By Richard W. Johnson, Janette Kawachi and Erik K. Lewis of The Urban Institute.
Published in 2009 by the AARP Public Policy Institute, this research paper looks into what kinds of workers are most frequently launching new careers mid-life or later, and examines the impacts on wages and benefits in career switches. The full text can be found at http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/econ/2009_08_recareering.pdf

The Community College of Allegheny County and two other colleges in the Pittsburgh area have announced they will offer tuition waivers for displaced workers. The tuition waivers apply to five high demand areas, three of them in healthcare fields: emergency medical technicians, certified nurse-aide training and phlebotomy.

A new report profiles 10 community colleges that are attracting experienced workers, engaging local employers and helping prepare boomers for meaningful work in the second half of life.

“I want an encore career, but how do I find one?” That’s a question asked by many members of Encore.org.

Kerry Hannon talked with Marc Freedman of Civic Ventures and other experts in midlife career planning for “Six Tips on Planning a Second Career” in the latest issue of U.S. News and World Report.

Freedman, author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, said few people start a second career purely for the money. “They’re searching for work that is fulfilling and gets them out of bed in the morning,” he told Hannon.

Idealist.org’s Mid-Career Transitions Resource Center supports mid-career professionals coming from a wide range of backgrounds. It is designed to support job seekers and the career development professionals who counsel them by developing online and real-world resources to help efficiently conduct a successful nonprofit job search.

Idealist.org is stepping up its efforts to list every nonprofit job in the country by waiving its usual $60 listing fee for nonprofit employers for the months of June.

“Our ultimate goal is to bring you every nonprofit job that’s open across the country (as well as internships and volunteer opportunities, which are always free),” explained Ami Dar, executive director of Idealist.org, inviting them to spread the word.

Frank Benest is stepping down in June as city manager of Palo Alto, Calif., after 36 years in local government. But he’s not retiring. Instead, he’s graduating to an encore career devoted to finding and preparing leaders to work in the public sector.

While serving as majordomo of one of California’s most innovative cities for the past eight years, Benest has laid the groundwork for a campaign to convince more people to work in local government. Come June, he’ll make it his primary concern.

The movement to vastly expand national service is recruiting hundreds of organizers for a fall campaign to mobilize public support.

The goal is spur the next president and Congress to quickly enact legislation that will engage 5 million or more Americans in service each year by 2012. The vision is to make the most common question Americans of all ages ask each other, “Where do you plan to do your service?”

Q. You’ve spent your career in a profit-making business but want your work to be more in line with your personal values… Is this the right reason to make a switch?

Eilene Zimmerman tackles this and other questions about encore transitions to the nonprofit sector in her “Career Couch” column in the New York Times.

In her answer, she quotes Steven Pascal-Joiner, midcareer transitions coordinator for Idealist.org. “It’s not enough to say, ‘I want to work for a nonprofit,’” he said. “You need to know what kind of organization you want to work for, the role you want to play and why.”

The first wave of “next generation” of nonprofit leaders may be nonprofit executives and others now in their 40s and 50s, according to a new report on the nonprofit leadership gap.

The study, “Ready to Lead? Next Generation Leaders Speak Out,” focuses on the need to nurture young leaders in their 20s and 30s. But it has important ramifications for experienced workers, too.