Vocational courses register growth in 2021

Atotal of 1,436 courses were organised in 2021, an increase of 6.9% year-on-year, according to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). The total number of participants also rose by 3.4% to 63,361.

Last year, there were 52 institutions offering vocational training courses.

Analysed by course type, Business & Administration courses had the highest number of participants, at 18,819 (29.7% of total); meanwhile, there were 7,917 participants (12.5%) in Tourism & Leisure courses and 4,315 participants (6.8%) in Information & Communication Technology courses.

The number of participants in Arts & Design surged by 61.7% year-on-year as did those in Hotel & Catering Services courses, which had a growth of 56.9%. On the other hand, the number of participants in Language courses showed a decrease of 41.3%.

Vocational training courses organised for enterprises or institutions increased by 0.3% year-on-year to 660, accounting for over 45% of the total.

Yet, the total number of participants in vocational courses dropped by 1.9% to 32,953. Most participants took Business & Administration courses at 34.9% (11,500), followed by Tourism & Leisure courses at 18.2% (5,982), and Language courses at 9.3% (3,053).