Lifelong Learning: An Andragogical Approach to Education for the Aging Population

Introduction

There are many things that might be considered volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA), although the acronym VUCA has gained traction over the past few years as a way of describing today’s business world. The increasingly speedy, rocky and complicated landscape in which we operate, one with new challenges of technology, globalization and changing workforce demographics, leaves more unknown than ever before and moves at continued pace, changing the playing field altogether. It’s important that organizations and society today can change, flex and adapt to the VUCA world around them to succeed, although many businesses feel uneasy at the prospect of change. There’s a lot to adjust to, make sense of and consider, but fortunately, the learning technologies space doesn’t stand still, utilizing new and emerging forms of technology for learning to improve how organizations operate (LEO Learning, 2015). The VUCA world describes everything you need to know to understand today’s changing environment. Hence, today’s world requires new ways of thinking, change to happen more readily and on a larger scale than ever before.

We are confronted by an unprecedented longevity revolution that is transforming the world we have known. Inclusion for older people must have viewed in this context- although the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified existing vulnerabilities and inequalities in our society systems so that the world is already a different place. The dual impact of these unprecedented changes, along with the emerging technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, means that this is now a time to reimaging our society in fundamental terms as we rethink familiar concepts such as lifelong learning, learning cities and communities ‘recovering’ from the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic (UNESCO, 2021). The longevity dimension is a significant aspect of this rethinking process.

UNESCO (2021) pointed out clearly that the extent of the demographic change will require a shift, from an aging society narrative with a focus on the end of life, to a longevity approach that addresses the whole life-course in the era of ‘the hundred-year life’. This will require rethinking the role and stages of the education journey and giving new life of the concepts of lifelong learning and learning cities. It will stimulate innovation in exploring options for a sustainable society, such as people- centered ‘small society’.

Meeting the needs of aging populations has not generally been a priority for learning cities up to now; however, the magnitude of demographic change- with aging populations projects for the next 50 years- means that this situation must change from a traditional pedagogical approach toward implementing the assumptions and processes of andragogy (which is the art and science of helping facilitate the learning of adults). This requires a new generation of learning cities that are andragogically oriented, ‘longevity literate’ and connected to broader partnership in the quest for a sustainable and growth focused future. These developments have been supported throughout by human rights principles brought by the United Nations and more recently, by the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. Besides, a recent McKinsey Global Institute discussion paper forecast this development with the next wave of healthcare innovations ‘the evolution of ecosystem’ (Singhal et al., 2020). The solution to the inclusion dilemmas of our present society will come though the emergence of society for all ages, with stronger and more andragogically cohesive communities, services that are more integrated and client-focused, and an emphatic learning culture that bonds these dimensions together for a sustainable future (UNESCO, 2021). Therefore, lifelong learning will be the education for the aging population which also will have a new agenda.