We continued to deliver open and in house pre-retirement courses but in the first half of the year we faced a static and competitive market as many employers were reluctant to take initiatives in the light of the age discrimination legislation that took effect in October 2006. Furthermore the focus of the pensions community was on "A" Day and the various government pension initiatives. Many employers raised their retirement age to 65 years because of the new legislation with the consequence that the number of staff requiring pre-retirement education suffered a short-term decline.
In Autumn 2006 we increased our efforts to explain the benefits of this type of education and saw reward for our increased efforts. The volume of activity increased significantly from the beginning of 2007 and particularly with in house courses where we commenced delivery to a new employer every fortnight throughout the first half of 2007. We were pleased to reach agreement with Friends Provident and The Pension Trust to deliver courses on their behalf to their pension holders. Some of the major Employee Benefit Consultancies are now offering our services to their clients, and Kerr Henderson Hewitt are to use our services to deliver courses that they will market to their clients. We were also pleased that our growing profile and reputation led Standard Life to choose to use Life Academy knowledge and expertise to design their courses and train their staff. Standard Life will also use our publications Learn About Money, Your Retirement and Taxation at Retirement as course support material.
The BBC Radio 4 In Business programme attended a pre-retirement course in July 2006 and broadcast interviews taken during the course in September.
