We are not only getting older, but fortunately we are also staying an active part of society for longer. A working life at 70 years of age, or even later, is no longer unthinkable. Young professionals entering the job market are expected to hold seventeen different positions in about five to six different sectors during their working lives; functions and sectors that we don't even know about yet. And innovation is also accelerating. More than two-thirds of the generation that is now starting school will perform functions that do not yet exist. And, conversely, half of the activities that people do now to make a living can be automated with technologies that have already been proven.

So, in any case, it doesn't seem like it’s going to be boring. But does it still really make sense to think within existing frameworks about what we now call a career? Does the linear 'education—career—retirement’ still fit in with the possible developments we have outlined? Maybe not. Perhaps it is more logical to think in terms of different phases that are experienced (or re-experienced) at different moments in someone's life. Studying and learning no longer only prior to your working life, but as a continuous process with relatively quiet periods of (additional) learning in practice and the acquisition of additional knowledge in short-term programmes or courses, interspersed with periods of perhaps complete retraining. And in the meantime, we provide for our livelihood by, for example, alternately being an employee, entrepreneur, or mixed forms of this.