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Men’s sheds in Australia:
Learning through community contexts
Men’s sheds organisations are typically located in shed or workshop-type spaces in community settings that provide opportunities for regular hands-on activity by groups deliberately and mainly comprising men. They have recently proliferated across parts of southern Australia with higher proportions of older men not in work.
- Men’s sheds are particularly successful in attracting older men that have proved difficult to engage through conventional health, employment, education and training initiatives. Many of these older men are facing issues associated with significant change, including ageing, health, retirement, isolation, unemployment, disability and separation.
- They provide mateship and a sense of belonging through positive and therapeutic informal activities and experiences with other men. Men’s sheds achieve positive health, happiness and wellbeing outcomes for men who participate, as well as for their partners, families and communities.
- Men’s sheds confirm the preferences of older men for hands-on, practical learning styles, more similar to those found in adult and community education (ACE) compared with those in formal education settings.
- Men’s sheds have more to do with producing non-vocational benefits and rarely provide direct vocational pathways to future paid work.
- Being heavily reliant on volunteers, men’s sheds often struggle to cope with the initial costs, regulations and complexities associated with establishing a safe working environment and procuring funding to assist with coordination and supervision of participants. Despite the limitations in funding, men’s sheds have grown in number; however, the impact on future growth and sustainability is uncertain.
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