Creating a future: Training, learning and the older person

This report summary is taken from the final chapter of the publication.

This report has investigated the training implications of the ageing of the Australian population. As people live longer and healthier lives, assumptions about people retiring from work completely at the age of 60 or younger and living lives unconnected to the world of work are giving way to an environment in which an increasing number of older people prolong their working lives past the conventional age of retirement and into what has been, until now, characterised as 'old age'. At the same time as the expectations of people regarding their working lives are changing, the nature of work has also been the subject of significant change in recent years. Fewer people are confident of having a job for life with one employer. The security of employment that was formerly offered by large enterprises and the public sector has disappeared in the wake of constant downsizing. As a result, many more people are experiencing multiple changes in career and older workers often bear the brunt of these enforced changes in working life. Changes in career and the desire of many to remain active in the workforce longer are two of the most important forces reshaping the training and learning experiences of older Australians.

This chapter draws together the findings of the research undertaken for this study, summarises the major themes that have emerged and makes some comments on their policy implications.

As Misko shows, the Australian population is rapidly ageing in line with international demographic trends. The median age of the Australian population currently at 34 years will increase to about 45 years by 2051. By this time over 25 per cent of the population will be aged over 65 years compared with 10 per cent in 1997. A key contributor to the 'greying' of the population is the increasing health of older people. Advances in medical technology have led to a steady increase in the life expectancy for people, particularly in the developed world. For non-indigenous Australians, life expectancy at birth in 1996 was 81 years for females and 75 years for males. These rates are confidently expected to grow in coming years.

At the same time, the ageing of the population is being accompanied by a significant demographic 'bust', with the lower birth rates of recent years contributing to a steep decline in the numbers of young people aged 19-24 years. The combination of more people living longer and fewer young people in the population will have a significant impact on the age structure of the Australian workforce. As employers compete for a decreasing number of younger workers, they will be compelled to reconsider the role of older workers. As Ball shows, labour force participation rates decline sharply for both men and women after the age of 50 years. In the future it is unlikely that employers will be quite so willing to let their older employees leave or retire as they find it increasingly difficult to recruit younger people. At the same time, the state will find it more difficult to meet the needs of retirees.

The costs of supporting a non-working age population

As Misko shows, governments in developing countries are already experimenting with new arrangements to allow older people to continue earning after their official retirement in order to reduce the financial burden on the state. Individuals also are less likely to wish to give up employment in their 50s and early 60s. Employer sponsored pension plans may not be able to cater for people who could be living into their 80s and beyond. Moreover, the improving health of older people leads to an increasing psychological need to remain active in society and the workforce longer than previous generations. As Ball shows, a growing proportion of men aged 70-74 are remaining in the workforce. There is, thus, a triple dynamic already in place that will increase the participation of older people in the workforce of the future employers' requirements driven by demographic change, the interests of the state to reduce financial outlays on older people and the needs of older people to remain active longer.

These workforce demographics have great significance for the training and learning of older people. As older workers remain in the workforce longer and are increasingly subject to career change, access to training and learning opportunities will become more important to them. This gives the notion of lifelong learning a particular meaning, as older people increasingly demand training and learning that will enable them to remain in the workforce longer.

Policy implications

Lifelong learning is currently in vogue as a means of recasting the Australian training system for the future. In many ways the debate over lifelong learning has been couched in the rhetoric of creating a more inclusive society by providing learning opportunities for all. However, the demographic imperatives of an ageing population and a reduction in the numbers of younger people entering the workforce bring a hard edge to the concept of lifelong learning. As older people remain at work, the necessity for reorienting the Australian training system towards reskilling of older workers becomes increasingly important.

Misko discusses the negative stereotypes that abound concerning the abilities of older people. In particular, older people are cast as being slow to learn and adapt. Yet this stereotype has long been disproved in the literature. Whilst older people may suffer from the physical effects of ageing — reduced aerobic and muscular capacity and an increasing incidence of ill-health — the intellectual capacity of older people is not affected to the same extent by the ageing process. Although there may be evidence of slight memory loss with ageing, older people often have significantly higher levels of relevant experience, which offsets the effects of memory loss and can lead to higher job performance levels than younger people who do not possess the same level of experience. This is another way of characterising the wisdom of the older worker. Most of the psychological evidence indicates that older people do not experience any consistent decrease in intellectual capacity as they grow older; at least not until they enter their 80s or 90s. Thus the ability of older people to learn and of older workers to learn new jobs and new ways of working is not diminished with age.

Some employers have chosen to recognise the positive characteristics of older workers and adapt their recruitment policies to favour older people. Misko cites the case of the Days Inn hotel chain in the USA which was experiencing difficulties with the transient nature of its younger workers. The company implemented a policy of hiring people over the age of 50 years and found that, contrary to the stereotype, these workers learned to operate the computer reservation systems as quickly as younger workers. Moreover, the older workers stayed with the company longer and were able to handle more reservations per day than younger workers.

However, despite the evidence to show that the job performance of older people does not suffer by comparison with younger workers and that they retain their capacity to learn, many older people interviewed for this study testified to their ongoing experience of age discrimination in the labour market. Most the interviewees in the sample had experienced what they perceived to be age discrimination, often by younger managers who seemed to hold negative stereotypes about the ability of older people to contribute. As a result, some of the interviewees had made a conscious decision not to work inside a large organisation but to pursue self-employment in their later years. This movement of older people towards self-employment is also suggested by the Schueler's analysis of their participation in vocational education and training.

The principal factor in the ability of older people to retain their learning capacities appears to be the level of skills they already possess. Ball's analysis of the national training statistics shows that those people with skills and qualifications are likely to experience greater access to training and learning in their work. The interviewees in this study also confirmed that those who possessed a wide range of transferable or general skills, such as those acquired in a management position, were able to handle career changes more effectively than those who had fewer skills were. Thus the acquisition of skills and qualifications at a younger age is a critical factor for older people remaining flexible and employable in older age.

Policy implications

Current initiatives, such as the expansion of the new apprenticeship system, which encourage the acquisition of skills and qualifications by young people, need to be supported and extended. It is important that those who leave school early and do not progress into further education and training are picked up by the training system so that future generations of older people possess the skills required to enhance their training and learning in later years.

The importance of learning new skills, as they grew older was not lost on the interviewees in this study. Most of the interviewees stressed how they had learnt a variety of skills during their careers and that they realised that acquiring new skills and maintaining old skills was of critical importance to employability in later years. However, as Barnett points out, formal training and learning opportunities represent only one source of new skills. Most of the interviewees said that they had benefited from formal training but that they had learned important skills from a variety of sources, including on-the-job training, self-study, role models in the workplace and other colleagues. Moreover, their success at finding employment at a mature age was linked directly to their ability to realise the value of these skills by applying them in a different work context. This was particularly true for those who had learned management and organisational skills that could be transferred into a range of work environments. The key to the utilisation of skills lay in the ability of the older person to 'let go' of their previous occupational identity and create new career opportunities.

Thus, older people tend to be more tactical than younger people in their selection of skills they wish to learn and how they can be acquired. They tend not to value the notion of acquiring a qualification but rather seek out "109 Summary and discussion opportunities to acquire or enhance specific skills. This may well mean the use of formal training provided though employers or through external training providers. All except one of the interviewees in this study has used formal training to enhance their skills and employability. Schueler's analysis of the VET statistics also bears out this point. Older people are undertaking short, non-award vocational courses in greater numbers than younger people and they are targeting specific fields of study — TAFE multifield, business and science. As Schueler concludes:

The popularity of these areas of learning suggests that older people are predominantly accessing vocational programs to acquire business skills, develop or update computing skills and undertake training for employment purposes.

When asked why they are undertaking a vocational training course, older people overwhelmingly indicate that it is to gain more skills to apply to employment or owning a business. This reinforces the notion that skills are what older people wish to acquire and they will be highly selective about identifying these skills and how they will acquire them. However, whether this tactical approach to skill acquisition translates into successful labour market outcomes for older people is less clear. Whereas older graduates state that they are relatively satisfied with the skills that they have acquired in VET, they are less positive about their success in finding a new job or changing career. As Ball shows, older people may suffer a similar rate of unemployment to the rest of the population but they spend much more time out of work and find it more difficult to get a job.

As people get older, qualifications appear to become less important when making decisions about training and learning. Older people take a more tactical view of their training and learning needs and are focussed on acquiring skills or on updating existing skills rather than on gaining qualifications. As human capital theory suggests, qualifications are of more use to the younger worker as employers will tend to screen applicants on the basis of their academic achievements using this a proxy for their potential in the organisation. For the older worker, experience and skills assume more importance to the potential employer.

Policy implications

Training and learning experiences need to fit the tactical approaches of older people. The training and education system needs to increasingly offer its programs on a modularised basis, so that people at all ages can focus on putting together packages of skills and qualifications that suit their particular needs and circumstances.

Increasingly, studies of industry training are showing that employees are taking more responsibility for their own training and learning. Smith and Hayton (1999) showed in their study of training practices in 42 Australian enterprises that employers expected individuals to take responsibility for identifying and sourcing their training needs at work. The enterprise increasingly acted as broker to individuals rather than providing direct training. These findings have been confirmed in recent studies of the impact of organisational change on employer training practices (Smith et al. 1999). VandenHeuvel and Wooden (1999) have also shown that casual workers undertake the same amount of external training as permanent employees but that the cost of the training is borne entirely by the employee. Thus the evidence points strongly towards the increasing individualisation of training and learning.

Older people are also taking increasing responsibility for their training and learning. As Ball shows, the incidence of employer sponsored training declines with age as does their participation in VET. However, Schueler's work shows that increasing numbers of older people are undertaking VET programs with an emphasis on short, non-award courses rather than AQF programs. Often develop a more tactical approach to their training and learning needs, picking their experiences selectively from a number of potential sources of learning. This evidence suggests that older people are taking an increasing level of individual responsibility for their training and learning. For those who have undergone separation from their employers, setting up their own business is an increasingly attractive option. For those who are seeking employment, enhancing adaptability by transferring their skills to new environments or learning new skills in order to change career is critical to success. In either case, the responsibility for identifying and sourcing training and learning rests squarely with the individuals.

Policy implications

Individualisation means that the clients of the training system are as much individuals as industries, professions and enterprises. Along with the need to modularise the offerings of the training and education systems, training providers need to become more conscious of the needs of individuals as their key clientele. The era of standardisation in training needs to be followed by an new era of customisation to the increasingly fragmented needs of an individualised training market.

Schueler shows that older people are flocking to both vocational and personal enrichment programs in ever increasing numbers. Whilst the numbers undertaking VET programs in Australia for all ages has grown by 60 per cent since 1990, the numbers of people in their 40s undertaking training has doubled and the numbers of people in their 50s has trebled. As a result, the proportion of those undertaking training through the VET system aged over 40 years increased from 18 per cent in 1990 to 27 per cent in 1998.

Thus, whilst the propensity to undertake training of any sort, including VET declines with age, many more older people are taking programs through the VET system. However, older people are much more highly represented in personal enrichment programs where people over 45 years represent almost 40 per cent of the total. Many of these personal enrichment programs are provided by the non-TAFE sector, in particular by community based training providers. Community training providers also supply vocational training programs. It is clear from Schueler s analysis that as people grow older they increasingly turn to community training providers for both their vocational and personal enrichment training. This is particularly true for females and older persons aged over 65 years. There is an important issue for TAFE raised by these findings, which suggest the ambience of the typical TAFE college is not well suited to older members of the community, who may find the more relaxed and informal atmosphere of a community training provider more in keeping with their training and learning requirements.

Policy implications

As part of the need to meet the requirements of individual clients, training providers must examine the attractiveness of their operations to different groups of individuals. Many training providers are set up to service primarily younger students. The host of student services provided at TAFE campuses are often predicated on an image of the student as a young person. As older clients become an increasing proportion of those undertaking vocational and other training programs, providers need to rethink the way in which they deal with older people and examine ways of making their operations more open and accessible to all age groups.

As Ball shows, the incidence of training provision for older workers declines with age. Whereas over 82 per cent of workers in the 15-39 year age group participated in some form of training in 1997, this rate declines steadily with age to the point where less than 50 per cent of workers in the 60-64 age group participated in training. However, other studies have shown that there are many other factors that influence the incidence of employer sponsored training including the size of the organisation, the organisation's industry location and the occupational status of the employee.

Ball's analysis shows that there are a number of factors acting to compound the impact of age on the likelihood of older people to undertake training. The most significant of these factors is the labour market status of the person. Part of the explanation for the declining incidence of training amongst older workers is their changing status in the workforce. People over 55 years are less likely to be in employment earning a wage or salary and so are less likely to participate in training. The impact of employment on the incidence of training is even more marked for those who are unemployed or marginally attached to the labour force. For these groups the highest incidence of training occurs in the youngest age category with 47 per cent of those in the 15-29 age group receiving training. This figure declines to a less than 22 per cent of those in the 60-64 age group. Those older people only marginally attached to the labour force display the worst participation rates in training with participation rates declining to less than 20 per cent for those aged over 40 years.

Gender is also an important factor in the participation of older workers in training. After the age of 45 years, the participation rates for women workers are lower for all age groups than for men. This is also true for those who are not employed, particularly for women who are marginally attached to the labour force. For this group women aged 40-49 years have a participation rate of just over 13 per cent compared with nearly 40 per cent for men.

Ball's analysis illustrates the overwhelming importance of the possession of post-school qualifications to the incidence of training for older workers. Whilst nearly 63 per cent of workers with a post-school qualification aged 50-54 years undertook some study or formal training course in 1997, only 36 per cent of those without a post-school qualification undertook a course of study or formal training. Over 85 per cent of those with a post-school qualification aged 50-54 years undertook some form of training in 1997, only just over 60 per cent of those in this age group without a post-school qualification undertook some training. These figures are directly related to the numbers of older people who possess a post-school qualification. This declines from over 60 per cent of the 30-39 year age group to 48 per cent of the 60-64 age group.

However, unlike previous studies that have shown that industry and occupation have a direct and significant influence on the incidence of training, it appears that industry and occupation do not account for the declining incidence of training amongst older workers. Industries with higher proportions of older workers in their workforces are not necessarily industries that provide the lowest levels of training. Industries such as education or health and community services that employ a relatively high proportion of older workers are industries that also have a relatively high participation in training. While some industries with a high proportion of younger workers such as retail and accommodation display relatively low participation rates in training. Thus, it is not the case that industries characterised by an older workforce are industries that do not provide training opportunities for their workers. Similarly, occupations with a relatively high participation rate in training such as managers and professionals are also occupations with a relatively high proportion of older workers. Thus the age structures of industries and occupations do not provide a very good guide to the likelihood of older workers partipating in training.

Policy implications

The foregoing discussion of the factors that influence the training and learning opportunities of older people enables us to pinpoint 'risk factors' which predispose older people to receive less training.

• labour market status — older people not employed in a job earning a wage or salary are at significantly greater risk of not being able to fulfil their training and learning needs than those who are employed.
• women are less likely, in many cases, to be able to meet their training and learning needs than men.
• post-school qualifications are an important entree to further training. Those without such qualifications are less likely to receive further opportunities for training and learning.
• the industry within which older workers are employed will have a significant bearing on their training and learning opportunities. For those older workers employed in low training industries, opportunities for training and learning may be significantly lower than in high training industries. For workers caught in low training industries that are also downsizing, the risk of being abandoned on the labour market with few skills or qualifications represents a particular problem.
• the occupation of the older worker will have an important bearing on the availability of training and learning opportunities for older workers.

These factors enable us to identify groups of older people who are more at risk of not being able to benefit from the flexibility and adaptability that results from opportunities for training and learning. For those older people unemployed or marginally attached to the labour force there is a considerable risk that they will not be able to learn the new skills they require to re-enter the workforce. For those older workers caught in low training occupations and in low training industries, especially those with no post-school qualifications, there is a significant risk that they will lack the skills and adaptability to cope with the sweeping changes to patterns of work and the labour market currently under way.

This report has examined the training and learning experiences of older people and older workers and the factors that influence those experiences. Older people are adapting to the changes in society and the workplace by taking up opportunities for training and learning in ever greater numbers but doing so in a tactical way that will enhance their adaptability and flexibility. The old stereotype that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks is demonstrably untrue. Not only do older people retain the ability to learn and adapt to change, they take a very considered view about their own training and learning needs and the ways in which they might best source those needs. Far from acquiescing in the face of change and uncertainty, older people are creating their own futures and are making sure that their training and learning are making their futures productive and sustainable.