Speech at Career Health Summit 2025
Minister for Manpower, Dr Tan See Leng, Suntec City Convention Centre
NTUC Sec-Gen Brother Chee Meng, SNEF President Hee Teck
Distinguished Guests
1. Good morning. I’m very happy to be here today.
2. Before we get into the serious stuff, let me start with a confession. I am a medical doctor by training, and the hardest part of being a doctor was not treating illnesses – it was convincing people to make lifestyle modifications and behavioral changes, exercise more, eat healthier, go for regular checkups. Especially in my early years as a family physician, when I didn’t look the part.
3. So when my colleagues came up with this idea of how we can preserve productive careers, how we can nudge and encourage people to go on a different trajectory, that was how Career Health came about. My first initial reaction was, it’s going to be a colossal task.
4. But what other options do we have? We have nudged an entire couple of generations to stay healthier, evidenced by the fact that our lifespans have continued to improve. With a longer healthier lifespan, our economic productivity and ability to stay in the workforce should also continue to extend contemporaneously.
5. And over time, I realised that staying healthy takes regular, intentional effort. A bit of reflection, some planning, and lots of small, consistent action.
6. I want to humbly suggest to you that we cannot afford to wait until problems arise. If we want our people and businesses to thrive, we need to be proactive and preemptive about career health and the entire journey that comes with it.
7. We are operating in a time of growing global uncertainty. The way we work is changing faster than ever. Artificial Intelligence is reshaping entire industries and the nature of work. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that 39% of skills will be disrupted within five years, and 63% of employers say that skills gaps are a major barrier to business transformation.
8. But amid the promise and peril, our people are our singular strength. After six decades of nation-building, our people remain our most precious resource. In fact, I would add it is our only resource, since we are devoid of natural resources. A highly skilled, world-class workforce is our competitive advantage. The SkillsFuture movement, in its tenth year now, has made significant progress. We can, and we should do more. To stay ahead, we must keep investing in our people and championing human potential.
9. So, I am heartened to see so many of you here at this inaugural Summit organised by Workforce Singapore and the Singapore Business Federation – ready to exchange ideas and take action to build stronger, more resilient teams.
Career Health SG: A Shared Responsibility
10. Later, the tripartite partners will officially launch Career Health SG, a nationwide initiative under the SkillsFuture movement to help Singaporeans build resilient, fulfilling careers. We want to build a healthier workforce through Career Health SG – a workforce that is fighting fit for the future.
11. Employers play a vital role in this effort. When it comes to developing a competent and skilled workforce, nothing beats having employers who identify the right skills for training and invest, over the long haul, in their employees.
12. It is also win-win – investing in your employees’ career health pays off. You can better attract and retain talent, sharpen your competitive edge, and grow your business more sustainably. Look after your people, and they will look after your business.
13. We need to start with how we approach talent – not just how we develop it, but how we recognise and deploy it. We should move towards a skills-first approach where we focus on what individuals can do, not just what qualifications they hold. This will allow businesses to unlock wider talent pools to stay ahead of the competition.
a. In fact, a MOM study found that employers who embraced skills-first practices saw faster hiring, more diverse hires, and improved employee performance.
14. As a former businessman, this is a truth I appreciate deeply – organisations prosper and decline on the quality of their people. At some level, most business leaders know this. A MOM survey found that 65% of employers see value in investing in the career health of their employees.
15. However, not as many know how to act on it. Only 53% of respondents said they were clear on how to go about investing in career health. Only 23% conducted workforce development planning.
16. How do we move from awareness to action? I suggest thinking of it in three steps:
a. First, Assess your workforce. What is your stock of human capital? What are the skills gaps in your workforce? Which roles might be disrupted or augmented by technology?
b. Second, Chart a plan. How do you raise the value of your human capital, and unlock its value for your business? Are you engaging in strategic workforce planning? Are you developing an employee investment plan?
c. Finally, Execute. Put those plans into action. Build career progression pathways and opportunities for your employees. Adopt skills-first approaches to manage and source for hidden talent that you may be overlooking today.
17. Assess, Chart, Execute – ‘A’, ‘C’, ‘E’ – three steps to “ACE” your talent strategy. I cap it by adding an ‘R’ right at the beginning. Because when you “ACE” your talent strategy, you will find it immensely Rewarding. When you put it together, it becomes a very sustainable, yet globally competitive race.
Career Health Made Easy
18. Of course, this is easier said than done. It is always tempting to prioritise the here and now. Many do not even know where to start – especially smaller businesses or those without large HR teams.
19. We understand and want to make this journey easier and more inclusive for all. This is why we have brought everything together in one place.
20. Today, we will launch the new Career Health SG website – a one-stop portal where both individuals and employers can access resources to support you in each step of the career health journey.
21. For employers, there are many resources available.
a. Need your employees to pick up new skills? You can tap on initiatives such as WSG’s Career Conversion Programme to reskill mid-career workers into growth job roles and the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit (SFEC) to offset up to 90% of out-of-pocket expenses incurred for sending them on SkillsFuture supported programmes and courses.
b. At the beginning of your journey, you may think about joining the NTUC. Members have an entire slew of events under their Company Training Committees that will be available or companies like yourselves too.
c. Hiring for talent? MOM and SSG have partnered major job portals like JobStreet and FastJobs to make your search easier and faster. By linking Government-verified employment and skills data via the Careers & Skills Passport with these portals, you can hire with greater speed and confidence. This is in addition to WSG’s MyCareersFuture, a national job portal which currently enables employers to better assess candidates’ job fit.
d. Later this year, we will introduce more resources to help employers assess the skills readiness of their workforce, identify suitable training interventions, as well as opportunities for job redesign to optimise the skills of their employees.
22. Similarly, workers who want to take control of their career health journey can also visit the portal to explore the wide suite of available programmes.
a. Be it connecting with Career Coaches under WSG’s Polaris to chart your career journey, or pursuing a substantive skills reboot by tapping on resources like SSG’ SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme.
23. I encourage you to explore the Career Health SG showcase during your time at the Summit to find out more.
Embracing Career Health SG
24. Ultimately, my vision is for career health to be the new normal – as central to our lives and businesses as physical health. Something that is readily discussed and actively managed by all.
25. To achieve this, we need a nationwide movement. I call on all of you to be agents of change – individuals, employers, tripartite partners, labour market intermediaries and the Government collectively engaging in fresh approaches towards growing human capital.
26. Here, HR practitioners are critical enablers. We must invest in good HR leaders, to act as champions of career health within companies.
27. The Tripartite Workgroup on Human Capital Capability Development is exploring how we can uplift Human Capital capabilities across the economy.
a. It is also looking at new ways to measure the economic mobility and career health of the workforce, taking inspiration from indicators like the American and British Opportunity Indexes.
28. Beyond HR leaders, we are working to expand the career health initiative to other players in the ecosystem – such as employment agencies, job portals operators, HR consultants and career guidance service providers.
29. Businesses are familiar with the players and know the value that they bring. Today, 1 in 3 businesses already engage employment agencies to augment their internal HR teams and workforce.
30. I earlier spoke about MOM and SSG’s partnerships with online job portals like JobStreet and FastJobs to deliver better, faster job matching. We launched this as recent as April, but it is already reaping promising returns.
a. To update on our progress, 23,000 individuals have since shared their verified credentials via the Careers & Skills Passport with partnering online job portals and prospective employers. Based on the current response of hirers on these job portals, job applications with verified credentials were 1.5 times more likely to be shortlisted by employers.
31. To build on this, MOM and SNEF will be launching a new Alliance for Action (AfA) on Advancing Career & Employment Services. We will bring together private career and employment service providers to develop innovative solutions to support businesses’ access to talent. The AfA will also consider if new work models are possible, ways to strengthen the employability of individuals, and how we can build up a strong talent pipeline for your hiring needs.
Conclusion – Career Health is Good Business
32. Let me end with one last piece of advice. Workforce development, like preventive health, works best when done early, consistently, and with intent. You may not always see immediate results. But over time, it pays off – with healthier careers, more motivated employees, and a stronger business.
33. So take that first step. Visit the Career Health SG website. Use the tools. Join the programmes. Talk to your teams. Because when we take care of our people’s careers, we take care of our business too.
34. Thank you – and I look forward to our panel discussion later.