Digital Skills for Life Framework

Singapore's Digital Skills for Life (DSL) framework is an IMDA framework of five baseline digital competencies for carrying out everyday online tasks. IMDA introduced it on 10 January 2024 as part of a Whole-of-Government effort to strengthen Singaporeans' digital literacy and help people navigate the digital space and stay safe online (IMDA, published 10 January 2024, accessed 30 August 2026). DSL supports the broader Digital for Life movement; it is a competency framework and learning-resource model, not a statutory qualification or a universal device benefit.

The five competencies

The Digital Skills for Life framework groups essential everyday skills into five areas: setting up and using smart devices; exploring information online; communicating online; transacting online; and being safe, smart and kind online (IMDA, published 10 January 2024, accessed 12 September 2026). The descriptions range from operating basic mobile-device hardware and software, to searching for information, connecting with others, using e-payments and government services, and protecting personal information and accounts. IMDA’s FY2024–25 annual report says the framework was enhanced in 2025 to guide people in using generative-AI tools to search for information and to manage related online risks (IMDA Annual Report FY2024–2025, published 2025, accessed 12 September 2026). The five competencies therefore remain the organising structure, while examples and learning resources can evolve. They are intended to apply across digital apps rather than teach one provider's product or create a single required technology stack (Digital for Life, accessed 12 September 2026).

Resources and delivery

IMDA's DSL model supports learner and trainer resources. The 10 January 2024 factsheet describes starter kits with step-by-step guidebooks and videos for learners, and lesson plans and slides aligned to defined learning outcomes for trainers (IMDA, published 10 January 2024, accessed 30 August 2026). The Digital for Life portal continues to group free videos, guidebooks and articles by the five competencies, while free in-person coaching and workshops are available at SG Digital Community Hubs and roving counters (Digital for Life, accessed 30 August 2026). Availability of a particular resource, workshop or coaching channel should therefore be checked on the current portal rather than inferred from the framework alone.

Rollout context and dated figures

The IMDA launch factsheet reported that a pilot of programmes based on the DSL framework reached 16,000 public learners from July to November 2023. It also described a planned resource set covering 24 topics across the five competencies, with resources to be available in four languages, and said that 37 permanent SG Digital community hubs and 200 roving hubs were channels for learning at the time of launch (IMDA, published 10 January 2024, accessed 12 September 2026). The later 2025 generative-AI enhancement shows that the framework can be updated without changing its five-part structure (IMDA Annual Report FY2024–2025, published 2025, accessed 12 September 2026). These are rollout-era figures and arrangements, not a current count of learners, resources, hubs or languages; current provision may change.

Relationship to other digital-inclusion schemes

Digital Skills for Life is a common skills framework that partners can use when developing learning content or teaching essential digital skills. The framework is informed by IMDA's experience with Seniors Go Digital and is supported by the Digital for Life movement, but it does not replace specific assistance schemes or authenticate access to a government service (IMDA, published 10 January 2024, accessed 12 September 2026). Learning how to transact online, for example, is not itself a grant, an account, a Singpass entitlement or a guarantee that a person can use every service. DSL should also be distinguished from Tech Kaki and Open Jio, which are citizen user-research programmes rather than digital-literacy curricula.