Employment and volunteering opportunities for older adults Thelma Kay ACHA , Kuching , Malaysia , October 2017

Population indicators

Why employability ? Increased longevity Inadequate financial security, especially low-income workers Low unemployment (2% in 2012), availability of job opportunities, tightened foreign labour inflow Low educational levels of current cohorts of older persons

Measures to enhance employability of older workers Enabling legal/regulatory/institutional framework -Re-employment Legislation 2012 . Re-employment rate raised from 65-67 -Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practice (TAFEP) Enhancing opportunities -Employers (grants, training programmes) -Work placement schemes -Technology/innovation in work environment - Age friendly workplace

Measures to enhance employability/productivity of older workers Employability capacity building (skills upgrading/work training/retraining -Singapore Workforce Development Agency(WDA)- Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) - Subsidy for skills upgrading/work training/retraining - Continuing Education and Training(CET) infrastructure - Professionals Conversion Programme - Career pathways/ladder

Senior Volunteerism Volunteerism promoted to mobilize seniors: -eliminate ageist attitudes, show that seniors can contribute -re-image types of engagement (as seniors more educated, healthier, financially secure especially “young old”) -benefit from the positive effects of volunteerism Under Singapore’s Action Plan for Successful Ageing: -Silver Volunteer Fund (target size Sin$40 million- from donations with government matching funds) to help community organizations better recruit and develop senior volunteers -NVPC encourage businesses to rally 10000 older employees to be involved in volunteerism -NVPC launched Giving.sg portal to help locate volunttering opportunities

Senior Volunteerism in Singapore Individual Giving Survey 2016 of National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre : Volunteerism rate has increased from 9% in 2000 to 35 per cent in 2016 51 % served informally ( without going through any organization) compared with 25 % in 2014 Most volunteers (64%) serve on an occasional basis

Senior Volunteerism in Singapore (cont’d) Volunteerism rate has increased across all demographic groups However, those over 55 years and above have the highest proportion of non-volunteers compared to other age groups Volunteers get involved together with friends (41%) and colleagues (29%) Highest proportion of volunteering is for human services (e.g befriending, mentoring) Increasing proportion volunteering for green efforts, animal care and arts/heritage activities

Volunteerism in Asia Thailand - village health volunteers , elderly care volunteers Indonesia - gotong royong Time banks - Japan, China etc. Volunteers pay forward HelpAge community-based old people’s associations (OPA), intergenerational self-help groups in Vietnam, Myanmar , Cambodia etc.

Conclusion In countries with labour shortage or with potential old age support challenges, there is scope for increasing the labour force partcipation of older adults Measures have to be taken to enable employability With increased life expectancy, there will also be scope for older adults to contribute to society and be a resource through volunteerism. This can be enhanced by efforts to recruit and retain volunteers

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