ABSTRACT
As a society—as all societies—we need to consider how retirement, later life working and pensions fit within the wider world—we have to think about our labour market and what constitutes our workforce. Culturally acceptable choices might be an acceptance of a neo-liberal position, or some script around the role of capitalism, or even a ‘nostalgic’ review to an older world, post World War II (WWII) order of welfare state creation. The reality is that nation states and their politicians need to consider the interdependence of the relationship between the state and business, and the labour market—for which the state educates and then later supports until death. To which it is the nature of what society wants that allows the state and business to act accordingly. Business is not separate from this and even the investors of business who may draw profits from such enterprise will bow to the wider society if societal pressures are greater than the needs of the business owners or employees. This chapter seeks to explore the issues that such a starting point presents in thinking about the needs of human resource development if we wish to take a stance towards more positive ageing within our society.
Question—What has been the impact of the changing demographic within the workforce in terms of their needs for human resource development?
