Jin Li, I also observe that there is no official education route that leads to a piano tuner or piano technician career in Singapore.

Consequently, here's a thought:
For so many years, most pianists, parents, students, schools have employed piano tuners and technicians without much background check on whether they have the necessary certifications, and the tuners and technicians are hired, more often than not, based on trust and assumptions.

If you want to hire a tuition teacher, you might ask for their education certificates to demonstrate the fundamental level of credibility. (Even if he has the paper qualifications, it does not mean he will be a good teacher.)

If you want to hire a swimming instructor, you also might ask for his Instructor Certificate before entrusting your kids to learn from him.

I think we hire plumbers without knowledge whether he has the certifications or not.

This can actually open up another topic: If a person has acquired sufficient experience and expertise to perform his responsibilities and is able to fulfil his duties, does he need to possess any paper qualifications before you will consider him for employment?

Yong Meng, interestingly I actually had this discussion with 2 young budding piano technicians.

To perfect any skill, the best results come from mindful repetition. Hence the argument is whether there is a need to go all out and seek formal education for it (the vocational courses are very expensive), why not just stay in Singapore and apprentice under a skilled piano technician?

First reason being lack of apprenticeship opportunities. There are limited piano technicians to begin with, compounded with few are willing to teach for various reasons; some are retired; some are not interested; inconvenient for freelance piano technicians to have an apprentice going around people's houses with them, plus the fact that they might not actually have calls every day. Therefore the only condition match for apprenticeship is probably a 2nd hand piano shop with a piano technician who is willing to teach as that is the only condition where there is an abundance of piano to work on under guidance.

Secondly, a formal institute will have a curriculum designed to gain recognition from reputable pianists/organisations, hence apprentice and companies will have confidence in the education provided. I think this applies for all certificates/paper that we gain in any field of discipline. Traditional apprenticeship has more room for questions and doubts for the teaching methods, hence one has to really know the good from the bad to be able to choose the right place to invest their time for learning.

With the above being said, "Practice makes perfect" still holds true. A certificate/paper in piano restoration/tuning is only good for the first step forward in the industry, it does not guarantee the quality of work provided. Just my 2 cents.