Life Experience: Reinvent yourself in your 50s with a modelling course and career guidance workshop

SINGAPORE – At 55, my mother was retired and helping to care for my baby.

Now that I am that age, the “R” word is not in my vocabulary. Why prepare to retire when you can reinvent yourself?

After all, Gen Xers like myself – born from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s – are not just living longer than our parents, but we are also better educated, and more health-conscious, well travelled and tech-savvy.

With the retirement and re-employment ages being raised to 65 and 70 respectively by 2030, young seniors like myself theoretically have a longer career runway now.

However, a significant number are leaving the workforce before 65, with many doing so in their 50s, said  Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Manpower, at the Committee of Supply debate in Parliament in March 2025.

While the labour force participation rate stands at 86 per cent for those aged 50 to 54, it falls to 67.9 per cent for those aged 60 to 64, which Dr Koh termed a “stark decrease of about 18 percentage points”.

Their reasons for doing so are varied, he explained. “Some wish to slow down and focus on family or personal commitments. Others have not worked for some time and may need to refresh their skills to return to the workforce.”

Dr Koh is co-chairing a Tripartite Workgroup on Senior Employment, which also involves the National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers Federation. It will look at policy recommendations to keep senior workers employed.

In the light of recent policies to delay retirement, today’s young seniors are likely to stay in the workforce longer, which would bolster their savings, although age bias is a challenge some will face, says Dr Kelvin Tan Cheng Kian, head of the Minor in Applied Ageing Studies programme in the Singapore University of Social Sciences’ S R Nathan School of Human Development.

“Gen Xers don’t want to be ‘cancelled’ by the younger generations. After all, they have coped with constant changes and disruptions, having lived through a number of crises in their lives, such as the dot.com crash of the late 1990s, Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in the early 2000s, the 2008 financial crisis, Covid-19 and more,” Dr Tan adds.

“Staying healthy and being mentally active will be a constant inspiration for them.”

Like me, many Gen X individuals have spent their lives being the dependable ones who always get things done.

Midlife is thus ripe for reinvention, a second adulthood where we get to explore the dreams we had swept under the mat while busy building our careers and families.

Upskilling courses for over 50s are plentiful, but what we also need is a way to reflect on what we want, reframe our life’s purpose and recalibrate our next steps to get it. What are the often unconscious self-limiting beliefs that hold us back at work and in life?

With that thought in mind, I check out two courses targeting midlifers like myself. One is a career guidance workshop linked to a best-selling book, and the other is a modelling course for women over 50.

Assess, reframe, prototype

Fomo (fear of missing out) grips me when I fail to enrol in a new career guidance workshop called Designing Your Life: The Next Chapter.

The pilot run started in May 2025 with an aim to reach about 1,000 people, but it is so popular that I cannot get a place in any of the June or July weekly sessions and am wait-listed.

Run by Republic Polytechnic and the Designing Your Life Institute in partnership with Workforce Singapore (WSG), the two-day course is free and open to Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 50 and up. Register your interest for the August and September intakes at

rp.edu.sg/designing-your-life-next-chapter

The non-profit local institute, which started in 2023, adapted Stanford University’s Life Design Lab – which teaches students to design thinking for life and career decisions – and the best-selling 2016 book Designing Your Life: How To Build A Well-Lived, Joyful Life, by Stanford academics Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, for its Next Chapter course.

Says Mr Brandon Lee, WSG’s assistant chief executive of its Transformation Support Group: “Many experienced PMETs expressed that they are eager to continue contributing their expertise in the workforce and are actively seeking ways to extend their careers in ways that align with their preferences and lifestyle needs. However, they faced challenges in figuring out what options they could take to continue their later-stage careers.”

Participants learn to develop a personal compass by articulating their beliefs about life and meaningful work, then evaluate how they can distribute their time and energy to design a more fulfilling rhythm, says Mr Joshua Hong, deputy director of Republic Polytechnic.

They also create three different five-year life scenarios, called Odyssey Plans, to uncover hidden aspirations and engage in prototyping conversations where they plan small, low-risk experiments to test their ideas, before finalising a Design Action Plan.

Trainers follow up about a week later with small-group mentoring sessions.

What makes the workshop distinctive is its use of interactive learning and radical collaboration, which involves a high level of openness and trust, says Mr Mark Wee, executive director of Designing Your Life Institute.

Mr Lee says feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with more than half of the participants, aged 50 to 70, exploring project-based, part-time and fractional work which will allow them to balance family time, volunteering and interests like travel. WSG is considering rolling out more of such workshops, he adds.

“Many arrived carrying invisible weight: questions about identity, fears about relevance, uncertainty about what’s next,” says Mr Wee.

“Yet, within hours, something shifted. When given permission to slow down, connect with their values and reimagine the future – they lit up. People who hadn’t dreamt in a long time began sketching bold new paths. They realised they weren’t alone. Around each table, strangers became sounding boards, cheerleaders, collaborators.”

When I attend the last part of one of the workshops in late June, I witness strong camaraderie among the 25 participants who banter like old friends and share actionable steps they intend to take after the programme.

Mr Ben Wong, 54, a business development adviser in a sports technology company, says the workshop gave him a good framework to follow as he was unsure about how to transition his career after a major heart attack in 2023.

“The other participants also gave me a new perspective on what I wanted to do initially, which was coaching. They had really good input because they come from different backgrounds.”

It is this shared experience that makes the book – which I had read earlier in 2025 and put aside because the exercises overwhelmed me – come alive because you are not doing it alone.

I cannot wait to get a slot and start designing my next chapter.

Strike a pose, reclaim your story

The modelling atelier for women over 50 that I attend in late May could not be more different from the Designing Your Life course, although both develop the soft skills that seniors may lack.

Instead of a classroom, I find myself in a mirrored dance studio in Middle Road with seven other women.

Singaporean former supermodel Pat Kraal, 63, starts by inviting us to introduce ourselves.

“Here, we are proud of our age,” she says.

That statement sets the tone for the four-day programme she runs for Platinum Angels Management, the first in Asia to represent models, talents and celebrities over the age of 50.

The agency launched it in June 2024 after it received a “surge” of modelling applicants with no previous experience in doing casting calls and needed to teach them the fundamentals.

It has since discovered over 40 talents with the atelier, which is conducted several times a year when Kraal, who is based in France, is in town. The next run is in August or September 2025 and interested women can contact the agency at

platinum-angels.com

It costs $800 and includes five classes of two to three hours, covering different styles of catwalking, posing and posture, and casting insights, skincare, make-up, social media and styling. The sixth class is graduation day, when participants showcase all they have learnt.

“Every participant brings her unique story and strength. Some are navigating difficult life transitions, divorces, illnesses or caregiving challenges, while others are rediscovering their confidence after years of putting themselves last,” says Kraal, the agency’s managing director. She has tried to offer a similar course for men, but there were few takers.

She leads the catwalking and casting insights class herself and says the course has attracted women in their 50s to 70s over its six batches. Some hold modelling aspirations, while others want to build their confidence.

The atelier participants in my batch, who range from corporate warriors to homemakers aged 52 to 65, talk about how they want to learn something new and have fun while at it.

“I want to do something for myself,” says a retiree in her early 60s as everyone nods in agreement.

The catwalk segment is the most stressful because I hardly wear heels these days and struggle to turn halfway down the catwalk, but Kraal takes us through our paces with kind firmness.

Do your household chores in heels to practise over the weekend, she instructs.

Learning about skincare, cosmetics and styling for our changing needs is eye-opening. After applying make-up the same way for 30 years, I finally discover how to work around droopy eyelids, wrinkles and sagging skin.

I skip the social media module, but my classmates who are less familiar with it say it is enlightening. All of our instructors are women over 50, which I appreciate.

We all feel the jitters as we line up to do a couple of group catwalks for the judges on the last day, who include Kraal, the agency’s co-founder Brandon Barker, and Mrs Elizabeth Wong, co-founder of Rexults Group, which offers aesthetic and wellness services.  

Next, we are called in individually to pitch a product during a mock casting call. Mine turns out to be jewellery and I try to show three different moods – proud, peaceful and graceful – while trying to recall the brand’s tagline, which I stumble over.

The agency then takes photos for each model’s comp card, which lists her personal information and measurements. These are sent to prospective clients, who may ask us to come down for a casting call.

Mayhem breaks out once the day is over as we scream and hug over how much we have accomplished, and make TikTok videos to commemorate our journey from strangers to friends.

At $800, the modelling atelier is a splurge, but it gives me a palpable boost of confidence I did not know I needed, especially after menopause. I know how to walk taller, do my make-up better and wear more flattering clothes – small details that can make a huge difference to how a woman carries herself.

More importantly, I find a new tribe of gal pals whose zest for life is infectious. I admire their willingness to put themselves out there and chase their dreams, while always being supportive of one another. Hardly the competitive modelling environment that mass media hypes up.

“After the first course, I realised it was doing far more than just teaching modelling. It was transforming lives. The women came out standing taller, both literally and emotionally,” says Kraal, who has been moved by the resilience of participants, such as a cancer warrior who never missed a class even though she was undergoing treatment.

“Another woman, going through a painful divorce, told me after her first runway walk, ‘I never imagined I could feel this powerful again.’

“Moments like these show that modelling here is about much more than appearances. It is about reclaiming your story and stepping forward with grace and confidence.”