Don’t grow old?

This week’s Horizon programme on BBC2, Don’t grow old investigated scientific research into ageing – and by so doing generated much food for thought.

Apparently great strides are now being made into finding out why we age, why some age faster than others, the causes of many age-related diseases, and what we can and perhaps should do on an individual basis to counteract the effects of age.

If those interviewed are to be believed it is only a matter of years before we can all access pills to help us live longer. Under such circumstances, living to 120 or more will be commonplace.

In light of how we now view age and its symptoms, in a society which currently views 60 as “old”, the implications of this are huge.  What quality of life can be guaranteed throughout these extra years in terms of health, wealth and happiness? Who will pay for such longevity? What will be the implications for family life and the rest of society at all sorts of levels?

If such research can help eradicate or restrict degenerative diseases such as arthritis and Alzheimer’s, then it will be achieving great things.  Ultimately our aim should surely be about improving the quality of the years we have and ensuring we have a quick and dignified end rather than enabling years of living longer simply because we can?

Already we demonstrate that as humans we are not always great at keeping pace with scientific and technological developments in the world in terms of attitudinal change and responsibility. Surely then our focus should be on counteracting the problems inherent in  the lives we already have, rather than creating a facility for enabling those problems to go on for far longer?

That aside, one has to hope that this research will have the same effects as the work that went into space travel. It wasn’t landing on the moon per se that was the most important achievement but all the beneficial scientific discoveries and inventions (many of which we now take for granted) that emerged along the way.

When do apprentices become too old to learn?

Apparently this week is Apprentice Week. It’s an initiative being run by the National Apprenticeship Service to highlight the value of Apprenticeships.

 A visit to their website http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/ makes interesting reading in that today, apparently, the words “young” and “apprentice” appear to have become synonymous. Yet the meaning of “apprentice” per se is only that of a learner of a craft who is bound to serve his teacher/employer for a period of time in return for their instruction. Age doesn’t come in to it.

As you will see from our last posting, we believe that age equality means equal opportunity for all regardless of age. Companies such as Centrica, B & Q and Sainsbury’s have extended the age range of their apprenticeship schemes to include older applicants, with the result that apprentices are now chosen from all ages – even those well into their fifties – resulting in measurable benefits for all concerned.

Businesses desperately need incentives to help them introduce and implement more age friendly policies. Extending the  new apprenticeship scheme (the Apprentice Grant for Employers – AGE ) which offers employers a £2,500 grant for each 16 or 17-year-old apprentice taken on would be a splendid way forward particularly in those areas and industries where there are jobs and/or skills shortages.  At the very least, reminding everyone involved to remove the preface “young” from “people” when talking about apprentices and apprenticeships would be a positive start.

NB:  Interestingly a 2009 report on Diversity in Apprenticeships which is listed on the National Apprenticeships Service site reviews gender, ethnicity and disability – but makes no mention of age.

Young, old …or optimum?

Last week we attended the launch by the EHRC (Equality and Human Rights Commission) of their new research report Working Better: the over 50’s – the new work generation.

At the launch, David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce dragged out the old chestnut about how keeping older people in work reduces  job opportunities for younger individuals. You can see from our earlier blog posts that for numerous reasons we consider this a fatuous argument.  First, dispensing with an older person does not mean that someone from the opposite end of the age scale will step into their shoes. Second, the model that sees that the removal of an older person means an upward move for all below them (and the creation of a new job at the lowest level) does not represent the complexity of the situation in reality. Third, it means that everyone is seen as interchangeable in terms of skills, experiences and suitability for the job.

A long list of other points could follow – all of which would demonstrate that the argument is about as meaningful as proposing to remove all women from the workplace to make room for men. It could be done – but there is no moral, rational or business reason to underpin why.

What we MUST do, for reasons of fairness and equality for all, is to remove age from the equation. In practice employers generally realise that they need a range of skills, abilities, experience, stability, mobility, fresh blood and old hands in order to add up to the optimum workforce mix. The cost of these elements will vary – it is for them to decide where the value lies. Linking employment policies to chronological age does nothing to help employers or employees, and has an enormous potential to be hugely damaging when bandied about by policy makers who have little to do with pragmatic decision making.

Abolish the over 50s

I’m going to start a new campaign. News that Plymouth City Council has opened a ‘ONE-STOP-SHOP’ which they hope will become a social hub for Plymouth’s over-50s once again caused a red mist to descend upon me, swiftly followed by a big dollop of absolute rage. So prepare yourselves for a bit of a rant…

Why does this artificial, meaningless and inappropriate division of society into the under 50s and the over 50s still persist? What is different today about being over 50 to being over 40 or over 30?  If the implication is that over 50 means “elderly” how long is it going to take before rational, intelligent people (i.e. those at the Council) catch up with the fact that these days, even “over 60” is unacceptable if you want to suggest that people are ageing.

The council proclaims that its new facility will act as a drop-in centre providing information on everything from health and housing to education and jobs. Okay. So why is this needed for the over 50s? If people in their 30s and 40s can sort things out by themselves, why do we need to be patronised and insulted by the assumption that we can’t?

Ageism and age discrimination is deeply ingrained in our society and prevents opportunities and progress at the level at which things really matter such as jobs. These worthy initiatives for the “over 50s” are hugely damaging through their reinforcement of the erroneous notion that ageing means mental and physical decline, lack of independence, and an inability to cope. If we are to have such schemes (which may have a role for the elderly) then for goodness sakes let’s keep abreast of change and imply that they’re for the over 70s at the very least.

See more at: http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/health/50s-stop-shop-opens/article-1727850-detail/article.html

As old as you feel

One of the key aspects of positive ageing is staying healthy. Steps we take now to improve our overall fitness and wellbeing will enable us to remain at work longer and to avoid many of the preventable ailments of later “old” age.

By and large we all know vaguely what sorts of things we ought to concentrate on and – especially at this time of year – generally try to do (or not do) some of the obvious things like eating less or eating better, and getting more exercise.

To really focus the mind, go to www.realage.co.uk  where you can complete a free questionnaire about how old you really are compared to your chronological age. At the end of the survey it gives you a list of recommendations of what to do or continue to do in order to avoid being older than your years. It’s based on an American site and to a degree needs taking with a pinch of salt, but as a first step to really thinking through all the things that add up to a healthy lifestyle at this age, it seems as good a place as any to start.

Meaningful mentoring

The value of older people as mentors and their understanding of the power of on-line social networking have both been amply demonstrated in the Yell and horsesmouth Mentoring Works Awards. The three awards for business mentoring, which were drawn from user nominations on the online mentoring website horsesmouth.co.uk, were all won by individuals over the age of 50.

The winner of the £1000 Mentor of The Year Award is 64-year old Keith Williams from Ackworth in Yorkshire, a SFEDI (Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative) accredited professional, who advises small businesses and social enterprises. Having created and developed many successful businesses in the last 20 years, Keith feels he has made plenty of mistakes and learned from them and believes that today he can pass on this learning to young entrepreneurs on the way up. 

Winner of The £500 Editor’s Prize, for the most inspiring story published on horsesmouth.co.uk, is 51-year old Jayne Bellis from Chester. The £500 M-Factor Award – for the most active business mentor with the highest rating on the site, goes to 52-year old Michael Birchmore from Portsmouth.

horsesmouth.co.uk is the world’s first ‘pro-social’ networking site and was purpose-built in 2008 for online mentoring on a wide range of topics including education, careers, health, families and relationships. It is free and available to anyone over the age of 16, with the majority of the site’s users being under 25. The site is professionally hosted, managed and moderated and all profiles, stories and weblinks are approved before posting.

Much is talked about in the workplace concerning the potential role of older workers as mentors. This is proof, if any was needed, that the wisdom of age and experience is welcomed by the young if presented in a relevant, individualised and meaningful way. Employers would do well to consider what they might learn from this model.

Good news and bad judgement

Hooray! Harriet Harman has announced that moves to end “default” retirement at 65 are being brought forward, with older workers also getting the right to request flexible retirement/working options (not that this means they will automatically get them). No doubt there are many dark and devious economic and political forces at work behind this but no matter – the outcome is just as welcome.

Two interesting points stood out from Ms Harman’s speech: the first referring to the role of older women, many of whom are just getting into their prime in their working life – having taken time off work when their children were young. This is a point which is largely ignored in talking about later life working where male work patterns are generally used as the standard. Much more attention needs to be paid to gender differences in work attitudes and abilities in later life if erroneous assumptions are not to be made by employers about what older workers want and are able and prepared to do.

The second point was Ms Harman’s use of the term the “wellderly” to describe well, older people. By doing so she has shot herself in the foot and demonstrated she has completely missed the point – which is that older working people are NOT elderly. Let’s hope this dreadful term is relegated to the government’s “thought it was a good idea at the time but let’s pretend it never happened” pile, immediately.

Keeping up with change

Last week we were pleased to be able to take part in Peter Day’s In Business programme on BBC Radio 4 which was looking at the ageing marketplace.  The programme was eclectic, wide-ranging and extremely interesting. Its main focus being on a number of new developments – in the UK, US and internationally – which are being created to meet the changing needs of our increasingly long-lived population.

Personal robots and individual monitoring systems,  when finally refined and brought  to market, have the potential to revolutionise later life care of the elderly, enabling many to stay in their own homes rather than having to be institutionalised. Advances in medical science will also enable better self-management of increasingly prevalent diseases such as diabetes.

On the basis of these developments alone (and there must be thousands more) the future is exciting.  But underneath it all, we need to take on board a couple of salient points. Such advances will need paying for and, as with any new product, won’t at first be cheap. This means that people themselves need to factor the cost of such items as home monitoring systems into their later life financial planning – it is unlikely the cost will be able to be met by the state. So choices will have to be made, another round-the-world trip or saving the money for later life care?

Second, and perhaps the key message, is that these developments are taking place and will become real whether we like it or not. As we have seen in the past few decades, the march of technology is fast and unrelenting.  What is lagging behind, as ever, is our ability as humans to change our thinking and attitudes fast enough to keep pace and fully realise and appreciate the implications – positive and negative. If only someone could invent a machine to enable us all to do that… that really would be a breakthrough.

If you would like to listen to the programme or find out more about the technological and medical advances discussed click on here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pl1h3