as solution for unemployed 50+ (interim program evaluation) Active Aging Self employment as solution for unemployed 50+ (interim program evaluation)

Active ageing (pilot action for business 50+) PROJECT GOALS: Employment (business), improvement of human a social capital and quality of life OPERATIONAL GOALS: stage 1: Promote interest for business activities - information, motivation, advertising stage 2: Start business activities - training (business plan, financial support, personal support) stage 3: Maintain business activities - personal support in maintaining business PROCES: we are currently at the middle-end of stage 2.

Promote interest for business Information and motivation methods: Advertisement at information centre of employment office Short presentation (infopack) for new registered unemployed at the compulsory meetings Individual presentation of the project by employment office workers (including print advertisement and intro interest questionnaire) 8 Informational a motivational meetings with unemployed (+ intro questionnaire), all educational levels Methods 1-3 (two months): Not very successful, overall 11 people were interested and left contact for program participation (information vs. motivation) Method 4 (one month): More successful, 200+ people attended informational meetings, 80+ left contact for program participation (40 expected)

Promote interest for business Interest questionnaires (200+ returned), about one half of people or more was certainly uninterested: Why were unemployed interested or not interested to start business: + problematic situation (unable to find employment) + opportunity + independence - too risky - too insecure (prefer employment) - not enough money - too old

Promote interest for business

Promote interest for business

Promote interest for business Methods of confirming interest: Target group: People who left contact by methods 1-4 (preliminary interested) One hour individual (personal or by the phone) contact of unemployed who left contact with worker of chamber of commerce. Education course advertisement, check interest, business expectations (not all people had clear ideas). Of 80 preliminary interested people in short time 14 entered first educational course and 21 were seriously interested for the second program course. After one month only 9 of them (21) were still interested in program (some found jobs). Problem of delay between the motivation and the start of the program??? Total 23 course participants (20 expected according to targets)

Start business Start business methods: Educational course (20 days, theoretical and practical, e.g. marketing, price management, social security, law) INC: Creation of business plan (education + individual work) INC, LAT: Personal support (individual problem solving) LAT: Financial support (planned in February 2011) Evaluator Miroslav observed selected part of the training program (content appropriateness, content balance, clearness of teaching, time pressure, educational materials) Evaluator Ondrej observed business plan defense in České Budějovice (see bellow)

Start business First experience from the first run of the course: 1) 10 of 14 people finished the training course (it was not compulsory) 2) People assess the course as good, some uncertain (will prove more latter in interviews), advantage of individual approach when preparing business plan, participants knowledge was tested 3) 9 of 10 really thinks about starting the business (++) 4) Most of people are university graduates and about half of them had their business before. It seems that promoting business for people 50+ is useful idea (much more people attended then in previous years) but the measure is limited to specific group of people over 50 with rather high starting human capital. 5) Most business plans seems sensible and realistic (future will show), most of them is in service sector, +some small crafts 6) Employment office is willing to support participants with financial support (+ new measure for starting bills), but about half of people is not interested (their plans are cheap, have money, or are afraid of posibility to return money latter). 7) Personal support is prepared and was offered to participants

Maintain business Not started yet. People (first group) plan to start business from December 2010 to about April 2011 Personal and financial support are prepared Evaluation (in group meeting, individual interviews, post test)

Common methodological framework: pretest-posttest (treatment and control) October 2010: pre-test questionnaires finished and disseminated to treatment group 2 and control group Not all questions were used (trial showed that questionnaire was too long, people unwilling to answer) Treatment group 1 NOT pretested – questionnaires delayed, treatment group 2 pretested, control group pretested Efficiency vs. Validity aspect: control group asked by phone vs. treatment g. in early stage (first day) of the training program (same time period) Response rate: 9/x for treatment and 11/y for control

Assumed Impact evalution design Group / time Time1-november 2010 Time2-november/december 2010 Time3-august 2011 Time4-september 2011 T1 X Ot13 – posttest (in group/by phone/in person) 6 months after starting the bussiness T2 Ot21 – pretest (in group) Ot24 – posttest (in group/by phone/in person - iinstrumenteation threat) C1 Oc11 – pretest (by phone) Oc14 – posttest (by phone) T = treatment group X = intervation/program C = control group O = observation / testing

Conclusions: - First two phases of program were relatively successful - indicators set by Tomas were mostly met, good quality of business plans (+++) - 9 of 10 participants really thinks about starting the business (++) - Evaluation brought some practical experience what was more and less successful, results are partially surprising (+) - Cooperation of various subjects at the national level is another positive aspect of the project (+) - Common evaluation tools were implemented only at limited scale (-) - Project and evaluation have good chances to be finished according to plan (++)