Good morning, Professor Tan Tai Yong, Professor Robbie Goh and distinguished guests.

Thank you, SUSS, for the honour to grace today’s symposium. Educators play a pivotal role in shaping minds, by challenging our assumptions and pushing the boundaries on issues, some not yet even upon us. When I was in school, you were the ones, revered and worthy of addressing the room from the podium. I would never have imagined myself being the one addressing ballroom full of educators. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to nurturing the fullest potential of your students. I know many of you have dedicated your careers to doing so.

When Professor Tan invited me to share my thoughts on the workforce of tomorrow, I saw it as a great opportunity to juxtapose a journey that prepares one to enter the workforce, alongside a journey of learning through life and embracing change throughout one’s career to stay relevant in an ever-changing world of work. This resonates very deeply with me, particularly as the Singapore Government aims to empower the Singapore workforce to remain agile and resilient throughout one’s career journey.

Navigating an Era of Multiple Careers

The world of work today is almost unrecognisable from when I, and many of us, first started our careers. Allow me to outline a few trends that shape the impetus for agencies like Workforce Singapore and SkillsFuture Singapore to shore up efforts on skills and workforce development.

When I started work in the 90s, one model of work was dominant. You studied, you worked in one job or even one employer, and then you retired. We Gen-Xers were almost chastised as being ‘job-hoppers’ by our parents who could stay their lifetime with one employer, but we pretty much stayed within one’s chosen field. It was quite common that one’s lifelong job of 30-plus years was not substantially different from start to end. Sure, we went through the tech and digitalisation phase – we went from the typewriter to the computer; from telexes to email; from hardcopy journals to the internet.

But today, the pace of technology innovation and adoption is transforming industries and changing jobs faster than ever before. Jobs that we knew in our lifetime don’t exist anymore. I can think of the days when we had colleagues who were fax room operators, word processors or printing clerks. Today, professional and executive roles are not immune either. We talked a lot about Gen AI, which has changed the core day-to-day work of programmers and software developers. The role of the young, entry-level management consultant which I was in many years ago, is totally different now, from when I entered the industry. And no doubt, the expectations on them are much higher than those placed on us when we started our careers.

Secondly, today, career spans are much longer. In the 80s, retiring at 55 was not uncommon. Today, we are pushing for productive longevity and we are adding a good decade or more to our careers.

Thirdly, companies are adopting different workforce models, balancing build, buy and borrow, and they are more open to ‘borrowing’ expertise via a contingent or gig workforce. Employees too have different aspirations, motivations and expectations of work. Workers are open to holding a portfolio of careers, either across their career lifetime or even all at once, rather than be locked into one.

And finally, the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that industries can restructure, and workers pivot to new roles almost overnight. Remote work has also made office-based roles increasingly location-independent and flexible.

What does this mean? We have different expectations in life. We have to navigate multiple job roles with different skills requirement, different employment types, over a longer career lifespan. It’s almost like the film “Everything Everywhere All at Once”.

So, we ask ourselves,

- How might we approach the new norm of having multiple careers in our lifetime?

- How might we plan for a career spanning 50 years? Like car maintenance, we may have to be called back for a full reboot service every 15 or 20 years?

- And pivotally, what does it mean to prepare one for their first job when the job might look very different by the time one joins the workforce?

Let me attempt to share some thoughts on these three points.

Firstly, embrace multiple careers as the norm.

Just as how we would plan for a course of study at university or for our impending retirement, if career transitions were a norm, we would need to plan for the same. This might entail understanding our values, interests, personalities and skills. This would entail taking intentional steps to grow, adapt and learn to prepare for our next career. It is about aligning our interests with the sectors that are growing and where the in-demand jobs are, all at critical milestones in our career journey.

This is where we have a head-start with existing programmes like Workforce Singapore (WSG)’s Career Conversion Programme (CCP) and SkillsFuture Singapore’s Skillsfuture Career Transition Programme.

Let me share the story of Timothy, a mid-career switcher who benefitted from WSG’s CCP. Formerly facilitating teambuilding and leadership development programmes, Timothy was forced to rethink his career when the pandemic severely impacted the events industry. His new career chapter would lead him to nursing, a career inspired by his father, a doctor; his late mother, a nurse; and his own background as a medic in the Navy. Today, he is successfully reskilled and is a staff nurse in the Paediatric Oncology Ward at National University Hospital.

The CCP is a commitment from the Government to support the reskilling of mid-career new hires or existing employees into new job roles with good longer-term prospects. So, in case there are many employers in the room, it’s not just about changing employers, but taking on new roles with the same employer.

I’m particularly heartened that SUSS plays a key role in supporting mid-career conversions. All the applicants for the part-time undergraduate programmes require individuals to have at least two years of full-time work experience, or must be in full-time employment, and you are prime to support career transitions. Take, for example, the CCP for Social Workers, a collaboration between WSG, the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) and SUSS. The programme exemplifies how education, industry and Government can come together to address the demand for social workers and offer individuals a meaningful career shift.

Since 2009, more than 400 new entrant mid-career switchers have enrolled in this CCP. The SUSS work-study model ensures that trainees gain hands-on experience in sponsoring organisations while acquiring the knowledge and skills to become qualified social workers. It is a win-win because it balances the manpower needs of employers and the career aspirations of individuals.

We will continue to explore more collaborations between educational institutions, industry and Government to support mid-career transitions. Perhaps it’s timely to boldly call for us to consider two milestone junctures to consider transitions –once in our 30s and again in our late 40s and early 50s, for a total reboot.

Secondly, plan for a 50-year career.

Navigating a longer career lifespan wrought with twists and turns requires us to take intentional steps to grow, adapt and learn. But before we know what to learn, we need to know the opportunities, jobs and careers we want to embark on.

This is where career guidance becomes essential. Career guidance helps one identify one’s skills, passions and ideal job role, so that one can make intentional plans to learn, to experience and transition accordingly.

This is an area that WSG together with MOM and SSG is promoting. It’s the concept of career health. Much like how we would look after our physical health, we must also nurture our career health. It’s about building the mindset of owning one’s career journey by proactive planning for the different phases of one’s career. It’s about taking charge of one’s learning to acquire the right skills and knowledge to take on the next role whether with the same employer, or within industries. So, “Sustainable Learning in Education” is juxtaposed against “Building Sustainable Careers” throughout one’s career lifespan.

This is why we introduced the Polaris initiative recently, which offers personalised career guidance to individuals still in employment. Initial feedback is encouraging as most participants shared that career guidance has given them greater clarity and confidence on the next steps in their career and provided them with clear plans to achieve their career goals.

So, what does all this mean for educators?

You can play a pivotal role as mentors, guides and coaches for your students’ lifelong careers. You are like the first line of defence in risk management parlance. Whilst Education and Career Guidance (ECG) can complement and play the second line of defence, it is no longer enough to simply prepare students with the knowledge and skills for that first job after graduation. You play an important role in starting them off right and ensuring that they leave empowered to continually reframe, ‘reboot’ and re-learn mid-career.

Further, as continuing education becomes the norm, you will see more ‘grey hairs’ in the classroom, and career guidance will take a different slant as one weighs other considerations in life, like a different work intensity, time, impact and relationships. Hence, we are exploring how might incorporate career guidance programmes with Continuing Education and Training (CET), whether it’s through programmes like Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett, as individuals navigate differing priorities at different stages of life.

Finally, preparing for the change

Like Moore’s Law, the rate of change in the world of work is just doubling in speed. Whether it is technological advancement, geopolitics, wars or a pandemic, change, as we have seen, can happen almost overnight. Supply chains can be disrupted, with consumer product re-sellers displaced by direct-to-consumer digital platforms. Sustainability regulations can stem exports, or even access to finance. As an open economy, Singapore businesses are pressured to transform. And with business model changes, adoption of technology and automation, new job roles will emerge and existing ones will have to be redesigned. WSG has worked with the sector leads to develop the Jobs Transformation Maps (JTMs) that outline the impact on job roles, pathways for employers to redesign jobs and skills that workers would need to acquire. So far, about 17 sector JTMs have been developed including in emerging fields like Sustainable Finance. Soon, the JTM for Gen AI in Financial Services would be launched, and more are planned. I encourage you to refer to the JTMs when you plan your curriculum.

At the core of the implementation of the JTMs is a call to businesses to not only upskill their employees but reskill employees to take on new roles, for example in sustainability or managing overseas markets. And in doing so, is a call to hire more broadly, beyond academic qualifications, to hire based on adjacent skills. Take Gen AI for example. As we debate the extent in which AI will displace jobs, it is recognised that whilst AI can automate tasks and enhance problem-solving, it cannot replace creativity, critical thinking and the human touch. This does mean supporting our students in developing not only technical knowledge but also the ability to think critically, collaborate effectively and adapt to new challenges—skills that are transferable across industries.

So, as you equip your students with the tools to navigate the complexities of this rapidly changing world, do encourage them to think beyond securing the first job. Instead, think five, ten years down the road, and continue to be curious about the changes around them, be excited about continuous learning, and have the courage and adaptability to confidently make the necessary transitions to remain relevant. Years from now, when they look back, it will not be the grades that they remember most—it will be the life lessons they will return to, thank you for, and pass on to others.

To end, as I did many years ago in school, I still hold that educators are respected and revered. In planning for a portfolio of multiple careers across a 50-year span, in a world of work where we can only predict what is ahead of us in the next five to 10 years, Government and academia will have their work cut out for them. So, I don’t think we risk being replaced anytime soon.

With that, have a good symposium ahead.

Thank you.