Key messages
Lifelong learning and older workers
- People with higher levels of education qualifications tend to have
high levels of engagement with the labour market. The relationship
is particularly
strong for women.
- Education levels of older cohorts will rise over coming
decades as current, relatively well-educated cohorts age.
Even with current education participation rates, this should lead
to higher rates
of engagement with the labour market among older groups, especially
for women, than would otherwise be the case.
- This ‘education effect’ is
even more important when working hours patterns are taken into account
because the better qualified tend
to work more
hours (to a large extent because more are engaged in full-time employment).
- The
education effect has been important in explaining the current working
patterns. For males, the positive education effect has been
against a
long-term decline in labour force participation. For females,
it has contributed to long-term increases.
- The education effect will
partially offset the impact of the ageing of the population, but
the demographic impact of the ageing population
dominates. Factors other than education are also likely to
impact on employment-to-population rates, and governments need to concentrate
on work incentives and community attitudes as well as education
and
training,
if they wish to increase the proportion of the population working.
- Lifelong
learning has a role to play. Qualifications acquired later in life
have as good, and in some cases, better, pay-off to employment-to-population
rates for older age groups as do qualifications obtained
at a young
age.
- On the whole, the more qualifications the better, although the evidence
on lower-level qualifications and incomplete qualifications
improving employment rates is mixed.
- Older people who have undertaken training are more likely to retain their employment status relative to their employed peers not receiving training. So training appears to be helpful to maintaining employment. However, one explanation for this is that employers provide training to those they expect to retain as employees.
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