In the second half of life it often becomes challenging to embrace new learning (let alone retraining) due to the question of “is it too late”? But would you think differently about what was reasonable in your transition to a green job if you knew you would live to 100? Avivah Wittenberg-Cox writes about later life learning in this recent article:
My 60th birthday gift to myself is a year back in school. Where some may opt for a cruise or a new car, I’ve opted for a dose of new friends, new ideas and a new country. I’m off to Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) this January, for all of 2022. It’s designed to accompany experienced leaders from their for-profit lives to their for-purpose futures (and maybe help save the world along the way). The world – and its fast-ageing population – need more of these ‘transition mechanisms.’ Because the key lesson I’ve taken from several years’ worth of research on life’s ‘third quarter’ is this: if you don’t lean in to preparing for it and managing it, you risk getting left by the side of the lengthening longevity road.
The pioneering ALI program was the first of its kind. In 2005, three Harvard professors, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria, wrote a paper proposing a new model for universities: “a third stage of education to prepare experienced leaders, in the period of their lives once called ‘retirement,’ for service activities addressing societal problems.” Since then, the idea has spread. Tempted? There’s a list to inspire you at the bottom of this article. There is nothing quite like these elsewhere in the world, something I hope to work on while I’m there. Read the full article on Forbes.