Career trends

Studies in Aging is a field with a future. The increased longevity of our population as a whole, and the movement of the baby boom generation into its senior years, are creating significant demand for professionals with knowledge and expertise in aging.

Excellent opportunities exist, including:

• serving as a health professional on an interdisciplinary team providing care or developing programs for older adults in acute, continuing or community care settings
• promoting healthy aging in a community setting
• coordinating information for housing agencies, lawyers, transportation providers, social services or family counsellors
• teaching about aging to youthful students or retirement planning to older adults
• consulting with businesses about how to develop products and services to meet the needs of older consumers
• entrepreneurial opportunities for those wishing to design products or services specifically for older consumers
• developing age-related products or providing services to older adults
• becoming a life review and reminiscence facilitator
• being a seniors employment counselor
• if you are an architect, engineer or urban planner, becoming knowledgeable on designing and building residential facilities appropriate for older adults.
• planning, guiding and/or marketing travel and leisure programs.

For more information about gerontology and the many career options it offers, visit www.alis.gov.ab.ca and go to the occinfo section and search for "Gerontological Specialist". You may also want to visit two sites from the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education www.careersinaging.com and www.aghe.org.

You can find other interesting examples at the following websites:

http://ww2.sjc.edu/PDF/careers_in_aging.pdf

http://www.albany.edu/faculty/mcclion/hiap/social.html

http://www.unt.edu/aging/center/careers.htm

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