Age in America

Our workforce system is failing older workers

Officer: There is not enough attention being paid to getting older adults upskilled and reskilled
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“The workforce system, as it stands in this country, is pretty decent when it comes to looking at younger people, folks in their 20s, 30s, and 40s,” says Gary Officer, the founder and CEO of CWI Labs. “But, as you age up into the system, the resources are not adequately made available to support older workers. And that’s a problem we have to both acknowledge, but also have to fix.”

CWI Labs is a nonprofit that aims to educate employers and policy makers on the value older workers contribute to the workforce. A big part of that education, he says, is to raise awareness about older workers locked out of the labor market, especially as technology and digital skills take an even more prominent role in all jobs.

“In many of the conversations about workforce opportunity around the effects of AI and the future of work, the conversation never addresses the issues of this emerging population of older workers, who by 2030, will become one of the largest single segments of our workforce.”

Officer cites apprenticeships as a great workforce development pathway for younger workers and jobseekers. He believes it doesn’t go far enough. “The change I’d like to see is a major infusion of investment into the workforce system that addresses the needs of all folks in the workforce and those seeking opportunities so they can be skilled and upskilled for in-demand occupations that would drive a 21st century U.S. economy.”

“Older Americans are not adequately being served by the workforce system and by employers. That’s an issue. The workforce system itself has to recognize its own flaws.”

Gary Officer spoke with me on the subject of age and workforce development as part of the Age in America series, a collaboration between WorkingNation and Scripps News Network which began in June.

Watch a clip from our interview below.

Reskilling older workers needs to be a priority | Age in America | Gary Officer

The way we do our jobs continues to change. Technology in some form or another is part of almost every industry now, and we need to make certain that we keep older adults up-to-date in the skills needed for them to remain in or rejoin the workforce and thrive.

Get more of our WorkingNation Age in America articles, videos, and podcasts here.
Get more of Scripps News’ Age in America coverage here.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.