Expectations for learning don't add up - Griffith University

Winter 2008 PAGE 7
Sustaining older workers’ competence
A Griffith University research project will identify
practices for workplaces and educational institutions
to sustain and develop the skills of Australia’s growing
number of older workers. Griffith Institute for Educational
Research member and program leader, Professor
Stephen Billett says maintaining the effective working life
of older Australian workers is essential for sustaining the
economic and social health of the nation. “It’s important
for older people’s sense of workplace efficacy and sense
of self as productive members of the community,’’ he
said.
In most advanced industrial economies, if you are
working and over 45 years of age, you are classified
as an ‘older worker’. Yet, for many older workers,
this categorisation brings a range of ambiguities and
contradictions.
In countries like Australia, the realisation of key social
and economic goals is becoming increasingly dependent
upon an older workforce. This is because older workers
comprise a growing percentage of the nation’s workforce.
There is a decline in the number of workers entering the
workforce, and people are electing or will have to work
longer. The reality is that to sustain the quality and extent
of the nation’s goods and services, the competence
of these older workers will need to be maintained and
sustained, for longer. Like other categories of workers,
these workers also need to maintain that competence
in face of constant changes to work and ways of
working. Yet, in the provision of opportunities for further
development and advancement employers tend to
overlook older workers. The preference is for supporting
and promoting younger and well-qualified workers.
This preference may well continue as younger workers
increasingly become a scarce commodity.
Working with colleagues from the University of Stirling,
this International Linkage project seeks to identify ways
to sustain older workers’ occupational competence
through a program of collaborative research in Australia
and Britain. Both countries have unresolved concerns
about maintaining the effectiveness of older workers
and developing their capacities to manage their
transitions to new work, ways of working and current
work requirements. The project aims to: (i) inform
policy and practice for both countries’ workplaces
and education institutions to effectively maintain older
workers’ capacities and managing work transitions; (ii)
identify appropriate learning strategies and curriculum
practices for these purposes in both workplaces and
educational institutions; (iii) identify, evaluate and share
instances of good practice in workplaces and educational
programmes; and (iv) develop effective institutional
responses to this shared problem. To realise these aims,
older workers’ competence in each country, two industry
sectors will be investigated in Australia compatible with
the British counterpart program. Within each industry
sector, there will be 30 interviews and five focus groups
with older workers to identify key factors shaping the
prospects for older workers’ continuing workplace
competence. These factors will be elaborated through
up to six case studies. Then, a survey will be undertaken
across a wider cohort of older workers to verify the
plausibility of what has been identified in these earlier
activities.