‘Doing an apprenticeship at 60 paid off’

Jennie Smith was made redundant at 59, but is now enjoying a new career. By Benedict Smith

Jennie Smith always assumed she would get to choose when she retired. But when she was made redundant aged 59 after two decades working for a media company, she faced the prospect of a “cliff- edge retirement”: an abrupt, often involuntary, end to working life that affects about a 10th of 55 to 64 year- olds in Britain.

With only a small mortgage and three grown-up children, Ms Smith had little financial incentive to seek new work. But she was determined not to let the shock of redundancy knock her out of the workforce. Instead, she decided to start retraining to make herself useful in a new profession: decluttering.

“I felt like I still had a lot to offer,” she says. “I’d always enjoyed decluttering and so it made sense when I was made redundant to dive headlong into it as a second career.”

Smith bought books on how to organise homes, attended workshops and conferences to meet others in the sector, and signed up to a six-week interior design course.

At first she helped only friends and family to gain experience. But after building confidence, she registered her business – Kent and Sussex Decluttering – and started offering her services online. Before long she had built up a steady list of clients.

“There is a real need for helping people move house, especially when they downsize,” Smith says. “The demand means I can work fewer hours and make the same amount, or more, than I would per day in my old job.”

As Britain grapples with its most acute labour shortage in recent history, retraining to stave off a cliff-edge retirement has become crucial.

Last year, the House of Lords economic affairs committee warned that rising inactivity can pose “serious” economic challenges.

While it found that long-term sickness was the single biggest driver of stretch,” he says. The training has proved invaluable, allowing him to progress from grants team leader to project funding officer, and also giving him the confidence to go in new directions.

David Sinclair, of the International Longevity Centre, suggests that not everyone needs to become a tech whizz. The impact of working on savings – and emotional well-being – means that as long as it keeps people in the workforce, retraining of any kind is worthwhile.

“As you get older, financial reward, while important, is a lot less important than having a good quality job,” he says.

This was the thinking of Rod Lambert, from Kent, after he faced a cliffedge retirement aged just 50.

Having worked as a sales director for more than 25 years, he picked up an injury that meant he could no longer cover the long distances the job demanded. Mr Lambert opted for early retirement but shortly after turning 60, it became clear his savings wouldn’t stretch to sustain his lifestyle.

However, like Jennie Smith, the idea of going back into his old profession didn’t appeal. Instead, he began supplying equipment for pickleball – an increasingly popular racket sport that he had picked up as a hobby. Then, when his local tennis club in Tunbridge Wells became interested in offering pickleball classes to members, he decided to retrain as an instructor.

“Pickleball has exploded around the world in the last 10 years and I was an early adopter,” he says.

In the absence of formal government initiatives, Smith believes apprenticeships and the sort of training she did will play an increasingly important role for over-50s.

“My generation has a lot of lived experience and an understanding of people that can only be gained with maturity. To lose all of that would be a real shame.

“We shouldn’t be on the scrapheap. We do have a lot to offer. A different skill set from a younger person, perhaps, but certainly a much needed one.”