Page 123 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

Increasing the value of age: guidance in employers’ age management strategies

level shows that the European Social Fund, especially in the new Member States,
is an important driver in financing age management initiatives at the workplace
with clear added value, since national public funding is not always available for
such initiatives. In some cases, a financial framework is present for funding
training activities of individual employees, organised on national or industry level
(normally combined with EU funding). These funds can be organised by the
national government or by employers and employees who pay a certain
percentage of their wage (costs). These funds stimulate participation in training
activities.

Challenge 5
Guidance provision is fragmented and there is no consistent institutional
framework to support its development in active age management. There are no
‘sufficient’ policy, legal and financial frameworks in place to stimulate companies
to develop active age management in the workplace and address important
issues in career guidance for older workers. Active age management strategies
are seldom translated into legislation (other than anti-discrimination legislation in
the workplace) and are mainly stimulated via financial incentives to employers
and employees, the provision of self-help material (internet and handbooks) and
awareness raising campaigns.
Guidance frequently serves many different target groups with no integration
across programmes aimed at different life stages. It is also often decentralised
with uneven accessibility. The main (national) focus seems to be on the
unemployed rather than experienced, employed workers. In general, there has
been little coordination between education and employment sectors and between
private and public sectors, but this has begun to change. Lifelong learning, career
guidance, employment, and active age management policies should be better
linked, reflecting the different stages in an individual’s career, acknowledging it as
a continuum.

Challenge 6
There are few guidelines for quality delivery of active age management, and
especially for guidance provision in the workplace (such as standards for staff
involved in guidance activities, quality procedures). There are no agreed
standards for required practitioner skills or methodologies and tools. Conditional
requirements are sometimes set by funding programmes; these can set
requirements for a quality system or evaluation of the project. The situation is
even less homogeneous at company level, where even in the countries with
strong guidance systems, it is up to the company to decide whom they see as a
good guidance practitioner or provider. If a company has a quality system it does

110