For me, I got a military class 4 licence in the army first....
Then later I went to learn driving in Comfort driving centre (CDC,
in Ubi). Because of my military driving experience, my driving
course was accelerated and I only spent half the time (and money)
for my course, compared with other students who have no driving
experience. (In the driving school, after each driving lesson
you'll get one stamp. For my very first lesson, after I told my
instructor that I learned driving in the army, he automatically
gave me 5 stamps in one lesson. LOL.)
If you're lucky enough to become a full-time military driver, you
can accumulate mileage by driving military vehicles. After you
accumulate 5000km, you can apply for a civilian driving test. If
you pass, you'll get a civiliian driving licence. (This is the only
way to get a driving license in Singapore without paying a single
cent. But of course you'll need a lot of time and patience to
acheive 5000km of military driving. Haha.) I didn't manage to get
5000km because my vocation is a signaller. I only manage to drive
once or twice every month, and I only got 1000km when I ORD. That's
why in the end I learned driving in CDC. (I had a platoon mate who
always volunteered for driving duty, and he even followed another
platoon to Australia so that he could have plenty of opportunities
to drive. I guessed he got 5000km and a free driving license in the
end. LOL.) Anyway that was several years ago. You should check
whether this 5000km system is still valid now.
If you can afford to wait, then you better pray that you'll get a
vocation which requires you to drive. (Not every one is so lucky.)
Then you'll learn driving in the SAF driving school (free of
charge). If you get 5000km before you ORD, very good. If you don't
get 5000km, at least you already have some driving experience, and
you can save a lot of time and money when you learn driving
somewhere else.
If you don't have the patience to wait, by all means, go and learn
driving first. Spending a large sum of money is inevitable, but you
can always save up money again when you get allowance for your NS.
Haha.