CET Experience of and Outcomes for ‘Older’ Working Age Adults

As working populations age in many countries, issues associated with older workers’ employability and worklife learning arise for national economies, enterprises, communities, and these workers themselves. Understanding how best to assist these workers maintain their employability across extended working lives, and what workplaces, educational institutions and government agencies can do to sustain that employability, is now central to many countries’ national social and economic goals. This is a particularly germane issue to Singapore, the site of this case study driven publication. Whilst this nation state is largely dependent upon the skills of its workforce, the workforce is one that is ageing. Indeed, this nation state has the third highest age population. Yet, it is not alone here, and many others are considering how best to retain and continue to develop the employability of its older workers. So, there are imperatives when considering how best to promote older workers’ employability through education or training initiatives. Thus, the approaches to continuing education and training (CET) for these workers may need to go beyond those provided through existing tertiary education provisions. Those are often primarily established and have models associated with initial occupational preparation and position adult learners as students, rather than as collaborators in their own and others’ learning. So, it is necessary to identify and enact CET provisions that are suited to the needs of older workers and are supported by pedagogic practices appropriate to their needs as adults and mature age students. Drawing on data from a research project investigating CET provisions in Singapore, this chapter seeks to illuminate and appraise the experience of and kinds of CET that meets the needs of older students. It draws on interviews with 37 CET graduates aged 50 and above. Through understanding the goals, readiness, capacities, and circumstances of these older workers, and the qualities of an effective CET provision can be identified to meet their needs.