Sir, many middle-aged, mid-level executives and managers have lost their jobs due to right-sizing, outsourcing, mergers and acquisitions, and so forth. They are often mentally and professionally unprepared, did not see the storm coming while they were busy buried in their daily work.

One resident of mine was a 50-year-old ex-ITE teacher whose skills became irrelevant. His way of getting another job is to write in a letter or two each week. He was very frustrated, saw me several times and I had to offer him career counselling at my MPS. Another resident, a middle-manager in his 40s with general marketing skills, ended up as a relief teacher although he has no passion for teaching. He told me his other alternative was, like what Dr Lim Wee Kiak was saying, to become a taxi driver.

Sir, the root causes of these older PMETs' predicament have to do with their skills, attitude and knowledge in career search and career management. Sir, I urge MOM to provide easy access to career management education for the older PMETs at typical job clearing houses at CDCs, community clubs, and so forth.

In the corporate sector, progressive firms offer solid career development frameworks and effective tools, so individuals can learn how to take joint responsibility and not depend only on their bosses for managing their careers, to adopt the right attitude and skill-sets in advance. This way, they can be empowered to work for as long as they wish to. I ask MOM to consider adopting this best practice.