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Working and ageing
168 Guidance and counselling for mature learners

becoming blurred by the notion of semi-retirement as a way of easing the
transition from work to full retirement, with employees moving into self-
employment, taking short-term contracts, reducing their working hours or
moving away from their previous main line of work (Humphrey et al., 2003).
Also, after retirement age many people are engaged in civic and social
activities, such as caring and volunteering (McMunn et al., 2009). So, with
changing expectations of how long people will work, there are challenges of
supporting the continuing education and development of older workers, as
workers may need to maintain a set of work-related competences and manage
effective work transitions for much longer than has been customary in the past.
Personal agency is an important driver of individual work and learning
trajectories, and there is an increased role for reflection and reflexivity as
individuals shape their work trajectories. Individuals seek a degree of personal
autonomy in how their careers develop (and the meaning attached to career)
but, in parallel, they also seek opportunities to exchange experiences with
peers, colleagues and guidance practitioners. There is an urgent need to
support individuals in navigating their way through increasingly complex work
and life contexts and, in particular, helping individuals become more reflective
at individual level through provision of career guidance and counselling as a
key component of a lifelong learning strategy; and introducing reflective
strategies in organisations (in support of both individual empowerment and
organisational development). Even within generally successful careers,
anxieties were expressed about the risks connected to overall dynamics and
change associated with career development and with organisational changes
and structural constraints – people recognised that navigating a career path
could be fraught with difficulties.
Personal agency (proactivity and responding to opportunities) is important but
there is also value in helping individuals develop a coherent career narrative:
where they have been; where they are; and where they are going. Many
individuals are actively shaping their personal work biographies (but they also
value help to do this) and older respondents were engaged in active career
development in their 40s and 50s. However, a few had decided that they were
not going to engage any further in substantive learning and development, above
what was required to work effectively in their current job. This attitude was
sometimes linked with a lack of reflexivity of individuals to think about their own
skills, a reluctance to think in terms of skill sets – rather there was a tendency to
rely upon an attachment to an occupational/organisational identity that may be
vulnerable to change. In this context, coupled with the demographic shift towards
an ageing workforce, there could be real cost-benefit advantages in offering mid-