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Working and ageing
150 Guidance and counselling for mature learners

8.3. National and organisational needs

Nations continuously stress the need for a skilled workforce, which may or
may not exist, although labour force participation will fall. This perceived need
influences prioritisation in migration policies for people with specific skills and
qualifications, a strategy frequently employed prior to considerations of the
older workforce. However, migration is not sufficient to bolster populations or
skills requirements. When attention turns to the ageing worker, there are many
challenges to be identified and addressed at national, organisational and
individual levels. Dawe (2009, p. 7) reporting on the situation of older workers
in Australia, highlighted the challenges for older workers to reenter the
workforce. Especially if this is accompanied by lower literacy and numeracy
skills, lack of work experience, in lower socioeconomic, rural or remote areas,
these groups require intensive support.
This antipodean observation also applies to the European context where
most countries have 65 years as the official retirement age (Simonazzi, 2009,
p. 24) In the UK shifts in employment of older workers changed markedly over
the past 30 years, from the 1970s with decline of blue-collar work, to a decline
in other areas of work over the next two decades. Early retirement post-50
became more common. Ageism extended to access to training (Knight, 2006).
In 2006, the UK passed the employment equality (age) regulations providing
a default retirement age of 65, and employees can request to work beyond
that. Advice provided by the advisory conciliation and arbitration service,
funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, encourages
challenging stereotypes about older people and work, and emphasises using
human resources planning and career planning in all aspects, from recruitment
to training (ACAS, 2010).
Finland is described as taking an integrated comprehensive policy
approach to the ageing workforce with employment, pensions and learning
considered in policy development and in line with the European Commission
and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
(Taylor, 2002). The national programme on ageing workers was introduced in
the 1990s. Many pathways were available to retire early, such as
unemployment benefits, and unemployment, disability or early retirement
pensions (OECD, 2010a). More recently, the OECD (2010b, p. 3) took a less
optimistic view of Finland, recommending less generous support for the
unemployed and restricting early retirement schemes. Participation rates of
older workers are lower than in the other Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway
and Sweden) and the OECD recommends a multifaceted approach to address