Spring to Equalities Learning and Ageing Jane Watts Spring to Equalities - Webinar - April 2016

Your questions? What are your questions about learning and ageing?

Discussion when are you ‘older’? what does ‘retirement’ mean to you? do you provide learning for older people?

myths assumptions dilemmas Starting points?

Demography Understanding the demographic changes and what they mean for later life learning Less younger people - more older people In the UK, one person in three is over 50 and the number is rising By 2022, the number of people in the workforce aged 50 to state pension age will have risen to 13.8 million // What does older age mean, if anything?

staying in work

Learning to stay in work Retain Retrain Recruit (Ros Altmann. Now Pensions Minister.) Mid-life career review pilot project Mid-life career reviews - workshops and careers advice - unionlearn and NCS

new skills?

Mid-life working We can try to: A) Stay in our current work for longer B) Find a new job using our current skills - perhaps less hours or less stressful C) Learn new skills / find a new job using them D) Turn our leisure activities into paid work

later life working

new skills new job / mid-life learning

new skills / job?

Learning to prepare for later life Pre-retirement learning - availability? What else? Who pays?

It’s never too late? Well-being or for teaching others?

paid or unpaid?

The benefits of learning for older people - 1 Older people’s learning benefits individuals and the wider society in ten overlapping ways – by improving:  self-confidence and independence  the individual’s contribution to society – through paid and unpaid activity  the management of life transitions like retirement, illness, bereavement and death  the use of digital technologies

The benefits of learning for older people - 2 the quality of care, where older people are both as recipients and givers of care, to young and old individual health individual financial security and independence the sharing of knowledge, skills and culture across society and between generations basic skills to cope with an increasingly complex world

Learning in the fourth age Learning in care settings - including homes Health and well-being as a driver of learning Other reasons for learning

paid or unpaid?

Later life learning - key transitions 3 key transitions in relation to later life and learning 1. A mid-life transition - might only apply to some people 2. ‘Retirement’ from paid work (or not) / Phase of income coming from sources other than mostly through paid work 3. Arriving at the point of much older age - e.g. while experiencing less independence or needing care.

work or leisure?

Life course stories look at the life course what do education/learning have to offer? what do you have to offer?

new skills

work or ‘leisure’?

A strategy 3 aims for public policy to ensure:  that all of us in later life have access to opportunities to learn the things we want and need to learn, through programmes of education and training which we choose to take part in  that lifelong learning supports broader public policy for older people, where the learning is a tool to achieve purposes like improved health, financial independence, or reduced loneliness  that our learning needs in later life are not accidentally blocked by policy decisions in other fields (Most of the damaging changes in education for older people in recent years have been accidental, caused by the impact of policy in other areas) (Better Future for us all)

Funding questions What are the key issues?

City Lit strategy Challenges Juggling funding and fees 24+ loans impacting on curriculum decisions

City Lit strategy Next steps for City Lit: Act to influence the area review process: Recognising the value of lifelong learning Understanding the socioeconomic benefits of catering for older learners Pursuing the wellbeing agenda Retraining and retaining older workers through access to more immediate skills Engaging political support through the APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) with WEA and the other SDIs (Specially Designated Institutions) Reshaping the curriculum

‘traditional’ later life learning?

31 What can we do? NOLG: Establish learning as a human right for all including older people Build local partnerships Use public funding effectively and strategically 31

32 Your own strategy Increase understanding of who your older learners are Establish the choices learners are making and the benefits they are gaining Optimise your offer to existing and potential older learners Learning - inclusive... - / Learning - because... 32

33 More information Age Action Alliance Learning and Work Institute Association for Education and Ageing British Society for Gerontology UK Men’s Sheds Association National Federation of Women’s Institutes Workers Educational Association U3A / Third Age Trust L4A (Learning in the Fourth Age) City Lit 33

Reference: National Older Learners Group (NIACE) / Stephen McNair/Jane Watts (2015): A Better Future for us All. sources/A_Better_Future_For_Us_All.pdf Picture credits: - Learning and Work Institute (formerly NIACE) / Adult Learners Week

35 Jane Watts Contact 22