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Working and ageing
288 Guidance and counselling for mature learners

workers and recognition of diversity among the heterogeneous group of older
adults are also crucial. Delivery mechanisms should consider individual work
and learning goals and preferences and in a holistic perspective to age
management combine appropriate tools to support active ageing and
encourage effective learning and working. They should provide clients with
reliable information to empower their decisions on when and how to retire.
This requires tailoring services to the aspirations of older adults and timing
actions and interventions in the right way.
In terms of action priorities, more individualised information, advice and
guidance for older workers, supporting a good work-life balance and
strengthening the role of employers to keep people at work longer were
emphasised in several chapters. All these aspects have an impact on the
content of guidance and counselling. Accompanying investments in skills need
to be relevant within the confines of a single job, but also in the broader context
of personal and career goals, which emphasises their strong links with career
management. It should strike the right balance between investment in specific
skills and knowledge and key competences improving individual employability.
Further it should make use of the increasingly implemented recognition and
validation schemes that give value to skills which may have been acquired in
non-formal ways. This will increase options for the individual and help to avoid
underutilisation of skills.
Guidance service providers are increasingly expected to be specialists in
all relevant areas of working later in life and to be able to provide services that
support the transition to retirement. This requires more specialised
professional training and better opportunities for continuing professional
development for guidance counsellors who work with older adults.

Encouraging support from all sides
Several chapters address the necessity of creating favourable conditions and
incentives that encourage older workers to stay in employment rather than to
make an early exit from the labour market. They also identify what prevents
older people from staying longer in employment: a complex and intertwined
set of barriers linked to context and practice such as low demand from
employers, scarce opportunities for upskilling, insufficient reintegration and
retraining provision after redundancy, difficulties in accessing information,
advice and guidance services, and persistent stereotypes.
The available evidence suggests that sustainable results can be achieved
when the overall context is sympathetic to ageing. Age management is not
just a matter for employers and employees: it has to be embraced by all key