Workplace Issues
Older Worker Training: What We Know and Don’t Know
Research Report
Neil Charness, Florida State University
Sara J. Czaja, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
October 2006
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Careers after 50 - AARPBy 2014, an estimated 34 million age 55+ workers will comprise more than 20 percent of the workforce. As a result, America needs to prepare for an aging workforce. Although much is known about aging as a process, relatively less is known about the implications of aging for performance of everyday activities such as work.
This AARP Public Policy Institute Issue Paper seeks to...
- summarize what is currently known about an important aspect of work and employment, namely training and retraining, that involves the ability of older adults to learn new skills and adapt to new environments
- highlight issues and questions that need to be addressed to promote healthy and productive employment for older adults
Where possible, guidelines for the design of training programs for older adults are presented. The information is based on a review of the gerontological, psychological, and human factors engineering literature including summaries of the authors’ own research.
Overall, the results of research on learning success for older adults are encouraging in that they indicate that they are able to learn new skills, even ones involving new technology. Nonetheless, older adults are typically slower to acquire those skills than younger adults. Some of the slowing in learning new tasks may be attributable to older adults’ preference for accuracy over speed, with the reverse holding true for younger adults. The literature indicates that training interventions can be successful in terms of improving performance.
By providing employers with relevant information on aging and training, and highlighting gaps in existing knowledge, it is hoped that this report will underscore the importance of this issue. (36 pages)
Pub ID: 2006-22