Overview

There are many more options for life after 50 than were available to previous generations. Some individuals retire early, others re-engage with career, and still others continue to work well into their ‘70s or ‘80s. In 2020, as we moved through the global pandemic, more older workers needed to work for financial reasons and may have faced greater struggles in finding employment.

Join this webinar series to discover new ways to conceptualize career development for “mature” workers and practical tools and techniques for supporting your clients to create lives that are fully engaging as well as meaningful.

What you will gain

Career development planning for older clients has become a contemporary issue many career practitioners now encounter. It is, therefore, essential to understand the motivation of this cohort to engage (or re-engage) in the workforce and how to guide them in preparing and adapting to a rapidly changing world of work.

The aim of this webinar series is to contribute research and recommendations that promote policy and professional practice conversations about the value of older workers, their career development needs, and how to support them in discovering meaningful work, cultivating valuable relationships as mentors, and advancing in today’s changing workforce.

• Support older workers to understand who they are and how they can contribute
• Assess older workers’ needs
• Interpret occupational research (workforce trends and opportunities) to support older workers
• Address questions facing older workers navigating their later careers in the pandemic
• Facilitate effective networking
• Reconceptualize meaningful “work”
• Celebrate the benefits of mature-age workers to the workforce

• Better understand our workforce and turn older demographic risk into opportunity
• Identify factors contributing to older workers’ engagement and success
• Monitor health and well-being during and after COVID-19
• Understand the family and caregiving responsibilities that many older workers provide
• Identify economic information and financial support to assist older workers
• Encourage lifelong learning, career planning and adaptability

• Support knowledge transfer through effective and meaningful mentorship to younger mentees
• Recognize and strengthen motivations to mentor
• Facilitate older workers’ engagement through:

– Meaningful work and mattering
– Staying connected with the job market and finding the hidden opportunities – including during pandemic recovery
– Enhancing multi-generational workplace connections
– Strategies to advance in today’s changing workforce

Dr William Borgen, Professor, Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia, has extensive experience researching and developing life transitions and career development programs. His work has been adapted for Bhutan, Denmark, Finland, Hungary and Sweden. Recently he has investigated the experience of people whose work has been affected by change, and those successfully transitioning to retirement.

Dr Roberta Borgen (Neault), President of Life Strategies Ltd., Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia, and Project Director for the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF), is co-developer of the Career Engagement model, and has extensive experience as an educator and counsellor supporting individuals and organizations with transitions, engagement and strategies to maximize their success.

Jennifer Luke is an Australian PhD candidate and Careers Educator at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) as well as Divisional President (Queensland) Career Development Association of Australia (CDAA). She is also a research member of the Australian Collaboratory for Career Employability & Learning for Living (ACCELL), researching post-retirement age career re-engagement, adaptability, meaningful work and mentorship.