New Pew Study on Graying of Workforce & Independent Educational Consulting

September 3, 2009 | no comments

by Mark H. Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

The Pew Research Center released a new study today that confirms what many suspected: the American work force is older than ever before as increasing numbers of seniors continue to work and the economy has led many younger people to remain in school. The Pew Research was based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau. I could have told them the same without the costly research. Last week while vacationing the evidence was everywhere. The ride operators throughout Disney World, once the realm of pimple-faced adolescents, were instead seniors—many well into their 70s who donned costumes for their role in Fantasyland or Tomorrowland. When I drove my daughter Jaimie to the airport so she could attend an orientation for her new major, we both marveled at the toll-takers, all well into what we used to think of as “retirement years.”

According to Pew, most older workers—about 54%—say they continue to work because they want to. They say they are healthy, productive and see no reason to stop working. A sizable, but smaller number—around 40%—say they continue to work out of economic necessity, a growing number given the losses many experienced in their retirement savings in recent years. Given longer life spans, improved health and the bubble of aging baby boomers, we are likely just at the start of this growing trend.

All of this may explain, in some way, the quickened pace in the growth of independent educational consulting. While we continue to see a small increase in first-career interest in the field, consulting has become a serious career choice for those in their 50s and beyond, with a few wonderful, active consultants I know still hitting those campus tours well into their 80s. Why is consulting such a great choice for the second and third career-seekers?

In part it allows those who have amassed knowledge: in counseling and admission of course, but also in social work, legal advocacy, nursing, and teaching, to use this lifetime of acquired knowledge and skills. This alone has fueled the success of our Transitioning to Private Practice workshop. It’s also a field that keeps you thinking and acting young: show me any 75-year-old who has continued to work with teenagers and I’ll show you someone who knows what adolescents today are thinking, watching, listening to, and a senior who is not afraid of new technologies. They look, act, and think younger than their peers. For many, consulting offers a great financial opportunity: take the retirement pay earned through years of institutional work and now work in a similar field to supplement financially. Of course, independent educational consultants can set their own work hours: taking as few or as many clients as they need, want, or have interest in serving.

We also know—from our own research—that for consultants the greatest reward is serving students, being part of guiding them to successful educational careers. But many find that the other positive aspects of the work keep you feeling young, vibrant and connected: traveling with colleagues to visit campuses across the country, attending conferences, living in dorms during trainings, connecting with students, parents and peers through Facebook and listserves, welcoming a new crop of adolescents each year, and seeing excited faces when acceptance letters arrive, or solving critical family dilemmas and setting a student’s course in the right direction.

This may be one reason that so many members of the IECA—a recent review suggested 70%—not only attend conferences and events but get actively involved in the organization: planning conferences, joining committees, creating affinity groups, local study groups, travel groups, and more. In the Pew Study they refer to the “desire to stay active”; certainly independent educational consulting and IECA are welcoming of those seeking a career in the field that requires such activity—and reward it with success measured on so many levels.

Such a trend serves us all incredibly well.