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Working and ageing
264 Guidance and counselling for mature learners

(c) finally, net migration has, historically, been negative with more people
leaving than moving to Scotland to live. Only in the past six years has this
been positive, but Scotland is now competing for workers within an
emerging Europe and will continue to face challenges in attracting skilled
workers in the future.
The net result of these factors is that Scotlandʼs population, and workforce,
is ageing. The average age of individuals living and working in Scotland today
is 40.5 years and projected to increase steadily over the next 20 years
(General Register Office for Scotland, 2009).
Public policy in Scotland suggests that individuals will have to work longer
and later in life due to increasing pressures on pension funds and other public
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services. But here lies the paradox. The government ( ) plans to raise pension
ages for women from 60 to 65 by 2018, then for both men and women to 66
by 2020; while, many, predominantly public sector organisations, have
adopted strategies such as early voluntary retirement or redundancy schemes
which actively target older workers. Moreover, the default retirement age
currently in place allows organisations to force individuals out of employment
at 65, although this is due to be abolished by the newly-elected coalition
government from October 2011.
Strategic decision-making processes within organisations impact on the
workforce, with older workers often being adversely affected. For example,
the inconsistency and considerable flux in early retirement, retirement and
pension provision are ubiquitous (Vickerstaff et al., 2003, p. 273). Many private
sector organisations have long since closed the door on final salary pensions
with public sector organisations scrambling for ways to manage ever
increasing pension costs. A common solution of reducing the number of older
workers is often taken.
A further area of disparity between older and younger workers is access to
learning and development. Participation rates decline with age (Schuller and
Watson, 2009) and almost all talent management programmes offered by
organisations target younger staff (Hirsch, 2005).
As with most European countries, Scotlandʼs demographic profile continues
to change significantly and, already in some rural areas, one in three adults
of working age are aged 50 and over. The ageing workforce phenomenon will
most likely continue in the future, with fewer younger workers and an
increasing number of older ones. This challenge requires a major shift in the

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( ) While Scotland has certain devolved powers, pensions and retirement fall under the jurisdiction of
the UK government, which impacts all countries within the UK.