A novel way to improve the labour market attachment of older Australian workers

It is well known that governments in economically developed countries are being challenged to reverse the trends from exit and exclusion of older workers and move toward developing strategies to advance the employment prospects of this cohort. This paper investigates a novel way of improving the labour market attachment of older Australian workers. We employ a transitional labour market approach to investigate the best method governments may use to support people to actively engage in skill development. The paper looks to the U.K. Sweden and the U.S to examine individual learning accounts in addressing skill gaps and supporting older workers to acquire new skills and to gauge the applicability of this approach to the Australian context. We argue that additional funding for training needs to come from industry, individuals and government. The paper proposes that government pilot an individual learning account initiative.