NTUC and IBF Join Forces to Upskill 100,000 Finance Professionals in AI

Singapore's financial sector is getting a massive AI upskilling boost. The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) have launched a joint initiative to equip up to 100,000 finance professionals with practical artificial intelligence skills over the next three years. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong announced the programme at the Association of Banks in Singapore's 53rd Annual Dinner on Wednesday evening.

The centrepiece of the initiative is a flagship IBF-accredited course called AI Foundation for Finance Professionals, developed by NTUC LearningHub. The self-paced online programme, launching in mid-July 2026, covers generative AI fundamentals, common prompting pitfalls, effective prompt engineering, and AI governance and responsible use. Eligible professionals can tap up to 70 per cent funding support through IBF, making the training accessible across income levels.

The partnership builds on NTUC's economy-wide AI-Ready SG initiative and strengthens a 2024 memorandum of understanding between NTUC, IBF, and seven major financial industry associations. "We cannot scale AI in finance by building tools alone," DPM Gan said at the launch. "We need people who know how to use them, question them, govern them and improve them." NTUC LearningHub CEO Jeremy Ong added that the differentiator in an AI-transformed financial sector "will not be who has access to AI, but who knows how to use it responsibly and effectively."

Beyond the flagship course, the collaboration provides career advisory services through NTUC's e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) and IBF Careers Connect, plus youth outreach and mentoring programmes to build the next generation of AI-fluent finance professionals. The initiative also addresses a pressing concern: DPM Gan noted that AI will fundamentally alter the workforce by automating routine tasks, redesigning existing roles, and creating entirely new job categories. NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Patrick Tay stressed that equipping professionals, managers, and executives with practical AI skills is "critical" as the technology reshapes the sector.

Why it matters for Singapore: With over 200,000 people employed in Singapore's financial services sector — roughly 5 per cent of GDP — the scale of this upskilling push is unprecedented. By targeting 100,000 professionals, or half the sector, NTUC and IBF are betting that workforce readiness, not just technology adoption, will determine whether Singapore's financial hub status holds in the age of AI. The programme also sets a template for other sectors: if finance can systematically retrain its workforce at this scale, the same model could extend to healthcare, logistics, and the public sector, where AI adoption is accelerating fastest.