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Working and ageing
106 Guidance and counselling for mature learners

younger workers. A model for guiding the research and some preliminary
research questions are presented at the end of the chapter.

6.1. Introduction

According to numerous studies published by policy research centres in the
EU and other developed countries, the pool of available workers is diminishing
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at an alarming rate due to retirement and an ageing population ( ). For
example, in a report published by the Dutch Ministry of Interior and Kingdom
Relations, predictions were showing that in 2020 there will be gaps of 30% or
more in the employment pool for teachers and policemen, and even higher
gaps for nurses (BZK, 2010). The same report states that due to combined
budget cuts and a shrinking labour pool, an estimated seven out of 10 current
public servants will no longer be in service by 2020. Similar projections have
been made for other fields, especially those where highly-educated knowledge
workers are employed. Government policy-makers are aware of this problem
and have started taking measures to combat it. However, government
interventions such as increasing retirement age, giving tax incentives for
workers who remain in service, and other measures that attempt to stymie
(early) labour force exits, are not expected to be powerful enough to
compensate for the demographics of an ageing society. This could be a
realistic expectation, considering the years of effort most EU countries have
put into developing incentives, that have proven rather efficacious, for workers
to exit the labour force early (Borsch-Supan, 2000). Now, current workers
need to be convinced to remain in the labour force longer than the previous
generation. But why would they? Will threats of reduced pensions or the
possibility of higher wages due to labour shortages be stimuli enough to keep
older workers in the labour force?
If government measures that delay labour force exit prove to be at all
effective, or if other factors such as threats to pension or higher wages are
strong enough to keep people working longer, then work organisations will be
faced with an ageing staff. Consequently, organisations will be forced to
understand how older workers can be utilised efficiently and take appropriate
measures if they are to remain competitive. A scenario where organisations
need to keep their existing workers for a longer period is especially believable

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( ) Bureau Bartels (2010); European Commission (2007; 2009); Stam (2009).