Singapore - Nonformal Education

A program called the Basic Education for Skills Training (BEST) formerly run jointly by The National Trades Union Congress and the Vocational and Industrial training Board was taken over by the Institute of Technical Education (ITE). Additionally, the ITE offers the Worker Improvement through Secondary Education (WISE) program. Both programs help workers who have far less than the ten-year primary and secondary education to achieve functional competence in English and mathematics. The ITE also offers continuing education for mature workers to upgrade their general education on a part time basis to the three GCE levels.

In 1994, Ministry of Education appointed the Singapore Institute of Management to run the Open University Degree Programme (OUDP). It offered courses leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree in English, English Literature, English with Economics, English with Management, and Bachelor of Science degrees in Mathematics, Mathematics with Economics, Mathematics with Management, Computer Science, Computer Science with Economics, and Computer Science with Management. In 1997, OUDP began offering courses leading to a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Technology with Electronics.

The OUDP's undergraduate programs are accredited and examined to match the standards established by the Open University in the United Kingdom. In Singapore, the degrees are accepted by the Singapore Public Service Commission for government employment while the private sector recognizes them "on par with the British degrees."