Preparing for an aging workforce: The role of higher education

This article addresses four major topics. First, the authors present the critical demographic trends impacting the workforce of today and tomorrow, and specifically, the trend toward an aging workforce. Second, the authors discuss the rationale and the imperative for societal institutions, particularly higher education institutions, to prepare for the demographic shift toward an aging workforce. Third, the authors present an argument for. the inclusion of aging workforce issues in human resource development academic programs and what human resource development students should know about their roles in training and/or retraining personnel for an aging workforce. Fourth, the authors present alternative approaches that faculty affiliated with human resource development academic programs can select to insure that such programs, and the professionals prepared within them, focus on the challenges involved in an aging workforce.