When It Comes Time to Retire, Many Baby Boomers Say 'The Show Must Go On'
Forget jazzercise and long walks on the beach. For the baby boomer generation, "retirement" means a new job rather than no job. According to a survey conducted by Merrill Lynch, 76 percent of all boomers expect to continue working after retirement, often in a completely new position or career.
Thanks to a joint grant program sponsored through The MetLife Foundation and Civic Ventures, a San Francisco-based nonprofit educational think-tank, community colleges throughout the U.S. will transform into a one-stop shop for career-switching seniors. The Encore Careers Grant will provide 10 $25,000 grants to select community and junior colleges throughout the nation to create educational opportunities designed to help the baby boomer population transition from their primary job into a second, "encore career" in sectors like health care, education and social services, which are facing a critical worker shortage. The Encore Career Grants will help workers ages 50 and over seamlessly move from their current career into one that makes a social impact.
And it's a good thing for the rest of the nation, too. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' reports, by the year 2014, an estimated 78 million boomers will gradually make their way out of the workforce with only 75.6 million workers entering to replace them. To prevent a critical labor shortage and to stay competitive in the global marketplace, programs designed to update, re-skill, and transition boomers into new careers will play a crucial role in keeping the U.S. economy afloat.
Replacing Retirement With Education
"The reality for the demographic of ages 50 and over is that they're going to have to stay in the workforce longer," comments Metlife Foundation Health Program Director Barbara Dillon, citing financial pressures such as mounting retirement, living, and health care costs. Paul Hodge, chairperson of the Global Generations Policy Institute, a Massachusetts-based non-profit that specializes in studying and addressing the needs of the baby boomer population, agrees that many baby boomers are ditching the seaside condo in Florida in place of a few more years on the job simply because they aren't in an economic position to retire.
"The top one-third of the baby boomer cohort are financially well-off, but the bottom two-thirds are going to have to keep working to supplement their income," Hodge states. "You're going to have a tremendous shortage of workers because of the aging population in the next 10 years." The only way to counter that, he adds, is by hiring older workers.
An easy place to re-skill and re-transition workers close to home is at the community college level, says Norma Kent, vice president of communications for the American Association of Community Colleges.
"Older learners don't want to relocate. They want shorter programs of study and [the ability] to learn on their own time without being locked into a traditional semester," Kent explains. "There are more than 1,200 community colleges nationwide, most of which are a short commute from 90 percent of the population. They're very convenient, they're affordable, and they're going to become increasingly important as you have this growing population of people who want to learn on their own terms."
Part of "learning on their own terms" includes building on already-acquired skill sets rather than completely starting over. Unlike recent high school graduates, adult learners approach the classroom armed with a lifetime of workplace experience. Career-switch model programs such as the ones funded by Encore Career Grants, are significantly shorter than most degree programs and focus on teaching adults how to translate those skills into a new career rather than building foundational skills.
'These people don't have to recreate the wheel and start from scratch," comments Jeff Kraus, assistant vice chancellor for public relations for the Virginia Community College System, a recipient of an Encore Career Grant for its 16-week fast-track teacher licensure program. "We want people to bring that experience to the classroom and we've had good results. One of our teachers won a Teacher of the Year award last year."
Other Encore Career Grants will fund programs such as Coastline Community College's new gerontology and elder-care program (Fountain Valley, Calif.) and Central Piedmont Community College's for-profit to non-profit transitional program (Charlotte, N.C.). "We believe that community colleges are an overlooked resource in helping older people find new careers," comments MetLife Foundation president and CEO Sibyl Jacobson.
"With so many workforce needs and a huge number of people searching for purpose-driven jobs, we have an unprecedented opportunity to improve things."
