CTFAS Academy: Singapore industry association aims to uplift local cosmetics sector with new programme launching in October

CTFAS, in partnership with the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), will launch the CTFAS Academy in October.

“The CTFAS Academy was developed in response to the strong demand on the ground. In our surveys, we have over 90% of people polled who want to attend a course that would give them some micro-credentials,” ​said CTFAS president Andrew Gan told CosmeticsDesign-Asia​.

The course will start with five topics with topics. Those that complete the course will be presented with micro-credentials.

The five courses are supply chain management concept, leadership in service innovation, digital branding, fundamentals of project management, and intellectual property (IP) essentials for businesses.

CTFAS is a trade association that represents the beauty and personal care industry in Singapore.

In addition to this partnership with SUSS, CTFAS will also be launching another programme with Singapore Polytechnic (SP) in the third quarter of 2024.

According to Gan, the partnership programme with SP will offer three categories of training programmes covering a range of subjects including formulation, packaging, marketing, claims, and regulation and safety.

With these programmes, CTFAS hopes to play a role in enhancing Singapore’s cosmetics industry.

“It has always been our dream to do this. It’s been many years but at that time, most of the [cosmetics] diploma courses were still in their infancy. We want to do something that will be beneficial, not just to the members of CTFAS, but to all industry professionals and that will lift the overall standard of the industry,”​ said Gan.

Catering to busy working professionals​

The trade association was conscious to create a programme that was not too demanding for working professionals.

“With specialist courses, diplomas, the demands can get quite intense. Even for a work and study programme, you’ll need to attend many nights of lectures. It’s quite demanding of people’s time and energy. With the academy, we wanted it to suit the lifestyles of working people,” ​said Gan.

The programme with SUSS will start online but the goal is to eventually move to a more hybrid model to provide more practical involvement.

“For more technical subjects, we want to be able to offer high-quality programmes with high-quality teachers or lecturers. We want to deliver these mostly in person because that’s what our surveys tell us. Over 53% of people we polled have said they want in-person, more hands-on teaching.”​