Alison Fuller and Lorna Unwin. 
There are now 1.3 million fewer adults (aged 19 and over) in further education in England than five years ago. Research evidence also shows that employers have been cutting back on off-the-job training since the mid-1990s. The average amount of training each worker receives reduced by about 50% between 1997 and 2012. Yet, the population is ageing and more people will need to stay in paid work for longer. The rapid development of digital technologies and other changes in the workplace mean that older employees (across all sectors) will need access to training to update their skills and to retrain. Pensions Minister, Ros Altmann has called for employers to focus on the ‘3 Rs’ of Retain, Retrain and Recruit to help businesses be more open to older workers.
So if you’re 40 or 50 and want to update your skills or retrain to find work or a better job, what can you do?
For the current government, affirmed most recently in the Chancellor’s Comprehensive Spending Review (25 November 2015), the challenge of (more…)