How Will Older Workers Fare in this Troubled Economy?
One of the hardest things to do is to confront the issue of employment in our 50s or 60s. We’ve spent years going to school, acquiring credentials and degrees, and preparing for a career. Maybe we’ve changed careers already, perhaps moved from job to job, and now find ourselves in a vulnerable place relative to our employment.
All this is jarring enough, but in the midst of an economic downturn, it’s even worse. If you’re a single woman, without the support of a spouse, it’s up to you alone to generate income. If you happen to also be the mother of dependent children, your situation is compounded. You have the well-being of others in your hands.
There was a time when those of us working in higher education or serving on college boards argued that adults would need the services of institutions of higher education even more in the future than was the case then. I was one of those administrators and board members who focused on adult learners and lifelong learning.
When I suggested that the public institutions in our state, especially the community colleges, build up their career and transition services, I was told that instruction and classrooms came first. That has been the mantra in public higher education, in spite of the fact that it is generally known that adults will need to change jobs and careers many times throughout their lengthening lives. In order to make sound decisions, these adults will often need career assessment and counseling at various points in their lives. They would even be willing to pay for such services, if they could find them.
Few people today know that there was a bill in the U.S. Congress, sponsored by then-Senator Walter Mondale, later to become our vice president, called the Lifelong Learning Act of 1972. The bill was passed by Congress but never funded. That bill told the story of how all adults would need and want counseling and learning services throughout their lives. Had it been properly funded, we might have real lifelong learning institutions today, when we desperately need them. Instead, we still have relatively “pediatric” institutions that are more interested in our kids and grandkids than in us.
