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CHAPTER 9
Changing patterns of guidance, learning and careers of older workers in Europe 171

their continuing learning and development. That most of these older workers
are thriving and meeting new challenges can be seen from their answers in
Table 9.3; their skills are mostly either in alignment with current duties or such
that they could cope with more demanding duties. Most older workers drew
extensively upon their past work experience in performing their current work
(Table 9.4). Formal qualifications were also seen as important (Table 9.5) and
for many people learning from past work experience would seem to
complement learning represented in formal qualifications.
This largely optimistic picture of (mainly skilled) older workers positively
engaged in challenging work, substantive learning and development and
interacting with a range of others in support of their own and othersʼ learning
and development is a timely response to those who overgeneralise the
problems older workers face. Those older workers considering a career
change were almost equally divided on whether or not they were likely to face
difficulties in making a change (36 were likely to face difficulties, 34 were not).
Most of the barriers (limited opportunities with employer or sector; financial
issues; and caring commitments) were the same for younger groups, except
for being ʻtoo oldʼ, which was mentioned as a possible barrier by 11 of the
older workers considering a career change.

Table 9.1. Age ranges of older workers in the sample by country
(expressed as percentage of total sample)

Age Nationality of respondents
(years) FR DE IT NL NO PL PT RO TR UK Other Total
46-50 5.1 7.1 6.8 2.7 8.1 2.7 4.1 4.1 1.7 4.1 3.4 49.7
51-55 2.0 2.7 4.4 2.4 1.4 3.7 4.7 4.7 0.3 5.4 1.4 33.1
56-60 2.7 1.0 1.4 1.0 0.3 1.0 0.3 1.4 0.3 4.1 0.3 13.8
61-65 0.3 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.7 2.3
over 65 0.0 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.7 0 1.0
Percentage
of sample 10.1 11.5 12.5 6.1 9.8 7.4 9.1 10.1 2.4 15.2 5.7 100
by country
N 30 34 37 18 29 22 27 30 7 45 17 296

Source: Authors.