redefining retirement, re-purposing work: encore careers

Traditional retirement as a "well deserved break", a time simply to "do what I want when I want" is fine for a year or two, which is exactly how much retirement time most people had when the average life expectancy was 67. But to spend twenty-five or thirty years in R&R just doesn't make sense: it means almost as many years resting from one's labours as labouring in the first place.

It is true that most people do expect the years after age 65/70 to be different from midlife work, to have a different rhythm, a different flavour. But people want to be 'of use' still, engaged in meaningful activity - not to withdraw from the world, which remains one of the dictionary definitions of retiring.

There are many ways to be useful, but we are directing our attention to encore careers. The term was coined by MarcFreedman of Civic Ventures in the US. It captures the idea perfectly: after years of working to earn a livelihood, one can change tack and engage in new work that is meaningful and sustaining. His program focuses on encore careers that have social purpose. We are starting from a slightly different point.

We are interested in encore careers that take people in new directions, that develop new skills to do work that is required in the Australian context, whether or not (at this stage) the work exactly meets the definition of 'social purpose'. One Australian example that does have a social purpose is Grey Is the New Green from the Dusseldorp Skills Forum where retired workers receive training to become 'green mentors' to the same type of business they previously worked in.

Three factors need to come together to develop a significant encore career 'sector':

• employer interest - whether in the not-for profit, public or private sector - for the critical question is: where isl viable encore career work to be found?
• training provider interest - in the US community colleges have found re-skilling people for their encore careers opens up a whole new and interesting market for them. Will TAFE Institutes in Australia find that? Universities? Private providers?
• an organisation of some sort to oversee, coordinate and support encore careers - employers, training providers and interested individuals.

What We Are Doing We're talking to people involved in or knowledgeable about each of the three factors to gauge interest - well, to build interest - and to learn what precisely is required to make encore careers a real option for Australians in the second half of life, to make encore careers a fully functioning waypoint in the landscape of ageing. It was announced on 5 March that our tender to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) for funding to support this work was successful. We'll report in more detail once the project is underway.