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Reviews

[Publications] [Documents and Papers]

Publications

Reminiscence and lifelong learning by Sarah Housden
NIACE, 2007, ISBN: 978 1 86201 248 6

This is a guide to ways of using learners’ personal memories as a resource in learning; a source of knowledge, ideas and experiences for tutors and learners to draw on.

It is a compendium of good practice for tutors, other professionals and carers who are using older people’s memory work in a learning context. It includes many examples of projects and learning situations where, beginning with the sharing of memories, older people have gone on to develop skills in forming and sustaining relationships, oral and written communication, arts and crafts and literacy, and the use of modern information technology.
www.niace.org.uk/publications/R/reminiscence.asp

Defining Women . . . on mature reflection edited by Dianne Norton .
REVIEW by Gwen Parrish writes in U3A News:

When Dianne Norton (one of the four founders of U3A in the UK) invited a cross-section of older women to write about their life experiences for her recently published Third Age Press book "Defining Women", she struck an exceptionally rich vein. Apart from three 'celebs' - Jan Etherington, Anne Widdecombe and Germaine Greer - the contributors are sixteen extraordinary 'ordinary' women, demonstrating Dianne's point that older women are as distinctive as men and women in any other age group and it is insulting for the media to lump us all together as "the elderly", no longer worthy of individual attention.

Dianne's aim in producing the book was not only to prove this attitude absurd, but to 'light a spark in other people's minds' and stimulate interesting and fruitful discussion about relevant issues. (Discussion group leaders please note - this could prove a very useful book).

The contributors rose magnificently to the occasion, delving deep into their personal experiences and laying bare their innermost feelings as they met a variety of challenges: taking a gap year off from domesticity to trawl the world solo, marathon running, bog snorkelling and wing walking (at 70-plus), and caring for partners with degenerative diseases…

The book includes details of over twenty organisations of interest to older women…
www.wwwow.info

Documents and Papers

The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 (April 2006)
These regulations outlaw discrimination in employment and vocational training and came into force on 1st October 2006.
www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2006/20061031.htm

The Leitch Review of Skills: Prosperity for all in the global economy
- world class skills (December 2006)
The Government commissioned Sandy Leitch in 2004 to undertake an independent review of the UK's long term skills needs. The Review published its interim report "Skills in the UK: the long term challenge" in December 2005. It committed the Review, in its final report, to identify the UK’s optimal skills mix for 2020 to maximise economic growth, productivity and social justice, set out the balance of responsibility for achieving that skills profile and consider the policy framework required to support it.

This Review sets out a compelling vision for the UK. It shows that the UK must urgently raise achievements at all levels of skills and recommends that it commit to becoming a world leader in skills by 2020.
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/leitch_review/review_leitch_index.cfm

Confronting demographic change: a new solidarity between the generations (March 2005)
 This Green Paper from the Commission of the European communities emphasises the importance of the demographic challenge.

Ageing could cause potential annual growth in GNP in Europe to fall from 2-2.25% today to 1.25% in 2040, with all that entails for entrepreneurship and initiative in our societies. T

Elderly people in certain countries are increasingly choosing to move to another region or abroad: mobility is not the reserve of the young or of employed people. They are consuming more new goods and services and want to participate actively in social life, in particular in the voluntary sector. They may wish to continue working or to combine part-time work with retirement…
(para. 2.3 pp. 9)
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2005/mar/comm2005-94_en.pdf

Welfare to work: tackling the barriers to the employment of older people (March 2005). Tenth Report of Session 2004-05. House of Commons, Committee of Public Accounts.
This report looks at:

Training and skills are important to employment chances. People with low qualifications are less likely to be employed and, on average, older people have lower qualifications that younger people. However, the substantial fall over the past 10 years in proportion of the population with no qualifications has been more marked for older people. Nevertheless, 25% of those aged over 50 to state pension age had no formal qualifications in 2002, compared with 16% of the total working population. (para. 2.29 pp. 38)
www.nao.org.uk/publications/nao_reports/03-04/03041026.pdf

Excluded Older People, Social Exclusion Unit Interim Report  (March 2005)
Many older people experience exclusion affecting their everyday lives.

The opportunities that allow the majority of the population to have the best quality of life possible must be made available to all, including the most excluded. This is just as much about education, employment, leisure and active social roles as it is about health, housing and social care.

This consultation highlighted three key ways in which respondents say provision needs to improve if older people are to enjoy a better quality of life:

Participation in social, cultural, religious and leisure activities is very important to people’s quality of life. Encouraging such participation can play a key part in policy goals like improving health, reducing crime and building cohesive communities; and can also contribute to reducing loneliness. (pp. 33)
www.publications.communities.gov.uk/pubdetails.asp?pubid=1481

Skills: Getting on in business, getting on at work (March 2005)
This White Paper sets out the Government’s plans for the next phase of reform in skills and training. Proposing to invest in helping more adults to gain the skills they need both for productive and satisfying employment throughout longer working lives, and for personal enrichment through into active retirement.
On average, older people have fewer recognised skills and qualifications than younger people coming into the labour market. They are disproportionately represented among those out of work on welfare benefits. But as the demographic profile changes, with fewer young people entering the labour market, an expectation of a longer working life and an extended period of retirement, we will need to provide better support for older people to keep their skills up to date. Older people will be able to benefit, along with others, from entitlements and reforms…(para. 1.82 pp. 22)
www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/skillsgettingon/

Opportunity Age. Meeting the challenges of ageing in the 21st century (March 2005).
This document and its supporting evidence set out a framework for developing policies and the principles that the Government believes will underpin the strategy to manage demographic change.
As detailed in the recently published Skills White Paper, we have given a commitment to safeguard the continuing availability of a wide range of learning for leisure, personal interest and community development purposes. We expect older people to be significant beneficiaries of this safeguard. (para. 3.27 pp. 37)
www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2005/opportunity_age/opportunity-age-volume1.pdf

Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier (November 2004)
This Department of Health White Paper aims to make a difference to the choices people make. The 3 core principles are:

Meeting new health challenges of the 21st century will need a step change in action. These arrangements reflect the need for Government, communities and individuals to take seriously their respective responsibilities for health. The commitments in this White Paper are designed to ensure more healthy choices are available and to shape the environment so that these choices are readily available to those who would otherwise be disadvantaged. This is the beginning of a journey to build health into Government policy and ensure that health is everybody’s business...
(para. 8.35 pp. 181)
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4094550

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