Ageless at Work - Skills for Care

Secondly, the project could test new approaches in promoting the benefits of lifelong learning to
older learners generally, and more specifically, perhaps, to those that have had a negative
experience of formal education. This could involve action learning approaches, mentoring and/or
the provision of information, advice and guidance in the workplace.
Thirdly, the research suggests that there is a need to embed learning within organizational
cultures and identify and fully utilize opportunities for informal learning, an important source of
skills development opportunities for older learners. Specifically there are opportunities to: further
develop ‘The Value of Learning: Creating a Learning Organisation’ resource (Skills for Care South
West, 2009) possibly by developing a training or mentoring programme to accompany the
guidebook; to learn from the experience of the Individual Budgets evaluation by offering care
workers informal, hands-on training and support through peer support groups rather than formal
training programmes. Examples of good practice include peer support groups, the identification of
champions and the establishment of a support team capable of responding to queries and offering
one-to-one support to care co-ordinators; and to establish mentoring and intergenerational
learning practices that draw upon and extend good practice identified by the Tick Tock project,
and its translational programme.
Finally, there is a need for further work in ensuring that formal learning opportunities are age
positive in their design and delivery. This could involve formally reviewing existing provision
within adult social care to establish whether courses are ‘age positive’ and to support training
providers in designing and delivering courses that are attractive to older learners, at different
levels of ability. The Tick Tock project also illustrated mainstream provision can be adjusted to
accommodate the needs of those with poor basic skills and there may be opportunities for further
develop this work by integrating Skills for Life provision into the programme. There may also be
opportunities to explore the potential to use on-line courses to support the skills development of
older learners.
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Ageless at Work: Change workplace cultures, development skills. Good practice report