South West Opportunities for Older People Lindsey St. John Project Director

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South West Opportunities for Older
PeopleLindsey St. John - Project Director
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• Anyone can get old, all you have to do is live
  long enough
• HRH The Queen, on her 80th birthday,
• borrowed from Groucho Marx

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Demographic shift

• In 1950 1 in 10 of the population was over 65
• Now it is 1 in 6
• By 2035 it will be 1 in 4.
• Life expectancy has increased by 30 years in the
  20th century and births have declined.
• By 2022 there will be 1 million fewer people
  under 50 and 3 million more aged 50-60.

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• There are currently more than a million
  unemployed people over 50 who could potentially
  be in work. If they were all in jobs, up to 30
  billion could be added to the gross domestic
  product.
• November 2005, ESRC, The Edge

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Skills in SW highlights from Sector Skills
research

• Number of employees
• Hospitality, leisure tourism 147,545
• Retail 284,389
• Social Care 115,187

• Number of firms reporting vacancies
• Hospitality, leisure tourism 5,776 (33)
• Retail 6,575 (24)
• Social care 2,285 (37)
• Skill shortages in Hospitality, 1303 (7)
• Retail 832 (3)

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Sector skills research

• 3 sectors with most ageing workforce (45)
• Learning Development
• Passenger transport
• Manufacturing Engineering technologies

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Health of Labour Market

• Recruitment problems due to skill shortage
  becoming more acute - 17 in 2003, 25 in 2004.
• Skill shortage have different impact on different
  sized employers majority of hard to fill and
  skill shortage are experienced by companies with
  less than 25 employees
• SME account for 1/3 of all employment yet ½ of
  all vacancies, and 3 in 5 (56) of skill
  shortages.

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Why create SWOOP?

• Focus on Age Employability
• Anticipating effects of demographic change on a
  region
• Raising issue with employers trying to effect
  change in attitude and behaviour
• Looking at sustainable options infrastructure
  development programmes
• Over 20 partners involved in 3m funded project
  interested in the economy, productivity, jobs,
  older people
• Creating employment opportunities self
  employment and start up
• Keeping people in work or helping them back to
  work

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South West Opportunities for Older
Peoplewww.swoop-project.org.uk