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Working and ageing
258 Guidance and counselling for mature learners

target group competence was easier to identify, and the average age was
lower. This made employability of the group higher. Competence related to
market needs stands out as a key factor in the comparison.

13.6. Conclusions

The career switching model applied is innovative and may provide older
employees with much better opportunities than if discharged according to
normal labour market routines. Both the Swedish Armed Forces and Ericsson
were eager to show they cared for their employees, and to retain good
relationships with trade unions.
To apply career switching policies is an expression of the Swedish Armed
Forcesʼ ambition to be known as ʻa good employerʼ. To fire older employees
and, at the same time, recruit young ones, was not considered in line with this
ambition. And it is, from a general societal point of view, of high interest to find
ways to preserve employability of older people also when they are made
redundant. To make career switching voluntary and combine it with ambitious
career development programmes is to assume social responsibility. It is
therefore essential to find out under what conditions such an approach might
be successful. Career switching incentives for the target group were
insufficient, while in the Ericsson case they were sufficient. However,
incentives were not very different in the two cases: about the same time of
paid leave and access to personal external coaching. Aspects that were
different and can be assumed to be decisive for the degree of success were
information strategies and perceived employability.
There was a lack of middle management support in the career switching
project: commanding officers as well as personnel managers in many units
did not publicise the project, so there was insufficient knowledge about and
trust in the offer; this was totally different at Ericsson, where managers were
deeply involved.
Lack of perceived employability of military officers that we met during
interviews seems to be based primarily on uncertainty that military
competence is recognised in the civilian market. It is a problem that military
competence is to a large extent poorly documented and validated. At Ericsson,
senior engineers in the target group had a much clearer competence profile.
Despite the bleak outcome of the career switching project, the Swedish
Armed Forces decided recently to make permanent career switching a tool in
its ongoing organisational restructuring. Results from our study emphasise