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Working and ageing
192 Guidance and counselling for mature learners

Nor will chronological age serve as a standardised benchmark for studies.
As with all aspects of ageing, people will have different perspectives built
through a whole range of experiences from the highly personal (such as life-
spans of parents, siblings and friends) to views in common currency in the
media and social settings. More research is needed to fill existing gaps, which
include: age-group (many studies of future time perspective are with much
younger or much older age cohorts than the 50-70 year age range that covers
the period up to and after conventional retirement age, when most people
disengage from the workforce); gender, allowing for different family and career
paths of adult men and women; how careers advisers specifically can best
frame these issues to address them in their work with their clients.
Addressing these issues in work with clients raises ethical questions about
the role of the careers adviser. Clients may have beliefs about the time and
opportunities likely to be available to them. Is it ethically right for the careers
adviser to understand and support within the limitations of such personal
beliefs (even when they are at odds with objective information), or should the
careers adviser challenge and seek to change personal beliefs? The latter
action may accord with policy pressures in many countries where
demographic changes are leading to a move towards longer working lives.

10.2.2. Respect for experience
Experience featured more strongly in respondentsʼ stories than formal
qualification, reflecting McNairʼs comment that ʻformal qualifications, which
are often used as a proxy for skill, provide a very approximate measure of the
skills required for any given jobʼ (McNair, 2010, p. 19). Those with limited
formal learning were well aware that they had learned, even if this was not
appreciated by potential employers. Doreen, without any formal qualifications,
commented ʻI must have learnt because I knew how to do thingsʼ. Anne (age
52, an unemployed administrator) commented on the wealth of information ʻin
my head and in my lifeʼ.
Values too become clearer, and are more clearly articulated, with age: ʻyou
know more about yourself when you are older. When you are younger you
have an instinct for what you like and could do. As you get older youʼre more
willing to say to yourself, ʻI really donʼt want […]ʼ (Molly, participant in Barhamʼs
[2008] study). Anne shares this view, commenting that as people get older
they become more adaptable, based on experiencing and having coped with
pressures, but that they are also more inclined to stick to their values: ʻmy
ideals havenʼt changed since I was a teenager.ʼ Colin (age 59, employed as
a team leader in manufacturing) demonstrated both flexibility and a strong