Page 7 - Working-and-ageing-Guidance-and-counselling-for-mature-learning

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Foreword

Population ageing is one of the most significant developments in Europe in
the next decades. The economic crisis meant that several immediate
concerns, such as fast rising unemployment among young people and
sustainability of public finances needed to be addressed, which shifted the
focus towards measures that encourage sustainable recovery. The long-term
trend of ageing, however, is returning to the policy debate and 2012, the
European year for active ageing and solidarity between generations, is the
year to prepare the EU for the challenges ahead.
Cedefop is contributing actively to the European year by providing research,
analysis and evidence on what ageing means for learning and working. This
publication, the second in the series Working and ageing, highlights the
importance and potential of guidance and counselling in supporting longer
and more satisfying careers in ageing societies in Europe. It is organised in
three parts. The first reviews factors contributing to the success of active
ageing from various angles, while the second examines contemporary
approaches to guidance and counselling. The third part presents several
examples of successful measures and practices launched in EU Member
States.
Analysis and results presented in this publication reveal encouraging signs
of progress, but at the same time indicate that much remains to be done to
promote more successful integration of ageing workers into the labour market
and society. Guidance and counselling for ageing people are key elements to
address the intertwined trends of ageing, changing work and emerging skill
needs and to promote longer careers which follow a different logic to traditional
career models.
The insight that successful guidance and counselling for ageing people
requires different ways of thinking is far from new. A report published as early
as 1948 by the Counselling Office of Toronto states that ʻproviding guidance
for such individuals [ageing workers] is just as essential as for youth, but it
requires a radically different approach and technique, and as much if not more
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expert directionʼ ( ).

( ) Report of the counselling service for applicants for employment over 45 years of age. Toronto:
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Counselling Office, 1948.