Securing their future: Older workers and the role of VET
Project type:
Research program
Project no:
NR07508
Status:
Project in progress
Commenced date:
8 April 2008
Estimated release date:
31 December 2010
Theme:
Students and individuals > Learner groups
Contact:
Chris Ryan
Australian National University
Research School of Social Sciences
Australian National University
Coombs Building (Bldg 9)
ACT 0200
phone: 02 6125 3881
fax: 02 6125 0182
email: Chris.Ryan@anu.edu.au
The research aims to examine participation patterns in vocational education and training (VET) among older workers and the factors that influence those patterns. The purpose is to allow the researchers to identify key factors that both determine participation in VET and are amenable to change through government policy and direct intervention. The outcomes of the research will be a better evidence base for other researchers and government on the nature of participation in VET and the potential role for interventions to increase that participation.
The research will address VET participation patterns among older workers and the factors that influence those patterns. This group poses special challenges for the VET sector but potentially great rewards because there is considerable scope to increase their participation.
Skill matches to job requirements
* How do the jobs in which older workers are employed differ from the jobs of otherwise similar people who are employed but are younger?
* More specifically, how do the skill requirements of their jobs differ relative to the actual skills of the two groups?
* How has the relationship between job requirements and individual skills changed over time?
Job requirements and lifelong learning for older workers
* If the labour supply of older workers is to increase, is this likely to take place in 'transition' jobs, where older workers are employed in less demanding jobs or jobs with shorter hours than their 'career' jobs, or by workers remaining longer in their 'career' jobs?
* How do the skill requirements of the jobs of individuals change as they age?
* What are the implications of these alternative scenarios (increased labour force participation in transition versus career jobs) for the re-skilling and lifelong learning needs of older workers?
This is a three-year research program involving a number of stages:
Skill matches to job requirements
This stage will aim to estimate the extent to which the allocation of workers (who vary by skill) to jobs (which vary in their demands) differs between workers of different ages. The main methodological approach for addressing the first topic will be to estimate a 'matching' function, via which individuals with identifiable skills are matched to jobs that require specific tasks to be undertaken. This analysis will provide information about the quality of the employment opportunities available to older workers, in terms of the use make of their skills. Two existing data sources will be used to explore these issues: the Survey of Aspects of Literacy (SAL) collected in 1996 by the ABS and the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALLS) Survey undertaken in 2006 by the ABS.
Job requirements and lifelong learning for older workers
The existence of a change in the matching relationship with age would be prima facie evidence that individuals already pursue a 'transition' job strategy as a bridge towards retirement. The approach in this stage of the research will be to estimate the role of job requirements in determining participation in VET and in on-the-job training across the entire workforce. This would be done using a multivariate regression equation where the dependent variable is whether or not individuals were engaged in education and/or training at the time they were surveyed. The parameters of the equation could then be used to simulate how this participation would change with differing assumptions made about the job requirements of individuals as they age, making alternative assumptions of the way the matching function may change with age, depending on whether individuals stay in their career jobs or move towards transition jobs.
Some comparisons of patterns and trends between Australia and other English-speaking, industrialized countries may be undertaken as an extension of work under the first topic identified above, on the nature of the match between job skill requirements and those actually held by older workers.
The research program might also be supplemented with use of data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. For example, individuals aged 45 years or older have been asked in HILDA about the age at which they intend to retire. It would be of interest to know the extent to which the training and education activities undertaken by older workers reflect their retirement expectations. Years to retirement rather than age may be the critical variable determining the decline in participation observed among older workers and it is possible that interventions may need to target this phenomenon to bring about increased participation.
The SPEAR Centre commenced in 2000 as a joint initiative between the Australian Government Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS), now the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA) and the then Economics Group (now Economics Program) in the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU. When the Centre's initial social policy research agreement with FaCS concluded at the end of 2004 it was renewed with increased funding for a second five-year Social Policy Research Services Agreement, covering the period 2005-2009.
Since the commencement of the Research Services Agreement which funds the SPEAR Centre, approximately 40 research projects have been undertaken for FaCSIA. The current content of the SPEAR research program under the SPRS agreement has broadened substantially from its initial focus on specific government programs and the likely impact of welfare reform. It now has a greater focus on the experiences of particular demographic groups - children, young people and women notably - and specifically has a strong childcare, child development and female fertility focus. Future work programs are likely to include more projects on children, notably child support arrangements, youth and senior Australians.
