For some, the magical retirement age of sixty-five seems younger than it used to be and continuing to work at something, even part time, seems to be a good way to ease into a new lifestyle. Many community colleges now offer programs to help you successfully transition into a retirement career.
Don't "Settle", Strategize!
Rather than settling for that job at McDonalds, ever growing numbers of seniors are rethinking just what they really want to do, career wise. In fact, give it a few more years, and the tag “Generation Next” might have a whole new meaning. Sometimes, that can mean figuring out how to take a longtime hobby or passion and restructuring it into an actual business. That means, creating both business plans, and new life plans, and for many sixty-somethings it's been a long time since they've had to engage in that kind of life and work assessment.
Many community colleges in the United States now offer continuing education programs that are designed to help individuals make these kinds of plans.
76% of all Retirees Plan to Keep Working in some Capacity
According to a survey conducted by Merrill Lynch, 76 percent of all boomers expect to continue working after retirement and they often see themselves doing something completely different – as Monty Python used to say…
Here’s where a joint initiative between The MetLife Foundation and Civic Ventures ( a San Francisco-based nonprofit educational think-tank), and community colleges throughout the U.S. come in. They have funded an initiative for community colleges to create programs that are one-stop shops for career-switching seniors.
The Encore Careers Grant InitiativeThe Encore Careers Grant provides ten $25,000 grants to select community and junior colleges throughout the nation to create educational opportunities designed to help the baby boomer population transition from their primary job into a second, "encore career" in sectors like health care, education and social services, which are facing a critical worker shortage. The goal is to help workers ages 50 and over seamlessly move from their current career into one that makes a social impact.
And it's a good thing for the rest of the nation, too. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' reports, by the year 2014, an estimated 78 million boomers will gradually make their way out of the workforce with only 75.6 million workers entering to replace them. To prevent a critical labor shortage and to stay competitive in the global marketplace, programs designed to update, re-skill, and transition boomers into new careers will play a crucial role in keeping the U.S. economy afloat.
