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First published online February 17, 2012

Ageing, skills and participation in work-related training in Britain: assessing the position of older workers

Jesus Canduela, Matthew Dutton, Steve Johnson, Colin Lindsay, Ronald W McQuaid, and Robert RaesideView all authors and affiliations
Volume 26, Issue 1
https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017011426303

Abstract

Policy makers have introduced a number of measures to encourage older workers to stay in the labour market, with improving access to training a particular priority. Policy action appeared justified by evidence that older workers are less likely to participate in training, and more likely to have never been offered training by employers – a key finding of Taylor and Urwin’s (2001) review of Labour Force Survey (LFS) data from 1997. This article models LFS data from 2007 to assess whether age remained a predictor of inequalities in training. It finds that men over 50 remained among those least likely to have been offered training by employers. There were other significant inequalities in participation, suggesting a polarization in access to jobs that offer opportunities for training and progression. The article concludes that policies promoting ‘active ageing’ need to challenge negative employer attitudes and acknowledge fundamental inequalities in access to skills.

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Published In

Volume 26, Issue 1
Pages: 42 - 60
Article first published online: February 17, 2012
Issue published: February 2012

Keywords

  1. ageing
  2. equalities
  3. Labour Force Survey
  4. learning
  5. ordered-probit modelling
  6. training

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Authors

Affiliations

Jesus Canduela
Edinburgh Napier University, UK
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Matthew Dutton
Edinburgh Napier University, UK
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Steve Johnson
University of Hull, UK
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Colin Lindsay
University of Strathclyde, UK
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Ronald W McQuaid
Edinburgh Napier University, UK
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Robert Raeside
Edinburgh Napier University, UK
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Notes

Colin Lindsay, Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XU, UK. Email: [email protected]
Jesus Canduela was born in Gijon (Spain) in 1973. He holds a BSc(Hons) in economics and econometrics, UAM, Spain; and an MSc in applied statistics and a PhD from Edinburgh Napier University. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Employment Research Institute, Edinburgh Napier University. His most recent research focuses on the evaluation of impacts from the Scottish Government’s Working for Families Fund programme (involving the analysis of more than 20,000 survey responses) and the analysis of a major survey exercise on the characteristics of more than 2200 early school leavers entering Scottish colleges (published in the Journal of Education and Work 23(4) 2010).
Matthew Dutton is a researcher at the Employment Research Institute, Edinburgh Napier University. He has published several journal articles and research reports. His recent work has focused on the reform of incapacity benefits, the results of which are published in Policy Studies 31(2) 2010 and reform to jobseeker benefits, results published in Social Policy and Administration 42(7) 2008. His current research activities include research on the role of the third sector in the delivery of public services and wage subsidy schemes for the young unemployed.
Steve Johnson is Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Hull. He specializes in labour market analysis and evaluation of public policies in relation to education, training, skills and community development. He was previously Director of the Policy Research Institute at Leeds Metropolitan University.
Colin Lindsay is Senior Lecturer in HRM at Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde. His recent work has included research on inequalities in access to training, and he has published more than thirty articles and book chapters on employability and skills issues. He recently co-edited special issues of the journals Policy Studies: 31(2) 2010; and Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy: 27(6) 2009, both focusing on employability and active labour market policies. His current research focuses on the delivery of labour market policies directed at people claiming incapacity benefits.
Ronald McQuaid has been Professor and Director of the Employment Research Institute at Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh since 2000. He was educated at Lancaster University, the London School of Economics and Harvard University. He has carried out work for many regional, national and supra-national bodies such as the European Commission, the UK and Scottish Governments and various agencies and employers in the fields of employment, skills, economic development and older workers. His research and policy interests include employment, skills, lifelong learning and local and regional development.
Robert Raeside is an applied statistician who has research interests in demography, evaluation of interventions in social systems and in social network analysis. He publishes in these areas and supervises a number of research students.

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