date. Using the same example above, indicate 31 January 2023 as the assessment start and end date.

Please note that attendance must be taken for each course session and assessment session created.

Q30. Can I still create course run and course sessions for a course that has been conducted and completed?

For creation of course runs and sessions for backdated courses, please upload the course runs and sessions using the Course Runs excel template via ‘Upload Course Runs’ function in TPGateway before the enrolment submission deadline. Please see below for enrolment submission deadline.

Enrolment submission deadline
Public courses: Trainee enrolment must be submitted before or within 45 calendar days from course run start date.
In-house courses: Trainee enrolment must be submitted before or within 105 calendar days from course run start date

Q13. Do I need to submit a claim to qualify for IBF-STS or FTS programme fee subsidy?

For self-sponsored individuals, your training provider will submit the claim(s) on your behalf. Please check with your training provider should you have further enquiries regarding your claim(s).

Q39. For the mandatory use of SingPass for e-attendance taking, does it apply to all Mode of Training (MoT)?

From 1 Oct 2023, you will have to take e-attendance via SingPass for course run sessions conducted under classroom or synchronous e-learning modes of training. If you had taken manual attendance for any course run sessions conducted under classroom or synchronous e-learning modes of training before 1 Oct 2023, please note that you have up to 27 Oct 2023 to submit these attendance records. This is an exception to complete the submission even if your course run has yet to end. If you have missed this deadline, please contact SSG Service Portal to appeal to submit the manual attendance.

For asynchronous e-learning you may use either e-attendance via SingPass or manual attendance taking.

Q40.  The dynamic QR code for SingPass e-attendance taking (a) did not work during the course or (b) Trainee does not have SingPass.

Trainees must have SingPass at the onset to be able to enrol and attend IBF-funded courses. If SingPass e-attendance fails due to technical reasons*, you are required to retain the error screenshot and take the trainees’ attendance manually. Please submit an appeal to SSG (with appeal reasons clearly indicated) via the SSG Service Portal within 14 days from the course run session date. SSG will update you on the appeal outcome within 14 days from the date of receiving your appeal.

*Technical reasons:
• Network down at Training Providers’ premises
• SingPass service disruption
• Trainees not able to utilize SingPass (e.g. not able to log-in to SingPass despite several tries)

In the event of an island wide SingPass service disruption, you will be allowed to upload manual attendance records for the affected sessions in TPGateway. No appeal is required.

Q41.Where can I find out more about SingPass e-attendance taking?

Please refer to the following attachments:

Q42. What are the supporting documents to be submitted as part of the funding support submission in TPGateway?

Q43. How should the nett fee invoices be reflected?

All invoices should reflect the following mandatory details:

• Self-sponsored trainees - Trainees’ full name (as per NRIC)
• Company-sponsored trainees – Trainees’ full name (as per NRIC), Financial Institution’s name and Name of whom the invoice is attention to
• Course Title and Code (as per course accreditation)
• Course start and end date
• Full course fee breakdown comprising full course fee, funding amount, amount after funding, GST on full course fee (if applicable) and currency exchange rate based on date of invoice (if applicable)
• Invoice number
• Invoice date

Q44. For trainees who fall under the below categories, what are the supporting documents to be verified by Training Providers (TPs) at the point of trainee’s course registration?

Q45. What do the different grant statuses in Training Partners Gateway mean?

Grant Processing: This status means that the course run has yet to be completed or grants are still processing as at least one of the pre-disbursement criteria has not been met. Please ensure that attendance and assessment records (where applicable) have been submitted and fee collection status has been updated to ‘full payment’.

Completed: This status means that the grant has been reviewed and disbursed successfully.

Cancelled: This status means that the grant is no longer valid or has been rejected due to:

• Enrolment has been cancelled; or
• Disbursement criteria have not been met; or
• Course fees have not been paid.