This article first appeared in FORBES and is reproduced here for paid subscribers of elderberries.
Longer lives mean more transitions – both personal and professional. As individuals start to acknowledge and integrate this reality into lives that are not only longer but also healthier, there is a parallel explosion of programs and services supporting and normalising personal and professional shifts in midlife. While this is happening around the world, and in the US, the country where the trend is most developed – and actively supported and encouraged by government – is the UK. A range of offerings are now on offer, both inside large organisations (mostly insurance companies), but also from a raft of private sector and non-profit providers. Here’s a guide to who they are now.
The spread is accelerating in large part because the struggling UK economy needs talent. After the pandemic, half a million older workers (aged 50-69) still haven’t returned to employment, opting for early retirement instead, for reasons still being hotly debated. The UK’s low unemployment rate of 3.7% leaves employers scrabbling for talent in order to maintain or grow their business.
The government has called for generalising Midlife MOT programmes (MOTs are what the British call their annual car check-ups), to prepare midlifers for shifting motivations and workplace realities. But first, they must want to. “The right advice, information and support needs to be in place to get to the first step,” says Naomi Phillips, Deputy Chief Executive of the Learning & Work Institute: “getting people to see that career change is possible.”
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