Over the last 50 years rapid technological, industrial and economic change has transformed the style and nature of work in Australia.
The demand for skills is expanding from a relatively narrow range of technical and job related competencies to include a far broader range of generic and transferable skills.
Today, all Australians, not just the young, need to develop and maintain skills which can be applied in a constantly changing workplace.
Older Australians face particular challenges in maintaining their marketability in the labour force as they age. Those aged 45 years and older are more likely to have lower levels of formal education and training than younger Australians. Many have finished schooling, but at a time when university and other further education was neither desired nor expected by, or even accessible to, all Australians. Others have a high but narrow skills base or possess skills that have become obsolete in a rapidly changing economic environment.
With these issues in mind, the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training commissioned a report on issues and good practices in the education and training of people over 45, many of whom experience difficulties in developing skills necessary to participate in the labour market.
The report, Securing Success, describes some of the conditions that can help mature aged Australians achieve success in education and training.
This brochure highlights some of the characteristics of these learners, the barriers they face and the good practices in Australia’s Adult and Community Education (ACE) sector in achieving successful outcomes for them.
The brochure is designed to assist education and training providers, or anyone working with older learners, by promoting the use of five key features of good practice: creating a safe, non-threatening environment; negotiating the processes of learning; motivating learners; adopting a learner-focused approach; and organisational innovation and outcomes.
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No two older Australians are alike in their educational or professional experience. But many confront a list of challenges in remaining competitive in today’s labour market.
Changing skill needs
Today’s 45 year old employee is likely to have finished his or her upper secondary schooling in about 1975. Since that time, the demand for higher level skills has accelerated. In 1975, about 1.9% of Australians participated in university study. In 2002, participation was nearly double at 3.5%.
Since 1975, Australia has experienced a dynamic shift in its business and work environment. The contribution to GDP of Australia’s goods-producing industries, such as manufacturing, construction and farming, has fallen by approximately 7 percentage points, whilst the contribution of the service industries, such as finance, insurance and business services, has risen by almost 8 percentage points.
It is not surprising that some older Australians have found a need to update their skills, and without this would fall behind in keeping up with the latest skills in demand.
Educational achievement
Older workers tend to have lower levels of educational achievement. In 2001, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data indicated that approximately 53% of people aged 45 to 64 completed year 12, compared to 66% of those aged 25 to 44. Those who did not complete year 12 had higher rates of unemployment than those who did complete year 12, and the association of low educational attainment with joblessness is stronger in the case of women.
Long term unemployed
ABS statistics estimate that the current unemployment rate of people aged 45 and over is approximately 4%. Whilst this may appear low, the rate of long-term unemployment is significantly higher than that of the general population. In 2002, workers aged 45 and over experienced an average of 105.2 weeks unemployment compared with 44.3 weeks for those aged under 45, which is 2.4 times the under 45 duration of unemployment.
Aside from the economic consequences of long-term unemployment, it can often contribute to low self-esteem and poor health.
Retired but returning to work
Some older workers who opt for retirement find that superannuation or redundancy payments are insufficient for a comfortable retirement.
Others choose to retire but find that they would like to return to the workforce in order to have a busier lifestyle.
Older workers in rural areas
Older workers in rural areas face a different set of challenges. Regional industry down turn has caused significant problems for older workers accessing new work opportunities.
For those unable to depend on a farming income, basic skills in new areas may enable individuals to access whatever employment opportunities might be available in their district.
| A difficult and frightening prospect for farmers with numeracy or literacy problems was a requirement to gain appropriate certification for the use of farm chemicals. The thought of having to pass a test was a highly daunting prospect for them. |
Older more skilled workers
Some skilled workers find they need to broaden the range of skills they possess. A farmer, for instance, may need training for modern business management tools and accounting packages that underpin successful farm management today.
Other skilled workers find challenges when they move beyond the ‘hands on’ part of their business into a managerial role. For instance, an electrical engineer whose training had been all ‘hands on’ may not be able to run his own business or take on new staff without up-to-date business management skills.
Many women are having to turn to education and training later in life. For instance, women who are widowed will often turn to education and training to learn how to perform tasks previously performed by partners or husbands.
Mothers or carers who have spent extended periods looking after family often find the need for re-skilling before regaining employment. Although they have developed a sound range of budgeting, prioritising, organisational and administration skills in the daily running of a household, many employers do not recognise how these skills can be transferred to the workplace.
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The Securing Success report found that many older learners are uncomfortable about returning to education and training, particularly those who have negative prior experiences of schooling or low self-esteem and confidence issues as a result of long-term unemployment.
Further discomfort often arises from older learners having had little or no interaction with new technology.
| Many of the older learners held quite deep seated beliefs that computers were expensive pieces of equipment that would easily break if used incorrectly. |
Older learners with low levels of literacy or numeracy are often anxious about returning to further education or training based on negative prior learning experiences and their fear of being left behind in class.
Many find the prospect of formal assessment, such as exams or essays, a frightening experience. They often need additional support and encouragement to overcome feelings of anxiety.
Finally, older learners who have suffered unemployment, or spent long periods of time unsuccessfully looking for new jobs, may develop doubts about their own abilities. These doubts can extend to their own perception of their capacity to learn new skills. Thus, for many students, confidence, self-belief and other motivational qualities are major factors affecting their ability to undertake further education and training, and to re-enter the workforce.
Australia has a sophisticated and successful adult and community education (ACE) sector.
One of the key characteristics of ACE is its ability to provide a learning environment that is flexible, accessible, inclusive, supportive and responsive to individual community goals and disparate needs.
ACE specialises in developing confidence, skills and motivation in its learners. For this reason, ACE suits many older learners, particularly those who may be fearful or reluctant to learn new skills.
For many older Australians, ACE represents an important stepping stone between unemployment and employment, or one career and the next.
| One of the major strengths of ACE rests with its focus on social cohesiveness, where people can be involved as students, tutors, guides or volunteers. In this respect, ACE is testimony to its own name. |
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The Securing Success report shows that many older Australians learn best in an informal, supportive and flexible learning environment.
The report suggests that informal or non-vocational study can assist older learners to gain the necessary confidence to transition to more formal vocationally-oriented learning. This engagement also provides a bridge towards active participation in the broader community and the work force.
Older learners preferred an educational experience in an environment considered safe and non-threatening. They also preferred, where possible, to negotiate the content, format and timing of their learning.
Social cohesion within the group, positive encouragement and feedback, and a focus on learner interests were features which encouraged and motivated older learners. A learner-focused approach, catering for the diverse needs, abilities and attitudes of the individual was also an important factor towards initial and continuing engagement of older learners.
Organisations that could offer flexibility and courses geared to specific needs did much to engage and retain older learners.
The factors which were most typical of successful adult learning can be grouped under five main headings.
- Creating a Safe, Non-Threatening Environment
Encompassing the physical, emotional and educational well-being of the learner
- Negotiating the Processes of Learning
Negotiating learning processes that motivate, engage and sustain the learner
- Motivating Learners
Through positive encouragement and feedback, as well as creating a safe learning environment and negotiating the processes of learning
- A Learner-Focused Approach
Accounting for diverse learning needs, abilities and attitudes towards assessment
- Organisational Innovation and Outcomes
That foster organisational flexibility and innovation such as small and specialised classes geared to the requests of the learners, local community organisations, employers and industry
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Creating a Safe, Non-Threatening Environment
Creating a safe learning environment means more than feeling comfortable in the classroom.
A safe learning environment includes setting the learner’s mind at ease in the initial welcome to a new student, support for a fearful older learner from the outset, or a friendly chat to find out about a student’s education and life experience.
When anxious, a student’s unnoticed attempt to participate in a classroom may heighten concern about not fitting in. It may exacerbate any feelings of fear, discouraging the older learner from asking questions, or seeking assistance. It increases the chance of giving up.
Some of the more successful ACE providers treat each person as an individual who is important and valued. Each learner feels as though he or she has some ownership of the learning environment or are part of a ‘family’ that uses it. Some providers even offer membership of the education centre to build a sense of ownership and commitment.
Some providers go so far as to provide reception areas which are welcoming, and homey—comfortable chairs, a kitchen table and access to self-service tea and coffee. While sounding somewhat staged, this in fact makes a great difference to people’s sentiment of well-being. Being comfortable physically, as well as mentally, is an important issue for this age group.
Essential too, is an emotional environment that builds trust. A welcoming cup of tea, a chat around the table before or after the class, the use of first names and the opportunity to converse informally outside of classes may assist in people’s willingness to give formal education a go.
All these strategies build on the concept of an emotional environment that is conducive to participation and success.
A comfortable environment also assists teachers and trainers to assess skills and to guide a new learner through their learning processes.
A number of teachers talked about ‘hidden’ assessments over a cup of tea, or by checking on skill levels through the filling in of enrolment forms, or even by asking new participants to show the map they used to find their way. Such informal assessments can still be rigorous and valid.
Positive feedback in the classroom encourages older learners to ask what they fear might be an overly simple or ridiculous question, or to ask the same one over and over again. As one learner explained, ‘I asked how many times I was able to ask the same question, and was told "as many as it takes" so that made me feel good’.
| ‘Testing’, ‘assessment’, ‘examinations’ and ‘evaluations’ are all words that constitute opportunity for failure and feed into the powerlessness felt by a displaced or unemployed person. Hence, good practice in creating a safe environment will try to sidestep the use of such terms and rarely present them directly to the learners |
Anecdotes are the mainstay of successful adult education. Teachers and trainers embellish learning through reference to their own experience and relating it to examples offered by the students.
This does much to remind students that the teacher or trainer was also once at their level.
These aspects—the physical attributes of the learning centre, the informality and warmth of the learning environment, and the facility of the teacher in building group and individual motivation to learn—help create a sense of safety for the older learner.
In Tamworth, NSW, a provider had plans for a new premises designed by an architect.
The provider insisted that the new establishment maintain a ‘country cottage’ feel that the students had come to admire about the original weatherboard house. This was appreciated by students who insisted that the warm, friendly, and casual environment for learning did much to offset any feelings of negativity or apprehension. |
At a Community Centre in Aldinga, SA, the opportunity for the learner to talk to their new tutor over a cup of tea, around an old laminex kitchen table, did much to offset fear and anxiety about ‘returning to school’.
Not only did it welcome new students from the outset, it also helped tutors to understand the individual student and their particular learning needs. They could then tailor a course to suit those needs.
In Salisbury, SA, the reception area is called ‘the welcome desk’, with someone always on hand to ensure that the area lives up to its name.
This friendly support extends beyond the completion of a course at a provider in Brisbane—‘We don’t want to give the idea that they finish their 60 hours and goodbye… we want them to keep in touch’. |
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Negotiating the Processes of Learning
Successful ACE providers negotiate the learning process with students.
Negotiated learning involves giving learners the opportunity to set their own pace and to decide how far they will take their initial learning steps.
They are able to suggest how much they think they can cope with at the beginning of their learning process, and to decide if they will repeat a unit or course in order to feel more comfortable about what they have learnt.
Some may feel comfortable with classes open only to older learners. Others may prefer learning in inter-generational groups, or learning with partners, other family members, or people within their own cultural group.
Learners are encouraged to take responsibility for the limits placed on their learning. Negotiating parameters, teachers and trainers can tailor their classes to fit in with what they discover about the learners' past experiences or skills.
Some trainers like to ask students to develop their own set of guidelines at the beginning of a course for the way in which the classroom will function. This strategy appears especially useful for learners with disabilities. One group spoke of a sense of ownership in their learning because they were ‘able to brainstorm their class rules’ and set their own acceptable behaviours for the learning situation.
Negotiated learning can also occur through the providers allowing a learner to access units in a variety of forms—some learners enjoy intensive full-time 3 day courses, while others are more comfortable to pace themselves across several weeks.
Similarly, some courses might attract accreditation, while others offering the same learning experience have no apparent ‘tests’ attached.
Providers set trial tests, telling the learners, ‘let’s see if we can do what those people taking tests are doing’.
Reducing or eliminating the ‘fear factor’ attached to such tests, many students are able to pass an evaluation under mock test conditions. In one example, a person was persuaded to attempt a test. When she eventually scraped through with a pass, she then immediately did the test again and received 100%. Her explanation was that now that she had passed she had lost her fear and hence could perform to her real standard.
At other sites learners spoke of how tutors demystified computers by providing brief and practical demonstrations of what is inside a computer, how it works and, most importantly to them, how it cannot be broken or blown up by the wrong keystroke.
‘Instead of it being a "magic box", we know it’s just a box full of things that we operate’, explained one learner.
Computer games such as ‘solitaire’ are also used to familiarise learners with the equipment.
Older people who had previously attempted to understand a computer's functions, but had been left behind by the speed at which demonstrations took place, could work at a pace appropriate to their level of understanding.
All these strategies are integral to motivating learners and encouraging their continued involvement in classes.
| For some learners, where gaining a job is the ultimate goal, it is too great a step to set achieving employment as a realistic outcome of initial re-entry into education. Outcomes such as undertaking further learning, performing volunteer work and raised self-esteem can be considered acceptable and valuable outcomes for the individual and the community. |
- An appropriate pace for learning
At a Workers Education Association (WEA) in Sydney, learners in an IT class were encouraged by their small, but nevertheless concrete, successes.
Learners mentioned how courses at other places had been too fast for them, both in talking and learning speed, and their inability to keep up. They had also struggled with manuals and their children’s demonstrations ‘because we didn’t know the words’ and had given up.
Short class activities, repetition, positive reinforcement and constant reminders of small successes in class did much to help and encourage learners.
Students also found that they were no longer embarrassed in class because they were among peers with similar experiences in life, as well as in the classroom.
At an ACE provider in Tamworth, NSW, this rule ensured that neither the tutor nor any other student was allowed to take over a learner's workstation. This meant that learners would always do, rather than watch, any functions they were learning to perform on a computer. |
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Motivating Learners
Building or restoring self-esteem is integral to the learning process. Some older learners have a pervasive fear of failure—brought about by inability to obtain, or retain, employment. As one learner succinctly put it, ‘a huge loss of confidence occurs in the gaps between work, so you’re on the back foot straightaway. You don’t know what you’ve missed, you don’t know what you don’t know, and you've forgotten what you can do.’
Others had unhappy and demoralising experiences of school that have stayed with them throughout their lives and continue to impact on their expectations of themselves as learners.
Learners also talk of feeling unworthy through their lack of the literacy, language or IT skills possessed by their grandchildren. While many older IT students are fearful of the technology, others reported having been told, by various explicit and implicit means, that at more than 45 years of age, it was now too late for them to gain entry to the labour market.
Altering self-perceptions is a delicate and sometimes, slow process. Small classes of 5 to 10, permitting one-on-one interaction are conducive to the success of an older learner’s initial re-entry to education and training.
Classes with a level of informality and humour also help to overcome learners’ fears about asking questions and making mistakes. Positive feedback reinforces the message that each individual feels valued.
One-to-one training is especially important in key skill areas such as literacy and IT which typically cause a certain amount of anxiety for older learners.
This ensures that they will be comfortable when joining a group of learners with similar skill levels.
Learners in IT were often encouraged to come in outside of class time to practise on computers, and some were lent computers to take home.
Some providers offer a ‘phone in’ service where someone is available to provide instant troubleshooting feedback if a learner is struggling with a problem at home or in the workplace.
Teachers and trainers can enhance motivation by finding out class interests and build their teaching around such topics. Analogies are used in class to clarify points and engage interest in the learning topic.
Self-esteem is crucial to community engagement, success in education and paid or volunteer work.
The establishment of friendships and group support are important to people wanting to persist with their studies, and informal activities organised during and out of class time are crucial to developing self-esteem.
Learners are often encouraged to volunteer at their education organisation. Becoming a volunteer, and being seen to have something to offer others, seems to give many learners a level of self-esteem that motivates them to engage further in the learning process.
| The socialisation aspect of the provider organisation is likely to be the most important motivator for continued learning. Some organisations use a ‘back door’ approach by getting learners involved in a craft or cookery class that gives basic literacy practice and then, having set up a social network, moving the learners into more complex literacy, language or IT areas of learning. |
Similarly, learners who take their skills home to show family members or friends report how thrilled they are at having the ability to display something they had learned. The passing on of their skills not only helps others but also reinforces their own learning.
For many older learners, email can rapidly become an invaluable aid in maintaining contact with extended and dispersed family members, and a powerful tool for motivating them to learn about computers. For others, the computer can offer avenues for writing, keeping records, entertainment and job skills development.
- Overcoming the fear factor
Humour and a sense of informality is a common cure for apprehension and encourages older learners to participate in education.
Off-beat course names such as ‘Computers for the mortally terrified', ‘Computers for the not quite dead yet’ and ‘Groovy Grannies’ enticed many older learners who had previously been hesitant to enrol in a regular computer course.
In Devonport, Tasmania, target age groups were specifically encouraged by empathetic course names such as ‘Seniors on-line’ and ‘Club 50+’ |
- Building confidence and self-esteem
In a Community Centre in Kingston, Tasmania, tutors motivate and engage students by relating their life experiences to the learning activity.
Many students begin by not seeing value in their own skills and abilities. By learning about the students’ experiences tutors are able to show them how much they already know.
A mother wanting to return to the workforce after spending an extended period caring for family, may not necessarily realise how adept she really is at budgeting, time management or organisational skills. This is despite the fact that she has been practising these skills on a daily basis running the family home.
Learning activities therefore draw on the wisdom of the entire group, with the tutor staying out of the expert role. |
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A Learner-Focused Approach
It is only when learners feel more confident about their abilities that they can engage in the learning process.
Older learners benefit from teaching in incremental steps. As one tutor explained, ‘I only tell them what they will learn in the next five minutes, then when that’s achieved we can go on to the next five minute step’. By the end of the lesson there is a sense of having achieved a great deal.
| The Securing Success report highlighted specific teaching and learning strategies found to overcome apprehension in older learners.
These included:
- Demystifying jargon and technology – for instance – recognising that ‘monitors’ and ‘floppies’ mean little to the novice;
- Providing consistent feedback to repeated questioning;
- Permitting enough time for learners to become proficient with the
technology - for example, time to play with the mouse, following the cursor, clicking on icons, and so on;
- Eliminating demonstrations and getting learners to use their own equipment—getting them to learn as they go;
- Recognising small successes throughout the lesson—teaching the "save" and "delete" functions before all else so the fear of "losing the work" will disappear;
- Making learners comfortable about mistakes and reinforcing this by encouraging the learner to ask the tutor and their peers for help;
- Peer coaching—allowing the more able students to assist the others;
- Small class sizes, humour and flexible lesson structures;
- Recognition of prior learning, current competence and knowledge;
- Easy to access materials; and
- Negotiating and uncovering expectations and outcomes.
|
Other important factors included:
• learning with people of a similar age;
• carefully pacing out the learning; and
• tailoring demonstrations and examples to issues that are meaningful, and therefore more memorable, to the learners.
| The following elements were identified as a basis for establishing an older learner-focused approach:
• learner readiness;
• collective and collegial learning strategies;
• reflection after specific task-oriented active learning;
• positive reinforcement;
• common-sense: practical knowledge learnt or developed;
• gradual transfer of learning;
• competence demonstrated rather than formally assessed; and
• practical, technological literacy. |
Some older learners spoke of having been to other classes where ‘the young ones caught on so quickly, I was left behind’. These learners were reluctant to ask questions through fear of being seen as ‘old and stupid’ by their inability to understand technical terms.
Peer mentoring and peer training has also been found to be important for this age group. In language and literacy classes, less able students are helped by the more knowledgeable, or by those who have been in the class longer.
Socialisation with peers adds a positive dimension to the learning experience. As an older learner noted, ‘I am encouraged to learn by what I hear from others and what I discover we can do — I tried on my own, but this works so much better’.
A great deal of learning happens informally among peers during tea breaks and after classes. One teacher observed ‘my class finishes at 11.30, but they’re still outside having a smoke an hour later, talking and arguing about things they’ve been learning’.
Building computing into other areas such as craft or cookery is another classroom strategy. The computer can be used to locate recipes or patterns and designs. Language, literacy and numeracy classes can be based on cooking and craft classes.
Several classroom strategies were specific to the older IT learners. These included:
• explanation of basic terms;
• demystification of hardware; and
• a pace that allowed achievement in very small steps.
Magnifying the text on the computer screen by using the zoom feature can assist the older learner in reading the instructions.
Pace is particularly important for learners who feared one wrong keystroke would wipe the entire lesson out.
As several learners admitted, ‘I thought I would blow the whole thing up if I pressed the wrong button, so I was too terrified to learn in the first place’.
Limiting ‘chalk and talk’ in IT classes enables older learners to have practical, hands-on application. This also caters for diverse learning needs and styles, as well as the individual pace of the learner.
On the whole, older learners like to use manuals— but primarily as a means of going over what they did in class or to jog their memory, rather than as a learning tool.
Students found that they learnt a great deal helping each other both in and out of the classroom.
In Yamba, NSW, peer tutoring is encouraged in class, which naturally leads to social gatherings out of class.
At a Neighbourhood House in Salisbury, SA, the tutor confirmed, ‘Older groups especially help each other—the lesson might finish and two hours later they’re still outside talking things through’.
At a training company at the Gold Coast, QLD, tutors engage in out of session social activities with students to build a sense of constant support and engagement with the group. |
- It’s alright to make mistakes
At Clare and Gawler, SA, tutors encourage students to use each other as resources for learning. Mistakes made by the teacher are used as immediate teaching examples—‘I try not to be the teacher and I make mistakes all the time so they can see that it’s okay’. |
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Organisational Innovation and Outcomes
The Securing Success study identified the secrets of successful education and training organisations.
Flexibility of the organisation was paramount to older learner outcomes.
Organisations offering a mix of accredited and non-accredited courses that obviate the need to test, evaluate, examine or assess are more appealing to learners who are fearful of being set up for failure.
Flexibility in course nature and structure allows teachers and trainers to take into account the diverse needs of their older adults within the classes, or run classes specifically aimed at an age group (for example, ‘Computing for Over 60s’). This attracts learners who would otherwise not be prepared to attend classes.
Learners were also more comfortable when they were able to choose between an intensive three-day full time class or participate across a number of weeks at an hour or two a day, or even a mixture of the two.
The flexibility of adult and community education providers means that they are often able to respond to individual older learner needs. For instance, they may combine computer classes with craft circles, or put learners into a mini-bus and tour local restaurants to teach students how to read menus, signs or maps.
A number of learners talked of their earlier inability to cope with structured or assessed courses offered by larger education and training providers.
Once the learner has improved his or her self-esteem and successfully completed courses with smaller providers, they may venture to undertake an accredited course elsewhere.
Even though some older learners don’t access employment immediately after further education and training, they report discovering new found confidence and belief in their abilities.
They acknowledge too, that an attachment to their community through learning provides impetus to either further their education or seek out employment in areas where, previously, they would have been too afraid to apply.
As well as taking part in volunteer programmes run by the learning provider, learners also spoke of being newly involved in the wider community: getting involved at their local libraries, schools, volunteer organisations, historical societies, hospitals and aged care facilities.
| Short programmes, such as offering disabled learners four-day training that teaches them how to use public transport to get to and from class, or combining a language class for older non-English speaking background learners with a crèche session that looks after their grandchildren, can be difficult for larger organisations to provide. |
- Developing skills through volunteering
Volunteer training programmes provide learners with the opportunity to practise and develop their new skills beyond the classroom.
At a disability training centre in Melbourne, students volunteer to help with office and administration duties, providing them with valuable experience in a work context.
In Salisbury, SA, students can learn to relay their learning by becoming tutors or by doing a stint in the office.
In Devonport, Tasmania, local community members (often promising students from their own computing courses) assist the centre in a volunteering capacity, fulfilling both a mentoring and peer tutoring role.
- Flexible course structure
At a Community Education Centre in Williamstown, Victoria, tutors teach students literacy and numeracy skills by taking them on shopping expeditions. Students are required to make a list, compare prices and add totals in an environment outside the classroom, relevant to developing skills for life and work.
In Esperance, WA, courses are tailored to the students’ wants and needs rather than focusing on skills that are seen as prerequisites for something else. Learners are given ownership of their course through feedback and negotiation with their tutors.
A provider in Brisbane has set up a ‘mobile laboratory’ with all the hardware required to travel to remote areas and deliver courses appropriate to the community’s needs. |