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A new start? Negotiations of age and chrononormativity by older apprentices in England

A new start? Negotiations of age and chrononormativity by older apprentices in England
A new start? Negotiations of age and chrononormativity by older apprentices in England
The decision to start a new career might seem an unusual one to make in later life. However, England has seen a steady rise in numbers of workers undertaking an apprenticeship in their fifties and sixties, through a government-funded policy initiative opening up training to adults at all stages of the lifecourse. At the same time, in most Western contexts, the amalgamation of ‘older’ and ‘apprentice’ presents a challenge to normative understandings of the ‘right age’ to undertake vocational training. What is it like to make a new start as an older worker? This paper draws on new qualitative research conducted in England with older apprentices, exploring how they found the experience and management of training ‘out of step’. Inspired by Elizabeth Freeman’s temporalities approach, our findings reveal how powerful norms of age-normativity routinely structure understandings, experiences and identities of older-age training for both organisations and apprentices. While these norms demand careful negotiation by both apprentices and trainers, if managed successfully older workers gain significant benefits from their training. These findings have resonance not only for England, but for other international contexts considering expanding vocational training into older age. The paper concludes that if adult training schemes are to succeed, some fundamental changes may need to be made to understandings of age and ageing within contemporary workplaces.
Apprentices, age and ageing, older workers, work, training, transitions, gender, temporality.
0144-686X
1667-1692
Leonard, Pauline
a2839090-eccc-4d84-ab63-c6a484c6d7c1
Fuller, Alison
0b5ba9fd-c1af-448d-8dba-c5dfaa515702
Unwin, Lorna
0d70372a-5f6c-49b8-82e4-e38cb7c93230
Leonard, Pauline
a2839090-eccc-4d84-ab63-c6a484c6d7c1
Fuller, Alison
0b5ba9fd-c1af-448d-8dba-c5dfaa515702
Unwin, Lorna
0d70372a-5f6c-49b8-82e4-e38cb7c93230

Leonard, Pauline, Fuller, Alison and Unwin, Lorna (2018) A new start? Negotiations of age and chrononormativity by older apprentices in England. Ageing & Society, 38 (8), 1667-1692. (doi:10.1017/S0144686X17000204).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The decision to start a new career might seem an unusual one to make in later life. However, England has seen a steady rise in numbers of workers undertaking an apprenticeship in their fifties and sixties, through a government-funded policy initiative opening up training to adults at all stages of the lifecourse. At the same time, in most Western contexts, the amalgamation of ‘older’ and ‘apprentice’ presents a challenge to normative understandings of the ‘right age’ to undertake vocational training. What is it like to make a new start as an older worker? This paper draws on new qualitative research conducted in England with older apprentices, exploring how they found the experience and management of training ‘out of step’. Inspired by Elizabeth Freeman’s temporalities approach, our findings reveal how powerful norms of age-normativity routinely structure understandings, experiences and identities of older-age training for both organisations and apprentices. While these norms demand careful negotiation by both apprentices and trainers, if managed successfully older workers gain significant benefits from their training. These findings have resonance not only for England, but for other international contexts considering expanding vocational training into older age. The paper concludes that if adult training schemes are to succeed, some fundamental changes may need to be made to understandings of age and ageing within contemporary workplaces.

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A new start - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 31 January 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 March 2017
Published date: August 2018
Keywords: Apprentices, age and ageing, older workers, work, training, transitions, gender, temporality.
Organisations: Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 406299
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/406299
ISSN: 0144-686X
PURE UUID: 9d9d9079-8de1-401e-844a-3361bd875841
ORCID for Pauline Leonard: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8112-0631

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 10 Mar 2017 10:44
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 04:21

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Contributors

Author: Pauline Leonard ORCID iD
Author: Alison Fuller
Author: Lorna Unwin

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