75 is the new 65: why pensioners should be going back to school

Report recommends extra funding for courses to help elderly remain in work

Maria Tolly is one of a growing army of seventysomethings going back to the classroom late in life to help them carry on working.

The 76-year-old was a professional guitarist who specialised in political folk music – "quite like Billy Bragg but in the early 80s", as she puts it – until a disability meant she could no longer compose or perform.

She suffered from reflex sympathetic dystrophy which affected her hands and arms and so, two years ago, Ms Tolly went to London's City Lit, the largest adult education provider in the capital, and learnt how to compose using computer software programs so she could continue with her passion for music. She is now a septuagenarian software developer.

Ms Tolly, of Enfield, north London, has won an award for her work from the National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE). It is cases such as hers that prompted a major inquiry into the future of adult education, published today. It recommends a significant shift in resources to providing more courses, particularly for students aged for 60 to 75.

The inquiry, chaired by Professor Sir David Watson of London University's Institute of Education, concludes: "Policy should treat 75 as the normal upper age limit for economic activity, replacing the outmoded 60 to 65.

"This is not a call for everyone to work to 75 but a recognition that 'retirement' will increasingly become a gradual and uneven process lasting several years."

It suggests that official employment statistics should in future include those aged 60 to 75. The inquiry also calls for money to be diverted from the 18- to 25-year-old age group – which currently receives 86 per cent of the £55bn a year spent on adult learning – to older people.

It wants to see an extra £800m a year spent on students aged between 50 and 75 by the end of the next decade. "With the UK's demographics set to change, numbers in this [18 to 25] group will fall, while those in older groups will rise significantly by 2020," the study adds.

The report has found favour with the Conservatives, whose Universities and Skills spokesman, David Willetts, said: "This is an excellent report and my party will study it carefully because we do want to reverse the shocking decline in adult education. In just two years, 1.4 million places have disappeared."

He said the Tories had identified £100m of savings that could be made from the Government's "Train to Gain" programme which his party would earmark for adult education.

Ian Searle, the chairman of the University of the Third Age, said lifelong learning was essential for improving health "and therefore reducing the demands on the NHS". "We want ministers to ensure that resources are there in the future," he added.

Ms Tolly is devising creative dance projects for her local primary school and one of her compositions intended to turn children on to reading, "Book Rap", will be featured at the opening of a new library near her home. She has also written music for teaching maths.

Middlesex University Press has shown an interest in three of her courses, with a view to publishing them and making them available to other schools. "That would be good because I could get paid for it," Ms Tolly said. "My work with the school has been voluntary.

"What the course has done, though, is allowed me to spend an extraordinary number of hours working on my own on my music. It has been a lifeline. That's what I've always wanted to do – to continue to make music. If it wasn't for that City Lit course, I can't imagine what I'd have been doing."

Sir David's report also recommends topping up individual learning accounts for adults when they reach a significant birthday so they could use the money to help pay for courses.

Such a move would find favour with Ms Tolly. She said she had to pay for all her courses, but this could be prohibitive for other "oldies" seeking to learn.

Continuing education: The key proposals

The recommendations of Sir David Watson's inquiry include:

* The Government should treat 75 as the normal upper age limit for working – not 60 or 65.

* Funding should be switched from students aged 18 to 25 to older age groups.

* A birthday bonus should be paid into individual learning accounts for adults when they reach a significant age (such as 50) to help them pay for education courses.

* Those aged 75 and over should benefit from extra cash aid to help them study, thus reducing demand on the NHS by keeping them active.

* Official employment statistics should in future include all those up to the age of 75.