Society and Demographic Change

Improved living conditions, peace and better social support systems have started a process of change in the age structure of the population in industrialized nations. The rise in the average age of the population is leading to changes in our everyday life and work. How is society dealing with these changes? How can we make use of the opportunities available and profit from the experience of the older generation? Health research and the production and services industries are called upon to provide solutions for the areas of initial and continuing vocational training and for redesigning our cities. The BMBF is funding measures to tackle demographic chance under various research programmes.

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The changes in the age structure of society have not been sudden or unexpected and this process is already being studied closely. Today's population pyramid is the result of a long-term development, which has been evident for many years.

The first consequences have been structural adjustments to our social support system. The number of schools is currently being reduced to meet the drop in the number of children of school age. In ten years' time, when these children become adolescents, we will begin to experience a shortage of trainees and later a shortage of skilled staff.
As with all long-term developments whose consequences will not be visible to the general public until 2020 or even 2050, there is a danger that the time needed to develop alternatives and rethink our ideas could pass by unused.

People are currently discussing the changes in the social insurance and medical care systems as the most important results of demographic change. But these are only the most noticeable aspects of this phenomenon. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is devoting its attention to a comprehensive range of important questions in this context. It is studying the effects of demographic change on society within the scope of various specialist programmes and developing strategies to enable society to react to foreseeable changes in good time.

Health Research

Of course, one of the BMBF's main focuses is the area of health research. Apart from measures to improve the avoidance, early diagnosis and treatment of diseases which become more frequent as the population ages, research is also concentrating on projects and tools aimed at maintaining autonomy and mobility in later life.

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  topic Research

  Healthy Ageing

  The chances of ageing healthily have never been better. Rapid medical advances in particular mean that average life expectancy has been increasing continuously over the past 100 years and it is expected to increase even further in the future. The development of preventive medicine and the early diagnosis of numerous diseases are important for healthy ageing. This applies in particular to dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/10849.php)
   
  

The Living Environment

We must also adapt our everyday lives to meet changes in the age structure in Germany. The increasing share of older people in our society is leading to changes in the demand for products and services, in continuing and further training, and in shaping our immediate living environment. What consequences will demographic change have for mobility and the way we live our daily lives, and thus for the structure of our towns? We must focus our attention on these questions today if we want to be able to react in the long term. The BMBF is studying all of these areas in various research programmes and is developing alternatives. The BMBF intends to make sure that time does not pass unused.

Education

Lifelong learning also offers older people new opportunities to keep up with changes in everyday life. The older generation is an important pillar of society. Older people can initiate new developments because they have an advantage over other generations in many fields of know-how. The advantages resulting from this knowledge can enrich society. Society can make use of this wealth of experience and can help to create greater added value against the background of demographic developments.

The make-up of workforces in individual companies is shifting as the age structure of our population changes. The potential of older members of staff is becoming more important as fewer young people are setting out on a career. Society has recognized that we can maintain the employability of people up to pension age by providing continuous, lifelong training. We can thus uphold the innovative strength and productivity of our society even in times of demographic change. Older personnel have better employment opportunities if their know-how and skills are constantly adapted to meet new vocational demands. A 55 year-old who has constantly undergone further training and whose knowledge is state-of-the art has one great advantage over a 25 year-old: 30 years of professional experience. This combination of experience and up-to-date knowledge is a considerable advantage for both employee and employer. They must work together purposefully to take advantage of the opportunities it offers.  
 

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  topic Education

  Lifelong learning

  The saying that you can't teach an old dog new tricks no longer applies in this day and age. Learning no longer stops as soon as people finish school, training or university. Learning is an essential tool for acquiring education and thus for shaping one's individual opportunities, both in life and at work. The Federal Government adopted the Concept for Lifelong Learning on 23 April 2008 in order to improve the situation in this area. The concept links up with measures which have been implemented under the Federal Government's Qualification Initiative.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/lebenslangeslernen.php)
   
  

Industry

Our country's economic strength depends on how successful we are in adapting working conditions in the production and service industries to meet the rising average age of the working population and the fall in the number of young people starting out on their careers. In a few years' time, it will be vital for companies to find answers to a number of questions:

• Should production be automated still further to make up for the shortage of staff?
• How can work be organized in such as way as to keep the qualifications of staff members up to date   how can work and continuous training be better linked?
• What consequences does the shift in emphasis from initial training to continuous training have for the area of education?
• What are the consequences for companies when fewer and fewer young people begin training and start on a career?

The BMBF is funding research to provide answers to these questions in conjunction with the two sides of industry.

Making use of the Demography Initiative in practice

In an initial phase, tools were drawn up under scientific supervision and in cooperation with the two sides of industry, industrial associations and over 130 companies. The results were presented at a conference in Berlin on 28 June 2005. In the second phase, it is now a matter of making these successful examples accessible to as wide a public as possible.
The portal http://www.demowerkzeuge.de/ was set up in conjunction with the two sides of industry. It offers all companies special new tools for dealing with changes resulting from an ageing workforce. These include inter alia

• new instruments in the fields of staff planning and structural analysis, which have been simplified in order to make them suitable for SMEs
• traditional instruments of staff utilization and deployment, such as a staff utilization matrix
• proposals on staff structure and work design - for example the formation of mixed-age teams, the transfer of knowledge from experienced staff who are shortly to leave the company to their future successors, or the formation of tandems to ensure close cooperation over certain periods of time.