Switching careers in middle age and beyond: How these Singapore professionals did it

SINGAPORE – When Mr Alan Chen, 57, changed careers in April 2025, it was not by choice.

After his 27-year career in IBM ended in December 2024, he received a severance package as part of a retrenchment exercise. His last position was regional human resources partner at the global technology company, where he also worked in areas like project management and business development.

He was optimistic about the future, even though the change was involuntary.

“Maybe it was a sign for me,” he says. “It gave me the push to choose something I liked, which involved helping others. I looked forward to doing something different.” He is married to a 56-year-old marketing manager and the couple have three adult children in their 20s.

Certified as a personal trainer, Mr Chen has been volunteering over the past two years, conducting exercise sessions with different groups like seniors and children with autism.

Through a jobs portal at the Centre For Seniors, a non-profit that promotes the well-being and employability of older persons, he found full-time work as an executive at an Active Ageing Centre in Tampines, run by Lions Befrienders, a voluntary welfare organisation.

For the last three months, he has adapted well to his new sector, organising programmes and outreach services for seniors in the neighbourhood.

In switching to another line of work, he took a huge pay cut. His current salary is “not even 20 per cent” of his previous pay, but he had already adjusted his expectations. He has investment policies with payouts that will be disbursed until he is 70.

“Financially, I’m doing okay. This, to me, is a meaningful job,” he says.

Growing interest in career development for older people

Several organisations report that a growing number of older persons, who have not reached the official retirement age of 63, are showing interest in reskilling and other programmes geared towards career changes.

The Centre For Seniors (CFS), located in Bishan, runs courses that help mature workers explore new career options, plug knowledge gaps and boost their digital literacy and other soft skills.

The number of persons aged 50 and above who enrolled in the centre’s career-related training rose from 800 participants in 2013 to more than 1,500 participants in 2023, an increase of nearly 88 per cent over 10 years, says its executive director Sanchita Singh.

Common reasons for seeking a career change later in life include a desire to give back to society through roles in social services, education or eldercare; early retirement or retrenchment; health or caregiving needs that prompt a shift to more flexible work; as well as a “lifelong learning mindset”, where some pursue new interests and fields of work, says Ms Singh.

Meanwhile, the wide range of career support programmes offered by Workforce Singapore (WSG), a statutory board under the Ministry of Manpower, includes the increasingly popular Career Conversion Programme (CCP), which spans about 30 sectors. This scheme helps employers broaden their talent pool by reskilling existing employees or mid-career new hires to take on job opportunities with long-term prospects for progression.

Close to 7,700 people participated in CCPs in 2024, compared with about 4,700 participants in 2022, says Ms Gillian Woo, director of the Enterprise Programmes Division at WSG. This represents a rise in participation of nearly 64 per cent over two years.

Since 2021, around 45 per cent of CCP placements are aged 40 and above, Ms Woo adds. Among them, the top three sectors represented are food services, electronics and infocomm technology.

Ms Rozita Yazid, a senior career coach at WSG, says: “Career changes later in life are becoming increasingly common in Singapore’s dynamic economy.

“We have observed that successful transitions often involve combining existing competencies with new skills rather than starting completely fresh. It’s important to take time to explore what genuinely interests you before switching careers.”

Over at Collective Change Institute, which specialises in coaching services and certification, co-founder Lin Tan says the Covid-19 pandemic drove more individuals – including senior corporate leaders, vice-presidents, managing directors and heads of departments – to explore or embark on a career switch.

She says: “Covid and its retrenchment rates shocked people into realising that they may not always have their jobs. People are trying to find something more congruent with their values when it comes to their careers and life work.”

Source: The Straits Times