2016 Annual Conference

The session focuses on workforce aging and the provision of career learning at later stages of people’s professional lives. It combines quantitative and qualitative findings of a case study of current labor market dynamics and career struggles of aging professionals conducted this year in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area.

The session is designed for researchers, practitioners and policy makers concerned with the provision of education and skills training for workers later in life as a means of promoting both successful generational transitions and sustainable tax bases. It may be especially relevant to those working in the fields of career learning, workforce development and economic development, and to those interested in population aging, work to retirement transitions and career trajectories of older workers. In addition, it may be of interest to gerontologists.

Rapid aging and volatile labor markets have created new concerns. Governments are concerned about extending working lives of older workers as a way of sustaining the tax base of their economies. Employers are confronted by an increased proportion of older workers in workplaces and potential skills gaps due to mass retirements. Older individuals are encountering challenges in adapting to changing landscapes of job opportunities. These significant demographic shifts have cost implications affecting all generations. Paying attention to the employability of older workers is now necessary to tackle rising dependency ratios. Traditional policy approaches rely on instruments such as increasing the age of eligibility for retirement benefits to retain older workers in labor markets. This alone will not sustain the economic productivity of older workers in increasingly volatile labor markets. Such efforts need to be accompanied by supporting older workers in developing in-demand knowledge and skills.
The session will explore challenges surrounding career learning of older workers, including the preparedness of current systems – both of higher education and of on-the-job training – to support career learning of older workers, as well as older workers’ buy-in to the notion of significant skill upgrades at a late stage of one’s professional life.