We know that we’re living longer, which means many people will also be working for longer. One in seven people over 65 are still employed in the UK, but we’re still seeing challenges in our labour markets.

According to the ILC’s Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index, the UK’s work span is only 31.5 years, ranking the UK 47th out of 121 countries. (In comparison, the highest-ranking work span, Cambodia, sits at 43.7 years.)

Skills shortages driven by demographic change are hitting all sectors of the UK’s economy: by 2030, we could see a shortage of 2.6 million workers. On the other hand, if UK employment rates for those aged 50 to 64 matched the rates of those aged 35 to 49, the country’s GDP would increase by more than 5%.  One way to improve work span and employment is through lifelong learning.

The Learning and Work Institute’s Adult Participation in Learning survey published in November 2023, showed that almost one in every two adults (people aged 17+) in the UK (49%) have taken part in learning in the last three years – a significant increase (+8 percentage points) on the participation rate in 2022 and the highest recorded since the survey began in 1996.

However, the rates of learning continue to fall with age. In 2023, only 36% people aged 55 to 64, 24% of those aged 65 to 74, and 17% of those aged 75 and over said that they’d taken part in any kind of learning in the past three years in the UK.

When adults continue to learn and upskill, there are key benefits to individuals and society as a whole:

• improved employment opportunities: reskilling and upskilling improve productivity, adaptability, knowledge and general employability
• strengthened economies in the face of rapidly changing labour markets: a lifelong culture of learning is linked with economies that are stronger and more competitive and innovative
• improved general wellbeing

ILC’s report, Redefining lifelong learning: Lessons from across the globe, produced in collaboration with Phoenix Insights found that while there’s no silver bullet to improve learning and retraining, in addition to public investment, there are key themes that emerge from global learning leaders.

• Cultures of learning are instilled from childhood, for example, whole-child development approaches to education can instil expectations for lifelong learning such as in Japan.
• Cross-sector collaboration facilitates more learning opportunities, for example, in the Netherlands collaboration between government and private sector is integral to the country’s policy
• When people are supported, learning is more effective, for example, in Germany recognition of prior learning is widespread; initiatives to encourage and monitor lifelong learning are easily accessible and Government-accredited courses are offered around the country
• Every person should have an equal opportunity to learn. Work, caring responsibilities, finances, and mobility challenges can all impact accessing learning. For example, in South Korea there are 160 ‘lifelong learning cities’ and the S. Korean government sponsors Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and self-study programmes