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With worldwide fall in fertility rates and significant rises in life expectancy, the age of the world’s population is rising. It is estimated by the World Health Organisation, WHO, that by 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world, almost 17%, will be aged 60 years or over1. In Europe, a major demographic shift has already occurred: as of 2024, the population aged 65 years and older officially outnumbers those under the age of 15. Looking further ahead, it is estimated that by 2050, the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years will nearly double to 22%, with the number of people aged 80 years or older expected to triple from 2020 numbers to reach 426 million.
This aging population brings complex challenges to governments worldwide, placing immense pressure on public finances, social care, and health services. In the UK, the Government has scaled up its digital and Jobcentre-led “mid-life MOT” schemes, expanding the initiative to reach tens of thousands of citizens, specifically designed to help people aged 45 to 65 assess their finances, health, and skills, while actively encouraging older demographic groups back into the workforce.
As we get older, our organs and tissues change, and signals from the brain take longer to process and travel around the body. The structure of our cells and the function of molecules, which are influenced by age, our environment, and way of life, change over time, resulting in a higher risk of disease and death. Many conditions become common in the elderly, such as deafness, loss of sight, joint pain, depression and dementia.
So, as people live longer, one of the many challenges they face is how to remain both physically and mentally healthy so that they can enjoy the opportunities available to them. Many people over 65 years would like to stay in the workforce, and many more employers now benefit from the knowledge and experience of the older worker. However, most job roles require that the individual maintain cognitive ability, the skills involved in performing the tasks associated with perception, learning, memory, understanding, awareness, reasoning, judgment, intuition, and language4, something often lost with age.
Neuroscience research has shown that brain ageing may be reversible by restructuring the brain maps through learning experiences3. In the research ‘The aging mind: neuroplasticity in response to cognitive training,’ it suggests that there are specific experiences and behaviors that provide protection from age-related decline, for example, education, engaging work, and leading an active lifestyle5. The WHO also stated that learning contributes to keeping elderly people active and flexible3. Many other studies suggest that people who lead intellectually stimulating lives are more likely to be free of dementia conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
As Harvard Health states in their article Train the Brain ‘Practicing a new and challenging activity is a good bet for building and maintaining cognitive skills. Your brain has the ability to learn and grow as you age, but for it to do so, you have to train it on a regular basis’6.
Learning something new can challenge the mind, be fun, stimulating, and as we’ve heard, will help to maintain cognitive skills. One very valuable skill to learn for those who are not familiar with it is the use of the internet and using technology for everyday tasks, such as shopping and communicating with friends, family, or at work.
A clinical trial led by McGill University demonstrated that older adults using an online platform for 10 weeks showed a 2.3% increase in Acetylcholine8. This is a vital neurotransmitter for memory and attention that typically declines with age, essentially rolling back the brain’s biological clock by a decade.
Alzheimer’s Society emphasizes that while online training is a useful tool, it should be paired with physical aerobic exercise, a healthy diet, and active social engagement for maximum dementia prevention9.
For an affordable, easily accessible and flexible way of learning, online learning is an excellent solution. It’s available any time at any place, using a PC, laptop, tablet or smart phone.
Author: Carolyn Lewis, Head of Business Development
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