By Stephen Lissenburgh and Deborah Smeaton An increasing number of people are leaving work before state pension age and a number of initiatives have been launched to tap into this valuable economic potential as the younger labour force shrinks. The authors look at the way that flexible jobs bridge the gap between full employment and retirement. They suggest options to promote flexible working.

A new partnership has been agreed by the Department for Education, Oracle, and the Specialist Schools Trust to boost ICT education in schools which apply to become Maths and Computing, Technology or Business and Enterprise Colleges under the Government’s Specialist Schools ProgrammeOracle, the world’s largest enterprise software company, will supply software, learning materials, and teacher training to 40 prospective specialist schools via its Internet Academy, a move estimated to be worth more than 100,000 pounds per school. Schools which benefit will be able to count the support as half of the 50,000 pounds total sponsorship they are required to raise before they can become specialist institutions. The schools will raise the rest of the sponsorship money themselves.

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The number of people casting a vote in this year’s local elections in areas trying out new forms of balloting went down in most cases. A study by the Electoral Reform Society shows that in only one area did e-voting lead to a significant rise in turnout.The survey of local election pilots found that e-voting was not the answer to raising participation. The average turnout in councils using electronic methods fell by 1.5% and the Society’s report concludes, “It remains the case that e-voting increases convenience but does not increase the number of people who feel it is worthwhile voting. For this reason, it is our conclusion that electronic remote voting fails the Government’s test of increasing turnout.”

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