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The purpose of this paper is to determine the patterns of transitional employment (TE) aspirations and training and development (T&D) needs of women within local government.

A quantitative survey methodology was used to identify aspirations in a sample of 1,068 employees from the Australian Local Government Association.

Mature‐aged women were very interested in continuous learning at work despite their limited formal education. Their training preferences consisted of informal delivery face‐to‐face or online in the areas of management or administration. Younger women were interested in undertaking university courses, while a minority were interested in blue collar occupations.

Through the identification of patterns of TE and T&D aspirations, long term strategies to develop and retain women in local government may be developed. Findings suggest that mature‐aged women would benefit from additional T&D to facilitate entry into management and senior administration positions, as well as strategies to facilitate a shift in organizational climate.

Mature‐aged women were found to be a potentially untapped resource for management and senior administrative roles owing to their interest in developing skills in these fields and pursuing TE. Younger women may also benefit from T&D to maintain their capacity during breaks from employment. Encouragement of women in non‐traditional areas may also address skill shortages in the local government.

Mature‐aged women were found to be a potentially untapped resource for management and senior administrative roles owing to their interest in developing skills in these fields and pursuing TE. Younger women may also benefit from T&D to maintain their capacity during breaks from employment. Encouragement of women in non‐traditional areas may also address skill shortages in the local government.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the transitional employment (TE) aspirations and training and development needs of older and younger workers at risk of early retirement due to limited education and/or employment in blue‐collar (BC) occupations.

A computer‐based methodology is used to evaluate the demographic effects of gender, education level, and occupation group on aspirations pertaining to TE and training and development in a sample of over 1,000 local government employees.

Older BC, secondary school‐educated and younger workers are less interested in TE than older workers with higher levels of education or from white‐collar backgrounds. The early retirement risk factors of BC work and secondary school education had a more limited effect on perceived training and development needs for older workers. However, for younger workers, these risk factors provided the impetus to undertake training to move into less physically demanding or more challenging roles as their careers progressed.

Via the identification of education level and occupation types groups' TE aspirations and perceptions of preparatory training and development within younger and older cohorts, long‐term strategies to develop and retain staff may be formulated.

Past studies of TE have rarely included younger workers or older workers at risk of early retirement. Preparatory training and development for TE roles has not been considered in the literature.