Building a new career of relevance and meaning in retirement

After a career spanning 53 years in engineering, Chartered client Kenneth Charles found himself wondering what he would do for the rest of his life. As it happened, at the same time, his son Elliot had decided to expand his knowledge in IT and start his own company building websites. While watching his son navigate his way through the ins and outs of building a startup, Kenneth decided to use his time helping his son grow his business and so began his journey into the world of IT.

Kenneth started by learning WordPress, a platform used for building websites. Once he had mastered the art of building websites, he wanted to understand the back end in more detail and decided to delve deeper into the world of IT. Courses in numerous Google certifications followed. Kenneth learnt how to use coding programmes such as HTML5 and CSS. More recently, he has been studying Confluence, Jira, and Trello, programmes that help in collaborative working amongst team members and clients.

As Elliot’s company, called 1.3Creative, grew, they decided to give back to those less fortunate by offering free assistance to charities who need a website or an upgrade to an existing website. To date, they have helped numerous charities, including many in Africa. As part of their offering, they mentor volunteers who need assistance obtaining practical experience by working with them in the building or upgrading websites. Kenneth derives a lot of satisfaction by helping upskill others so that they may enjoy a better life.

He firmly believes that you must never be afraid to learn something new, no matter your age. At the age of 77, he fully embraces his second career, which has become a full-time one.

His passion for giving back to those less fortunate is also evident. Kenneth ended off our interview by sharing this quote. “It’s nice when someone smiles, but even nicer when someone smiles because of you.”