European Social Fund A spotlight on EQUAL and age management

A quick introduction  Helen Tubb, GHK Consulting Ltd  European thematic experts for the European Social Fund (ESF) EQUAL initiative  Role to research, analyse and disseminate the lessons and good practice from EQUAL at the European level  Three key questions:  What is EQUAL?  How does EQUAL address age management?  What key messages can EQUAL offer for today’s workshop?

What is EQUAL?  ESF Community Initiative (2001 – 2008)  Aims to find new ways of tackling discrimination and inequality in the labour market, both for those in and out of work  €3.274 billion, co-financed by Member States  3,239 EQUAL ‘Development Partnerships (DPs)’  EQUAL principles…

Development Partnership Innovation Partnership Transnational cooperation Empowerment EQUAL principles Mainstreaming

EQUAL and age management  210 DPs focus on age management  Highest numbers in:  Germany  United Kingdom  Italy  France  For EU-12, most represented:  Poland  Czech Republic  Slovakia  Significant SME, regional and sectoral foci

Key messages!!!

Key messages (1)  Change employers’ attitudes to age  Older workers/recruits can add value  Awareness-raising: studies, diagnostics, press conferences, ‘champions’, films, training and consultancy  TEP EQUAL Elderly DP – Austria “You cannot start with talking about ‘demographic change’ to engage SMEs, or about something that will happen in fifteen or twenty years. This far too abstract because their time horizon is in the next 6 months, and they are primarily interested in how they are going to survive in the short term.” Wolfgang Michalek

Key messages (2)  Identify, valorise and validate prior knowledge  Recognise the value of soft skills  Look beyond the use of qualifications as a competence measure  ‘Question Bank’, skills portfolios and ‘Training cards’  Investing in people DP – Italyy  Pay attention to the whole working life cycle  Importance of preventative and anticipatory action  Creating new functions, personalised training, developing a ‘second career’ and local/regional networks for SMEs  Genera DP – Germany  Take advantage of intergenerational learning!

Key messages (3)  Mobilise all stakeholders  Importance of region-wide approaches – both strategically and operationally  Mix of companies, social partners, local/regional authorities, training bodies and public employment services  Alliance for Work DP – Poland “The presence of a high number of partners can sometimes be a problem, but at the same time, in constitutes something incredible: we now have, sitting around the same table, people from diverse backgrounds and experiences who did not talk to each other before. Alliance for Work has forced them to communicate and find a common language.” Leszek Michno

Where to find out more…  Conferences:  Agora Experience is Capital – France, June 2005  Anticipating Change: effective approaches to lifelong learning and age management - Greece, December 2007  Publications:  EQUAL develops new ways of tackling age management  EQUAL: paving the way for lifelong learning and age management  Lots of case studies and success stories!  European Age Management Network  n.cfm n.cfm

Thank you for listening! /