Aging problem

Social driving force of The Future of Technology in Secondary Education in 2020

Description:

The problem of an aging population in combination with the future of education consists of two parts mainly. Firstly there is the ageing population itself that needs care, but also may wish to come to a new sense of self-actualization. Secondly, there is the population of today and tomorrow, those that take care of the elderly in the present and those that need to be inspired to join the care sector when joining the workforce.

Enablers:

• Pensioners have ample free time and may wish to undertake a new challenge.
• It is a widely acknowledged problem and politics has this high on their agenda.
• Despite the unpopularity of the care sector, people actually do wish to resolve this issue.

Inhibitors:

• With increasing age comes reduced learning ability.
• People that have finished education to the point they feel (or at the time felt) to be sufficient, will not eagerly go back to education.
• The care sector is not exactly the most popular to work in currently. Low pay and high workload deters potential employees from entering this sector.
• Not enough people are trained to work in the care sector, and the number of capable people is either declining or at the most optimistic not growing in line with demand.

Paradigms:

Our population is rapidly ageing. If we don’t act on it quickly, we will end up with a workforce that is not educated to deal with this fact and a ‘pensioners force’ that cannot be re-schooled anymore.

Experts:

• Ministry of Education
• Ministry of Public Health
• Center for Work and Income

Timing:

By the year 2020, care for the elderly will have increased so much in cost that it simply is no longer affordable from tax payments alone. The government issues new state loans to close the gap, leading to economic decline and fall by 2040, while the care centers by 2020 have started charging insane amounts of money in order to stay afloat. This leads to a new segregation in the population between rich and poor. Now, even after their pension they cannot simply rest.

On a brighter note, many pensioners wanted to rejoin the workforce. However, they were almost completely ignored by businesses until the Freedom of Wages Act of 2035 which was a last rescue attempt for the economy. It wasn’t until ‘the old folks’ could be hired as cheaply as apprentices that corporate life wished to take them under its wings.