Supporting people to find and remain in good work for longer has been a key commitment of the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement since we began. With people living longer, and with 3.5 million economically inactive people aged between 50-65, access to good work is key to enabling more people to remain in the workforce and better prepare for the retirement they want. To make the most of careers that may span more than five decades, we need access to good work at all stages of life.

We believe that good work is secure, rewarding, flexible, sustainable over longer lives, and supportive of employee wellbeing. For many people this may mean retraining or reskilling with a view to changing careers.

Our Careers can change campaign shows people, particularly those in midlife, that their careers can change successfully, whether that’s making a small shift or a total pivot. The objectives of the campaign are to:

  • Inspire people to see that their careers can change successfully, and in many different ways
  • Encourage more people to actively manage their careers throughout their working lives
  • Connect people to great information, support, and organisations that can help them

The campaign is convened by the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement and we work with a range of experts and organisations including 20 First, Brave Starts, Careershifters, Career Returners, Enterprise Nation, the Learning & Work Institute, Now Teach, Postcards from Midlife and Squiggly Careers.

 

Why did we set up the Careers can change campaign?

We used several different pieces of quantitative and qualitative research to identify and shape the Careers can change campaign. 

Free, independent careers advice at any age was identified in our Public Engagement in Longer Lives report as one of the public’s top priorities for focus and investment to help people make the most of the opportunities of longer lives.

In Careers advice for longer lives we identified that people in midlife felt ‘stuck’ feeling underprepared and unequipped to make beneficial career moves.

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    31% of 45 – 54 yr olds expect to change career before they retire

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    48% of 45-54 yr olds said that they had ‘done nothing’ in terms of taking any action in relation to their career in the last 6 months

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    51% of 45-54 yr olds have never heard of any careers information or advice services

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    15% of 45-54 yr olds have received careers advice in the last 3 years

We conducted further research to help us shape the campaign and found that:

  • Searching for a new job or career in midlife can be a daunting process, which people are seeking encouragement and reassurance around
  • Simple, free and online resources to help people plan for big changes such as changing career had strong appeal

The Careers can change campaign focusses on three main areas of work

  • Using communication to inspire people to see that careers can change successfully and in many different ways. The Careers can change campaign website helps to connect people to great information, support and organisations that can help them. 

  • Working with our partners to run and promote events and activities to engage and support people looking to more actively manage their careers or going through a career change.

  • Using research and insights to help increase understanding, raise awareness and further debate around supporting job mobility and enabling more successful career change.

What's next?

The Careers can change campaign started and continues primarily as a public engagement activity, with a view of inspiring and helping people. 

It is also a test and learn project enabling us to understand and build evidence around what works currently in terms of supporting midlife career transitions and what is needed to enable these transitions to happen more often, more smoothly, and at scale.

We are also exploring the need for wider infrastructure and institutional change to support job mobility and career change. This includes understanding the role of employers, the adult education sector and public employment and skills policy landscape.  We recently supported work by Demos highlighting the need to bring careers advice and employment support services closer together and open up wider access to them. We have also published Resourcing The Net Zero Transition which highlights that experience workers are being overlooked and left behind in the move towards 'green jobs', and calls on government and employers to do more to promote awareness and understanding of these roles to people over 40. 

If you want to find out more then follow us on LinkedIn page, visit the Careers can change website or read one of our blogs:

 

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