Can older workers thrive in the age of AI? One Singapore company shows how

• One in five of Schneider Electric’s 1,300-plus Singapore staff is aged 51 or older – the only age group in the company that is still growing, up more than 4 percentage points since 2022.
• Its ‘Experience Forward’ programme sorts older staff by what they want next – to push on, keep contributing, mentor others, or wind down – and offers career talks, flexible work and retirement planning to all.
• Schneider is one of about 30 organisations trialling age-friendly ideas under the Alliance for Action on Empowering Multi-Stage Careers for Mature Workers, set up under the Tripartite Workgroup on Senior Employment.
• The workgroup’s co-chairs – from the Government, NTUC and employers – visited the company on 28 July 2026 and urged more companies to follow.

Lim Chee-Kiang retired last June 2025 after 31 years with Schneider Electric. Now in his early 60s, he spends his days making jewellery; a hobby he picked up on the job that has grown into a small business teaching refugees to make and sell it online.

Schneider shared his story on 28 July 2026, when it hosted a visit by the three co-chairs of the Tripartite Workgroup on Senior Employment (TWG-SE).

The point it wanted to make was simple: getting older at work should not mean being pushed out.

Lim Chee-Kiang, who retired from Schneider Electric after 31 years, at work on the jewellery-making craft he turned into a small business.

An ageing workforce

Schneider has been in Singapore for 53 years and employs more than 1,300 staff.

Those 51 and older now make up a fifth of its workforce, and their share keeps rising – it has grown by over 4 percentage points since 2022.

The same thing is happening across Singapore. People are living longer and healthier lives, and many want to keep working.

NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Desmond Tan, who co-chairs the TWG-SE, said NTUC’s commitment to senior workers runs on two fronts: “First, we want to ensure we continue to strengthen their retirement adequacy.

“At the same time, for those who wish to continue to stay in the workforce, we want to support them with good, meaningful job opportunities.”

He said this was especially salient as the population ages and AI reshapes the nature of work – a shift in which, he argued, older workers’ experience complements the technology rather than being replaced by it.

Four ways to stay

Schneider’s answer is a programme called ‘Experience Forward’.

Instead of treating all its older staff the same, it groups them by what they actually want.

Some want to push for more. Some are happy to keep doing good work. Some want to mentor others. And some are starting to think about winding down.

Whatever the path, everyone gets the same basics, such as regular talks with their manager about where their career is heading, the option to work flexibly, and help planning for later life.

After that, the routes differ.

Janet Lim runs a 200-person team and still mentors ten colleagues. John Cheng recently passed a technical qualification. Others, like Noorizam Juhamat, have moved into jobs built around coaching younger staff.

Schneider Electric’s Vice-President of Human Resources for East Asia Monica Chia said the shift was deliberate.

“We believe that experience is not a limitation – it is a strategic asset. As Singapore’s workforce matures, organisations have an opportunity and responsibility to reimagine how experienced employees continue to contribute meaningfully while pursuing their own aspirations,” she said.

More than 100 staff have taken part in workshops on the programme’s pathways, and nine retirees have returned on short contracts.

Schneider says even the name mattered – it dropped the term ‘Senior Talent’ for ‘Experience Forward’ because the old label put people off – and that managers are the ones who make the difference.

“For employees, this creates choice, support and a stronger sense of purpose. For the business, it helps us retain valuable experience, transfer knowledge more effectively and build a more inclusive, future-ready workforce,” Ms Chia said.

From one firm to many

Schneider is not doing this alone. Its programme is one of around 30 prototypes running under the Alliance for Action on Empowering Multi-Stage Careers for Mature Workers (AfA-EMW), set up by the TWG-SE.

The aim is to make workplaces friendlier to older staff through training, better job matching, redesigned roles and gentler paths into retirement.

The workgroup is co-chaired by Manpower Minister of State Dinesh Vasu Dash, NTUC’s Desmond Tan, and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) vice-president Tan Hwee Bin.

Mr Dinesh used the visit to urge more employers to follow suit, including those in services and with large PME teams, by redesigning jobs and adjusting expectations so older workers can stay on, part-time if need be.

Keeping them, he said, is a shared, tripartite job.

Mr Tan echoed the call. Senior workers, he said, “can contribute quite meaningfully given their wealth of experience, their industry knowledge, and also their ability to mentor the younger generation” – strengths that make them a complement to AI rather than a rival.

He pointed to Schneider’s ‘Experience Forward’ as a model other firms could learn from.

Singapore is already on a path to raise the retirement and re-employment ages to 65 and 70 by 2030, and helping older workers keep up as AI reshapes their jobs has become part of the same effort.

The need is real: a 2025 NTUC survey found that only 43 per cent of workers aged 55 and above felt there were enough good jobs for them, against 66 per cent of younger workers, and that older jobseekers took longer to find work.

Schneider is one of the first to show what that can look like in practice.

The value of staying

The point of the programme is not just keeping people on – it’s what they pass on once they stay: mentoring and steering younger colleagues before that experience is lost.

The aim is a later working life that people choose rather than endure – where older workers keep their options, their flexibility and their dignity.

Lim Chee-Kiang has left the company. But the idea he stands for – that experience still has somewhere to go – is one Singapore is trying to build into its workplaces.

Lim Chee-Kiang leads a gemstone and jewellery-making session for refugees, the social enterprise he built in retirement.

Older workers weighing their next move can get career guidance and job-matching help through NTUC’s e2i. Employers wanting to redesign roles for their experienced staff can find out more about joining the AfA-EMW.