Introduction

Addressing new challenges for training and education in the workplace has become a significant area of attention. Extending working life is now a major theme of public policy across Western Europe and the United States (Vickerstaff, 2010). The over-50s are being targeted as ‘the new work generation’ (OECD, 2006; EHRC, 2010) in response to demographic and economic pressures – labour force projections indicating that by 2021 around 32% of the working-age population will be aged 50 and over. The forces driving this attention to older workers are relatively easy to sketch; more complex will be developing satisfactory responses to supporting training and learning across the different types of employment emerging in post-industrial economies.

This focus on older workers is the result of a number of recent measures aimed at addressing the challenges posed by societies with ageing populations. First, and almost certainly foremost, is the expected raising of state pension age (SPA) to 66 for men and women by 2020, this posing the challenge of improving the supply of suitable jobs while ensuring effective career development for all grades of workers (TAEN, 2011). Second, is the phasing out of the Default Retirement Age, which will remove the right of employers to retire people on grounds of reaching a particular age (currently 65). Third, is the move from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pensions, which has put pressure on some older workers to delayed retirement (Phillipson, 2009). In addition, the desirability of early retirement is being increasingly challenged, with the social and personal costs of leaving work ahead of SPA emphasised in documents such as Winning the generation game (PIU, 2000) and Opportunity age (DWP, 2005).

The policy of extending working lives has been a significant outcome of the debate concerning the economic sustainability of ageing populations, and reflects in large measure these concerns. In essence, the discussion has shifted from focusing on early retirement/early exit to identifying pathways into work or maintaining older people in employment, with particular encouragement given to work beyond SPA. The aim is to reverse the trend – characteristic of the 1980s and 1990s – whereby large numbers of older workers left work ahead of SPA, and where early retirement came to be accepted as a normal event in the life-course (Marshall et al, 2001).