Bringing lifelong learning into
the field of older workers
Tarja Tikkanen
IRIS
AGORA: Promoting lifelong learning for older workers
12-13 October 2006
CEDEFOP, Thessaloniki, Greece
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“Stearns (1977), in his study of industrialization between
1890-1919, reported that older workers were being
threatened by the obsolescence of their skills and by work
speed-up…
…British metal workers claimed that the latter caused
premature ageing,
…and found that many of their employers judged them ‘too
old at forty’.”
- Parker (1987, p. 79)
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Contents
1. Goal & focus
2. Towards active ageing through of lifelong
learning: Development of the discussion
3. Older workers’ participation in lifelong learning
4. Workplaces and HRD promoting LLL for older
workers
5. A summary and commentary on existing
research
6. Recommendations
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Goal
• to describe the situation and development of
the discussion of lifelong learning of and for
older (45+) workers
•
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to advance and expand discussion on the
theme within VET/CVET and in regards
working life
Focus
Lifelong learning
Adult learning and education
Work-related learning (VET, CVET, informal workplace learning)
Private enterprises,
public organisations
- labour market
Life-course
Working life, career
Enter working life
20+ yrs
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”Older workers
and
lifelong learning”
”Older worker”
45+ yrs
Exit working life
60+/65+ yrs
Contemporary issues
• In the margins of power – Voice of older workers?
–
regardless of their absolute and proportional numbers. A lot of work done on the theme older
workers, but their voice is still not heard - Managers, experts and politicians are talking & acting
• Narrow view to knowledge in the knowledge society?
–
technological knowledge dominate, while at the same time more holistic views promoted
• Competence views – uncertainty, confusion, dilemmas
–
e.g. value of experience and on-the-job, informal learning, practical vs. theoretical knowledge
• The world of learning to combat obsolescence and lack of skills?
–
Education and training for older workers? – Training provision: contents and methods
• The role of job-organisations and management
• Trade unions’ role in regards their older members?
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Towards active ageing through lifelong learning
(LLL): Development of the discussion
1.
Work good, retirement bad (until the 1980s)
–
2.
Early exit from labour (1980-1990)
–
Lifelong learning discussion: Not an issue, USA a forerunner
3.
“Exit from early retirement” (the 1990s)
4.
Towards “active ageing” and an “ageless society” (The new
Millennium) - through lifelong learning
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
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Learning for alleviation of the “retirement crisis”
Lifelong learning – the rhetoric emerges, VET develops, professionalisat.
Adult education with a narrow concept of ‘adulthood’
Deficit-view to older workers, learning as an ‘instrument’
More ‘organic’, holistic concern for the workforce emerging?
Work-retirement transition blurring
Learning and Ageing as lifelong processes - What about working?
New mindsets called for thinking on working, learning and ageing
Older workers’ participation in lifelong learning
1. Participation rates decline by age, older workers participate less than
their younger counterparts.
2. Older workers (particularly 55+) have still relatively low level of
education in comparison with younger age groups.
3. Participation in lifelong learning accumulates, participation rates are
higher among higher educated older workers.
4. Cumulative disadvantages – (3,4) Little difference in the participation
patterns of older adults in formal education from younger cohorts.
5. Older people prefer learning in informal and non-formal settings over
formal settings – Value of the outcomes?!
6. Old workers’ participation in learning activities varies widely across
countries
7. In most countries the provision of formal learning opportunities still
largely reflects the world of youth and higher education.
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Distribution of participation in LLL by age
groups, 2003, EU25 (Descy, 2006)
EU25
3.0%
2.7%
2.5%
2.0%
1.7%
1.5%
1.3%
1.5%
1.1%
0.8%
1.0%
0.6%
0.5%
0.0%
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
Source: Labour force survey, Eurostat, Newcronos database [Cited: December 2004]
LLL= any kind of education and training during the 4 weeks preceding the survey; data not available for age group 60-64.
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55-59
The 1990s made a difference!
A comparision of participation in adult education among older
workers in Finland in 1990 and 2000.
1990
85,6
87,2
93,9
77,4
%
80
60
50
100
47,2
34,5
32,6
40
80
40
60
67,5
62,6
72,4
54,1
64,7 61,2
0
20
0
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
40-44
Age
Education
Low 1990
45-49
50-54
55-59
Age
High 1990
Education
Low 2000
High 2000
Data: Adult Education Surveys 1990 & 2000, Statistics Finland (Tikkanen & Paloniemi, 2005)
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57,4 58,8
55,4
41,4
40
18,4
20
%
100
2000
60-64
Formal and informal learning
Proportion of respondents having learned something in the preceding
year, by learning context and age groups, 2002 (Descy, 2006)
100
90
96.2
91.6
93.7
83.5
80.1
80
70
60
% 50
45.3
37.3
40
30
20
14
10
0
15-24
25-39
learning in non-formal/informal contexts
Source: Eurobarometer LLL, Cedefop 2004, p.46
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40-54
learning in formal contexts
55+
Workplaces and HRD promoting LLL for older workers
1. Discouragement in employment
2. Missing voice - From an object to a subject
3. Providing access to and opportunity for career development
4. A need for ‘ageing-appropriate’ job design.
5. ’Change competences’ and flexibility
6. Confronting ageism in the workplace. (ex.)
7. Age-management.
8. Promoting diversity as a competitive edge.
9. Career guidance and the role of social partners
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A summary and commentary on existing research
• We know little, research insufficient
• Narrow perspective, sociology and economics
• Focus on macro level, knowledge started to emerge on
organsational level (cases + consultants, little
documentation)
• Deficit-approach – a more comprehensive, balanced view
emerging?
• ’Objectification’, targets of research other than older
workers themselves
• Narrow methdology, mainly surveys with age used as a
background variable (Preferences in research financing!)
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Recommendations (1/2)
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•
Policy makers and social partners – A new
mindset on working, learning and ageing!
•
Include older workers themselves in the dialogue &
planning - in the context of workplace and in
training institutions (does it help in policy making?
Limits of representative democracy?)
•
Creating partnerships for learning.
•
The dialogue between training institutions and
employers should be further enhanced. Workplaces also as sites for more theoretical
learning (incl. ICT)
•
VET/CVET: Inclusive workplaces & need for
inclusive settings for learning. Meet the experiential
world of older learners!
Recommendations (2/2)
• Develop systematic evaluation of the measures
developed to address the issues of learning and
competence of older workers in workplaces.
• Dissemination of ‘best-practice’ should place more
focus on critical self-reflection and on how to truly
reach wider audiences, in particular workplaces.
• Research needed, which builds on interdisciplinary
frameworks and applies multiple methodologies.
• Expand surveys targeted to working life and learning
activities to cover wider age-span. Practices for
reporting survey findings on LLL for older age groups
should be improved and homogenised.
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Perspectives to active ageing
through lifelong learning of older workers
Perspectives to lifelong
learning
Argument for older workers
A means to keep older workers in working
life until the statutory retirement age.
LLL as a remedy to the negative consequences of the early exit policies
of the 1980s.
A means to fight age-discrimination in
working life and the labour market.
LLL to create an ‘inclusive society’ - to enable and exemplify older
workers’ full participation in working life and society.
A necessity to keep one’s job competence
updated and renewed.
LLL as a means for older workers to update and renew their jobcompetence and secure their employability.
A means to ease the generational “burden”
of overrepresentation of baby-boomers.
LLL as way to actively contribute longer to society and economy
(productivity)
A manifestation of the post-modern lifestyle,
culture and society
LLL as reflecting an ‘age-irrelevant society’ (Neugarten, 1982) or an
‘ageless society’ (Manheimer, 2006), with ’active citizenship’
A means to fulfil one’s potential in working
life and beyond.
LLL as a way to personal well-being and fulfilling life (humanistic
perspective).
A core dimension in what it means to be a
human being[1].
Why not? Why would the needs for learning and knowing of older
workers be any different from any other group of people?
[1]Homo sapiens is Latin for "wise man" or "knowing man". As a distinction to other species, humans “have a highly
developed brain capable of abstract reasoning, language and introspection”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human
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