The day of more opportunities for older workers

Today, April 6th 2011, the default retirement age of 65 is abolished and older workers can continue working for as long as they need provided their performance continues to be effective.

It is therefore more important than ever before that older workers, say anyone over the age of 50, grasp the opportunities for training, on-going learning and development to keep skills up-to-date and to learn new ones so as to take advantage of workplace opportunities. A spokes person from the CIPD has stated that older workers are the group most likely to deselect themselves for training opportunties for a variety of reasons and it is therefore important for employers to have "more targeted engagement, encouraging older workers to engage in these opportunities or providing training which is more adapted to older workers' needs".

Living longer is having a profound and increasing impact on the world as we know it. It is therefore important that as individuals, employees and employers, we take the opportunities, and help others, to be as economically and socially active for as long as possible simply because there doesn't seem to be much of an alternative!