New Curiosity Credits could help self-help groups offer more enrichment programmes for niche interests

The credits could expose more youths to activities they might not otherwise have the opportunity to try, say self-help groups and organisations that run enrichment programmes.

SINGAPORE: Singapore self-help groups (SHGs) said the new Curiosity Credits could unlock a wider range of enrichment programmes for youths by pooling demand for niche interests. 

These could include courses such as culinary arts and speech and drama, which may otherwise be difficult to offer because of low enrolment. 

The scheme aims to help youths pursue non-academic interests, pick up new hobbies and make friends outside of school. 

For a start, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth will work with the self-help groups to provide S$500 (US$380) in credits to youths aged 13 to 17 who receive support from them.

The four ethnic-based SHGs are the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC), Mendaki, the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) and the Eurasian Association. These groups were set up to uplift the underprivileged in their communities.

The list of eligible programmes is still being finalised. The National Youth Council said more details will be announced at a later date.

SPARKING NEW INTERESTS

Organisations that run enrichment programmes said the credits could help expose more youths to activities they might otherwise not have the opportunity to try, such as robotics and sailing. 

Coding school The Lab hopes to offer its classes under the new initiative after previously partnering with the CDAC. 

Its co-founder Adelene Fong said the goal is to spark youths' curiosity and encourage them to continue learning independently, with many of the coding platforms used in class being open source and freely accessible.

“What we really want to do is to make sure we trigger their interest,” she added. 

“Most of our classes, the platform that we choose, especially for the older kids, are open source. It's technically free. So they can go beyond just attending this class … they can go home and just try it out.”

Ms Fong said some life skills, such as logical thinking, cannot be developed in traditional classroom settings or learned from textbooks.

The School of Robotics is also keen to come on board. 

Its past programmes with SINDA showed that even youths with little initial interest in coding later discovered a passion for robotics.

“They were very fascinated about what robotics is capable of,” said School of Robotics CEO Stephen Zhuo. 

“So especially when they build a project through their imagination and make it alive, (that) would actually interest them.”

Beyond technology, the credits could also lower barriers to trying sports such as sailing, where introductory courses can be costly. 

The Singapore Sailing Federation said there is strong interest in its introductory courses and is exploring using the scheme to allow more youths to experience the sport. 

“This is a chance for a lot of our children to experience the open waters. Some of them, after they spend an hour or two with us, want to continue learning how to sail,” said its CEO Leslie Tan. 

“I would be happy to work with any organisation that wants to give children who may not otherwise get a chance to try and see what it's like to go out and enjoy the open waters.”

POOLING DEMAND

CDAC said more than 4,000 of its beneficiaries aged 13 to 17 can qualify for the credits, allowing it to expand its reach. 

CDAC executive director Tan Yap Kin said one of the greatest benefits of the Curiosity Credits would be opening up more channels for interest-based programmes that the organisation does not currently offer. 

“It opens more doors for children to explore their interests, and primarily, what we see as interest is not just an activity to tick off the box. We see these as opportunities for children to also explore and discover their identity,” he added. 

“While we have a lot of support from the community to run programmes, there are also constraints we are facing,” he said. 

“With our current financial resources and reach, CDAC would not be able to help as many beneficiaries as we would like to. By working with the government, I think we can have a broader reach.”

Self-help groups said the initiative could also strengthen collaboration among them.

SINDA said pooling demand across the SHGs would make it more viable to organise specialised workshops with smaller interest groups. 

For instance, while a single organisation may not have enough participants for a culinary workshop, combining demand across multiple groups creates the numbers needed for service providers to develop and deliver such programmes, said SINDA’s chief operating officer Ganesh R Kalyanam. 

“As individual self-help groups, we may not be able to have as many people,” he added. 

“So it's aggregating demand to some extent and curating the right programmes that the youth want. I think the programmes that we hope to offer will really come from the youth themselves.”