SINGAPORE – At the age of 80, Anthony Png is pursuing his second diploma and keen to learn more about artificial intelligence (AI).
The former businessman rides a Peugeot Tweet scooter and goes to the gym a couple of times a week. On weekdays, he works as a senior security supervisor at a factory in Senoko Crescent.
Thrice a week at night, he joins classmates, younger than him by decades, in their part-time diploma course in legal executive studies at Temasek Polytechnic, where lessons are conducted both on and offline.
As a boy, Png left school armed with a Higher School Certificate, the equivalent of a pre-university qualification. But in the autumn of his life, he felt the need for more education.
One such milestone was when he turned 55 and thought he would quietly retire, as it was the accepted retirement age then. Another turning point was when his 75th birthday approached and he knew he had to switch careers.
Png, who turns 81 in 2026, has four children and three grandchildren. His 65-year-old wife works in retail.
In the 1960s, he began his working life as a clerk at the Singapore Harbour Board, later known as the Port of Singapore Authority. Eventually, he moved to a shipping firm, where he worked as an operations manager.
In 1979, acting on a desire to become an entrepreneur, he started a construction business called Maintainer.
The firm, which dealt in steel construction and the manufacture of telecommunication towers and other types of infrastructure, had its heyday in the 1990s, with 145 employees and an annual turnover of $15 million at its peak, Png recalls.
But business faded and, in 2000, at age 55, he shuttered the company and experienced the pinch of leaving the workforce.
“I thought it was time for retirement. But when I was at home with nothing to do, I nearly died of boredom,” he says. He was still playing golf three times a week, but his former golf buddies who were employed did not have time for him.
He thought retirement would be “fantastic”, but the reality was different from what he imagined and he became determined to keep working for as long as he could.
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