24th November 2005
At their Annual Lecture last night, the Pre-Retirement Association announced that it is to adopt a new name – Life Academy .
The challenges facing the individual through the life course have changed significantly. The PRA has naturally evolved in line with these changes and now feel that Life Academy better reflects the range of services that the national educational charity now offers. As well as the pre-retirement courses that have been the mainstay of the organisation, they now have a much broader portfolio that prepares individuals for life changes at many other stages of life other than prior to retirement.
Bob Bridges, Chairman of Life Academy, said “This change brings renewed focus to our organisation, and signals the beginning of exciting times ahead. It is widely recognised that there are huge knowledge gaps within the UK population in areas such as financial awareness and the value of life planning. Life Academy is in an ideal position to help individuals to close these gaps. Another area of great concern is the issues surrounding demographic changes and the ageing population. People are now living longer, and many are wishing to work passed the traditional retirement age. Having conducted extensive research in this area, Life Academy is able to help employers to change attitudes towards age diversity in the workplace.”
Stuart Royston, CEO of the charity, added “As the national centre for life planning, we have a strong reputation, built over the last 40 years, of providing quality programmes to prepare individuals for retirement. Over the past two years the PRA has prepared increasing numbers of people for their retirement and this area of work will continue to be hugely important to us. Changing our name to Life Academy is a natural evolution which will communicate that we are concerned with much more than just pre-retirement education. At Life Academy, we are committed to raising awareness of life planning and providing effective solutions to help people achieve positive life patterns.”
