Career Health refers to the overall well-being and sustainability of an individual’s career.

It encompasses more than job stability and a paycheck at the end of the month. With good career health, you can achieve professional fulfilment with meaningful careers and better job opportunities by developing in-demand skillsets and experiences.

Understanding your career health is the first step towards crafting a healthy career plan that sustains not only your professional journey but also your overall life satisfaction. Achieving your career goals will not happen by chance.

Career planning is the key to navigating your professional life with confidence and purpose, ensuring each step taken is in harmony with your broader life ambitions.

Effective career planning is crucial for sustaining your career health in a fast-evolving job market. If you are currently employed, you likely still have a good 10 to 40 years ahead of you in your career journey.

To build good career health, it is important to have constant progression – this could be in the form of expanding and deepening your skillsets or making informed moves in your career.

To attain good career health, laying a solid foundation is essential. This involves crafting a dynamic career plan that aligns your professional path with your personal goals and values.

Develop these simple habits to improve your career health:

1. Discover your VIPS

Knowing your Values, Interests, Personality and Skills (VIPS) helps you achieve meaningful careers.

At its core, career health involves being aware of your personal values and your career aspirations. Some prefer to climb the corporate ladder while some prefer to have work-life balance. By understanding who you are and where you currently stand in your career, you can take steps to progress in your career.

Having a career plan brings clarity to your goals and outlines the steps needed for progression, laying the foundation for a purposeful career journey.

2. Deepen your Knowledge and Skills

Knowing where the jobs and industries with high growth potential are and intentionally upgrading your skills can help you improve your career prospects.

As the job market evolves, so should you. Remaining adaptable and up-to-date ensures that your career plan is enriched with diverse options and opportunities, making you an invaluable asset in any professional setting.

Adopting a continuous learning and upskilling mindset is essential to remain relevant and competitive. This commitment to growth ensures resilience against industry disruptions, keeping your career trajectory on an upward path.

This approach will make you more desirable as an asset to your company and also significantly strengthen your career health, ensuring effective, long-term career development.

3. Decide Your Career Pathways

Charting your career pathways and taking actionable steps will bring you closer to fulfilling your career potential.

By establishing clear, achievable objectives and actively seeking opportunities for learning and upskilling, you equip yourself with the resilience needed to grow in the ever-changing job market.

Q: How do I know if I am in the right job?
A: Effective career planning starts with a journey of self-discovery to understand your Values, Interests, Personality, and Skills (VIPS). These elements are pivotal as they guide you towards identifying career opportunities that resonate with your aspirations. To find out more about VIPS, click here and how they can offer new insights to propel your career development.

Q: I am currently employed, do I still need to plan for my career?
A: Strategic career planning is an investment for your future. Planning for your career will ensure your skillsets remain relevant to the latest industry demands. By proactively managing your career progression, you will be able to better navigate the increasingly volatile world.

Q: I am thinking of switching careers, how can I do that?
A: Finding your passion and strengths is frequently the first step towards making a successful job change. The journey switches often involves identifying transferable skills, networking, picking up and developing new skills.. It's also beneficial to research and understand the demands of your new chosen field. WSG provides effective career coaching to teach you how to switch careers and upskilling programs to support your transition..

Q: How would talking to a Career Coach help me?
A: Our team of career coaches is certified under WSG’s Career Development Framework. They can help you understand your strengths and work with you to tailor an effective career development plan designed to match your own unique aspirations and ambitions. With a defined career plan, you can take concrete steps towards achieving career success. Speak with a Career Coach to iron out your career plan today.

“Bonus Season” invites you into the world of three office workers at Boon Heng Garments where the departure of a dear colleague for greener pasture brought on a chain reaction. Discover how office pals Neil, Amrita and JJ gained some career insights with a little help from WSG. And how does their boss, Boon, feel about this? Watch to find out!

Career Health SG is a national initiative in support of the SkillsFuture movement. It arose from the Forward Singapore conversations in 2023, as a concept to empower Singaporeans to achieve their career aspirations and develop resilient and fulfilling careers.

The initiative seeks to empower Singaporeans to chart long-term career pathways through career coaching and deepening one’s knowledge and skills with insights on growth jobs and industries. With this, Singaporeans can take proactive steps to improve their career outcomes through training, on-the-job learning and intentional career moves. They can also make the best use of the wide array of Government upskilling and career conversion programmes.

It enables our businesses to widen their access to talent. Through Career Health SG, we will equip businesses to take a skills-first approach to hiring and investing in human capital development. By offering meaningful career progression pathways for its employees, businesses will be better positioned to attract and retain talent to drive growth.

Career Health SG is a joint initiative by Ministry of Manpower, Workforce Singapore and SkillsFuture Singapore.