OLDER AUSTRALIANS

There has been an increasing focus on the education of older Australians and on lifelong learning in recent years, with discussions focusing on the need to develop and update the knowledge and skills required to meet changes in the labour market. The education of older Australians, through both formal and non-formal means, is one way of increasing people's capacity to enter, remain in, or return to work. Education can also enrich the lives of older people by providing them with opportunities to develop new, or extend existing, interests and hobbies during their retirement.

Over the past decade, the educational attainment and participation of older Australians has increased. In 2009, older Australians (aged 55-64 years) were more likely to hold a vocational or higher education qualification (54%), compared with those of the same age in 1999 (38%). The same pattern was reflected among people aged 45-54 years (61% in 2009 compared with 49% in 1999). This is partly due to the cohort influence of younger qualified people moving into the older cohorts as they age. However, over this period educational participation also increased for older Australians.

While older Australians have considerably lower rates of attainment and educational participation than younger Australians, they have more comparable rates of engagement in informal learning. In 2009, around four in five older Australians engaged in informal learning compared with 85% for those aged 54 years and under.

	Education participation rate			People with a vocational or higher education qualification
	May 1999	May 2009		May 1999	May 2009
Age group (years)	%	%		%	%
15-24	56.0	58.1		22.7	26.5
25-34	13.2	14.6		52.9	68.6
35-44	8.8	9.1		53.0	64.3
45-54	4.6	6.5		48.5	61.1
55-64	2.0	2.7		37.9	53.9
Total 25-64	7.9	8.6		49.3	62.5
Total 15-64	18.1	18.9		43.7	55.0

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