AGORA Promoting Lifelong Learning For Older Workers Thessaloniky 1213

agora promoting lifelong learning for older workers thessaloniky, 12-13 october 2006 policy implementation – key issues

AGORA
Promoting lifelong learning for older workers
Thessaloniky, 12-13 October 2006
Policy Implementation – Key Issues
Premise
In Italy and in Veneto Region, the prospects of economic development
are threatened by a factor currently still latent in part, but bound
to explode in just a few years: the ageing of the population and the
impossibility to regenerate the workforce. The further expansion of
the wider age groups and the lack of generational change lead already
now to an inevitable priority, at a time when this process has not yet
reached its maximum peak. This priority forces to tackle the issue of
the average working period, i.e. to develop and implement effective
measures to extend people's active working life.
If compared to other European countries, the low employment rate of
the aged population in Veneto can be ascribed on the one hand to a
remarkably lower degree of education but, on the other hand, also to
the fact that part-time is still fairly low, a common problem all over
Italy, particularly for women: despite being above the national
average, female part-time in Veneto (23.3%) is extremely low compared
with the European average (33.4%); moreover, it is mostly voluntary
(over 85%).
Unlike young employees and in spite of the gender difference in favour
of men, the great majority of middle-aged employed persons have a
steady job; however, if a worker aged 50 and over wishes to take
his/her place again in the labour market, in two cases out of three
(and in three out of four for women) he will have to accept a
temporary job.
Confindustria Veneto, which has been following with interest the
economic trend and the evolution of Veneto's production patterns on
the one hand, demographic forecasts on the other, has focused its
attention on the ageing workforce issue for some time already (since
1999).
Some Dedicate Projects realized by SIAV
The Veneto Region has promoted the implementation of an EQUAL Project
1st phase, titled “Age Management” (IT-G-VEN 062) by joining together
four partnerships for development related to as many EQUAL projects
implemented in Veneto: the specific outputs were centred on four main
intervention areas subdivided into macro-steps: Research, aimed at
building a reference framework for interpreting the Age Management
process, starting from European-wide levels and indicators; Assistance,
activity targeted towards increasing motivation among the oldest
workers with the prospect of continuing their activities by sharing
the company's goals and intentions towards promoting co-operation and
the intergenerational transfer of knowledge passing both from an older
worker to a young one, and vice versa; Information desks, information
activities carried out by setting up five Physical and
Telecommunications Centres in five different provinces of Veneto;
Monitoring, Evaluation and Mainstreaming: a continuous monitoring and
evaluation activity concerning the results and products, mainstreaming
actions also include press and media coverage activities, as well as
meetings, conferences, workshops etc., development and implementation
of a portal for the project and creation of a web site.
A Project promoted by Confindustria Veneto SIAV and named “Enhancement
and transfer of non formal learning” aimed at the creation of a
transnational network at European level acting as repository of
competence and as the carrier of information for the preservation and
continuity of practical knowledge and tacit competence owned by senior
employees and envisaged the identification of methodologies aimed at
setting up continuous training schemes specifically tailored to the
groups considered, by favouring interaction and exchange of
experiences whit younger colleagues. The Project benefited of a very
wide partnership grouping Research, Training and Entrepreneurial
Organisations, Universities, Technical Schools, Chambers of Commerce,
Trade Unions, Regions, from Belgium, France, Iceland, Italy, Germany,
Portugal and Romania.
A Project promoted by CEFORALP – Lyon (France), titled “SAM, SMEs &
Age Management” on ESF Art. 6, that aims at promoting active ageing
and raising the employment rate of senior workers in SMEs towards an
innovative methodology in order to help the SMEs optimising their
resources and integrating a strategic approach to Age Management.
Some policies for training
Research studies conducted in the field of ageing all identify
lifelong learning – LLL as an effective strategy to reduce the
negative impact of ageing on the individual. This applies also to
older workers, for whom lifelong learning is aimed at retaining them
by offering them suitable skills and competences for maintaining a
position within the production process, with mutual advantage both for
the employed person and for the company.
The ageing issue does not only concern the organizational framework
within the company, but it involves the individual as a global entity:
if the technical skill obsolescence of a worker is due to his/her
marginalization in the production process, this fact in turn causes a
role crisis with repercussions within the worker’s family and in the
life context of the older person; for this reason, the worker cannot
be separated from the uniqueness of the person, just as the specific
competence invested in the production process cannot be distinguished
from the human capital expressed by each worker.
The key factor which distinguishes the different approaches to
lifelong learning strategy develops, can be distinguished as approach
towards: a) adaptation, b) reciprocity, c) social responsibility.
The first approach is implemented within a traditional organizational
model technical: skills are the highest value, workers are not
considered as human capital; the second tackles the problem from a
two-directional logic, by considering the organization as a place
where relations are favoured between a system of rules and processes
on the one hand, and a heterogeneous and varied human capital on the
other, it is defined “towards reciprocity”, because it assumes that,
as soon as either component of the relationship undergoes changes,
also the other component is involved by a consequent change; the third
considers ageing as a global process and places lifelong learning not
only within the business organization, but it also selects a wider
reference point reflecting the social and cultural context where the
older worker lives and the company operates. This approach makes it
necessary for the company to seek dialogue with the other social
interlocutors operating within the territory, in order to deal with
the ageing issue together, as a “social responsibility approach”.
A few recommendations
In any case the important thing is that the older worker must be
considered as “human capital”, not only for the practical support
he/she gives to the production process; at the same time, the company
must be considered not only for its instrumental function, but also as
a system of relations (across generations, cultures etc.) and as an
entity producing culture.