Most guidance activities are aimed at young people or at adults who are going through education or employment transitions. With an ageing population, this will have to change. If guidance services do not take into account the particular situation and needs of older workers, then we have a double loss: loss for the individual of the benefits of working and making a secure transition to retirement, and unnecessary loss to national economies of much needed skills.
This workshop will explore two perspectives on older workers’ needs. One is the findings from a small-scale Norwegian research project involving older female academics, who experienced little interest or respect from others towards the end of their lengthy devotion to their career. The other perspective is larger scale trialling of mid-life career interventions in the UK which gives indication of the training needs of career guidance professionals delivering such reviews, and an outline of proposed training materials. Underlying both perspectives is the desire of older workers for respect from others for their life experience and work contributions, and a desire to find ways of integrating three key concerns: maintaining good health; planning for a financially viable retirement pension; continuing paid employment until ready for transition into satisfying activities in retirement.
Whilst governments address the need to retain skills and reduce state pension costs, our profession should have wider concerns. Older workers are our future; each one of us will become an older worker, and our countries will have larger percentages of older workers. Supporting older workers’ needs in the last decades of working life affects social inclusion and wellbeing into oldest age.
