Educating a new generation of professionals in aging worldwide

The theme for the 43rd Annual Meeting and Educational Leadership Conference of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education is “The Future is Here: Educating a New Generation of Professionals in Aging Worldwide.” This special issue offers thoughtful approaches to increasing awareness of the challenges and presents strategies toward meeting the urgent need for a gerontologically trained workforce across the world. According to a report by the United Nations (2015):

between 2015 and 2030, the number of people in the world aged 60 years or over is projected to grow by 56 per cent, from 901 million to 1.4 billion, and by 2050, the global population of older persons is projected to more than double its size in 2015, reaching nearly 2.1 billion. (p. 2)

The need for a workforce of educated professionals in aging is also increasing. Stretching from the public sector and private industry to individuals, skilled workers who are trained in gerontology and geriatric education are required. However financial constraints and a variety of other factors have affected the number of gerontology and geriatric programs available around the world. In some countries the field is flourishing in terms of educational programs and jobs for graduates, whereas in others programs are closing, never existed or have become stagnant.

The articles contained in this issue address gerontology and geriatric education in a global context. Although educational needs vary from one country to the next, each country seeks people with adequate knowledge and skills to care for its older population and to create opportunities for older adults to prosper in later life and continue to make valuable contributions to their communities. We have much to learn from each other including how a particular country or region has approached gerontological education, the outcomes of its approach, and lessons learned. The authors in this issue were tasked with spotlighting gerontological programs including how they were developed and maintained, challenges faced with developing and maintaining programs, comparing programs across a single or multiple nations, and describing perceived impacts on aging policy in their countries, and presenting visions for future directions.

Establishing competencies in gerontology

In 2014, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) adopted a competency framework for undergraduate and graduate gerontology education.¹ Programs in the United States are beginning to utilize these competencies in curriculum development and to educate employers on what skills and knowledge can be expected when hiring a gerontologist. Programs in Europe are leading similar efforts to ensure that their curricular offerings result in knowledgeable and skilled gerontologists needed to meet the demands of their respective aging populations. Schoenmakers, Damron-Rodriguez, Frank, Pianosi, and Jukema explore whether there is a common core of competencies in European undergraduate gerontology education programs by comparing five programs through a content analysis that resulted in 15 core elements clustering around the themes of professional attitude, communication skills, and service provision. The authors suggest that a next step for the European programs might be to review the common features across their programs and to map them onto the AGHE Gerontology Competencies that focus on foundational, interactive, and contextual competencies for gerontology. Readers can find that mapping tool on the AGHE Website.²

Other countries are recognizing the importance of expressing the skills and knowledge that can be expected of gerontologists. These competency statements are particularly valuable when written in clear and accessible language that is understood by others outside of gerontology and particularly by prospective employers and policy leaders. Canadian colleagues Boscart, McCleary, Huson, Sheiban, and Harvey reviewed the extent to which gerontological competencies are embedded in the published and grey health and social service literature in Canada. After noting that their review resulted in the observation that gerontological education remains insufficient, they offer recommendations for federal and provincial policies to establish educational accreditation programs in geriatrics, develop core competencies, and integrate these competencies into regulatory frameworks.

McCall and Börjesson continue with the discussion of competencies and challenge us to consider whether we can reach consensus on a global curriculum and/or set of competencies in gerontology. They present the aging trends in the United States and in Sweden and assess the level of training needed for a competent workforce. They observe that the education and training of people who work in the aging network in the United States differs from the education and training received in Sweden. Specifically, in Sweden there is a greater integration of aging education into disciplinary fields like social work or nursing; whereas in the United States there is a more specialized approach with discipline-specific subfields of aging programs such as geropsychology and aging services administration. They conclude that both countries have much to learn from each other.

Challenges in program development

Three countries learning about program development from each other are Japan, Taiwan, and Turkey. Ikeuchi, Lu, Holdsworth, Arun, Wang, Murakami, and Osada share their comparative analysis of masters’ programs in their respective countries. Although the aging demographics differ from the relatively young society in Turkey to the older population countries of Taiwan and Turkey, they discovered many similarities relative to developing and providing gerontological education. At the time of the preparation of this manuscript, each country had only one acknowledged master’s program in gerontology. The authors share their common and unique challenges as well as vision for a global standard and need for increased awareness and advocacy within their own nations.

Latin America has far fewer gerontological programs compared to other regions in the world. Rivera-Hernandez, Cerqueda, and Ramírez focus on the special challenges faced by Mexico and its limited education opportunities to train policy makers, researchers and practitioners. The authors review the past 60 years of gerontological and geriatric education in Mexico. Although related institutions and the government would like to improve education, the authors conclude that funding and resources are needed to further expand gerontological and geriatric education. More research needs to be conducted and an exploration of the training needs of faculty and increased training opportunities for students are also highlighted. In general, their findings are not unique when compared to other countries, especially those with limited gerontological and geriatric education opportunities.

Similar to Mexico and Latin America, India’s need for geriatric education is important more now than ever as it experiences a sharp increase in its older population with limited education. Pati, Sharma, Pati, and Zodpey explore the current status of geriatric programs in India including content, duration, architecture, and student intake among the 20 programs identified. The authors underscore the lack of geriatric training in undergraduate programs, nonexistence of a geriatric clinical specialty, and the limited possibilities for increasing capacity in geriatric education. They highlight the need for change in the education structure at the national level as well as exploration of alternative forms of education.

The student experience

Study abroad, student and faculty exchanges, and research and teaching sabbaticals are all opportunities to enhance cultural understanding. Kruger, Gilland, Frank, Murphy, English, Meade, Morrow, and Rush, share a truly integrated international learning experience. They report on research conducted within a course experience where students and faculty had the opportunity to visit Finland and conduct a cross-cultural comparison after visiting sites in both countries.

Community partnerships and service learning enable students and faculty to engage in experiential activities that promote opportunities to demonstrate competence in gerontology while directly benefitting older adults, their families and care partners, and their communities. Neal, Cannon, DeLaTorre, Bolkan, Wernher, Nolan, López Norori, Largaespada-Frederscdorff, and Brown Wilson report on a course developed in 2004 and continued yearly where students completed coursework for one term in the United States and then traveled to Nicaragua for about 2 weeks to participate in educational, research, and service activities, primarily in group homes for older Nicaraguans.

Each of these articles highlights the challenges and opportunities to increase and improve gerontology and geriatric education on a global level. As the fields evolve and the need of the older population changes, education programs must continue to adapt in content, format, and delivery. The articles in this special issue make a positive contribution to the future development of gerontological and geriatric education.

Notes

1. https://www.aghe.org/resources/gerontology-competencies-for-undergraduate-and-graduate-education

2. https://www.aghe.org/images/aghe/competencies/aghe_gerocompmappingtool.pdf