Learning to stay employable

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of chronological age and formaland informal learning activities on employability. Furthermore, indirect effects of age on employabilityvia learning activities were tested.Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted quantitative, cross-sectional surveyresearch (n¼780) in three Dutch and Austrian organizations to study the relationship betweenchronological age, formal and informal learning activities, and employability using structural equationmodeling.Findings – The authors find that both formal and informal learning increase employees’ employability.However, each type of learning contributes to different components of employability. Additionally, theauthors find indirect effects of chronological age on employability via formal learning.Research limitations/implications – The results question the focus on chronological age inorganizational and political decision making and contribute new insights for the management of anincreasingly older workforce.Practical implications – The findings question the predominant use of chronological age asdecisive criterion in organizational and national policies and call for closer examination of stereotypesagainst older employees. Employees should be supported in pursuing learning activities – irrespectiveof their chronological age. The implications of limiting employees’ access to formal learning activitiesmay limit their future employability. Individual employees, however, are in control of their informallearning activities, and this is a very important lever to maintain and develop employability.Social implications – Given the increasing dependency of social welfare systems on older people’sactive participation in the labor market, this study stresses that it is not chronological age per se thataffects people’s employability. This diverges from the way of how chronological age is used in policymaking.Originality/value – This study contributes further evidence for the relationships of age and formaland informal learning on employability. Additionally, it extends previous literature by examiningdifferent effects on different facets of employability, criticizing the prevalent use of chronological age,and investigating potential mediation effects.