Page 25 - increasing-the-value-of-age-guidance-in-employers-age-management-strategies

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

As indicated in this report, much of the career guidance is not delivered in a
formalised way with clear structures, procedures, processes and qualified
persons assigned providing it. ‘Much career support is delivered informally by
managers, work colleagues, family and friends’ (Cedefop, 2008a, p. 31).
Especially in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) career guidance
‘is more likely to be informal and dependent on the enthusiasm/commitment of
individual managers’. As a result, quality assurance of guidance activities tends
to be unsystematic.
This report also concludes that coordination and cooperation among the
various stakeholders (employers, labour unions, chambers of commerce, PES,
VET institutions) in providing guidance is limited. In most countries, guidance
provision is focused on young people (provided by initial education and training
institutes) or the unemployed (provided by public employment services) and not
on the employed, specifically not addressing employed older workers. Older
workers could be suspicious of career guidance provided by employers,
perceiving it as biased or incomplete, while employers feel that it encourages
people to leave. Few organisations employ professionally qualified career
counsellors (Cedefop, 2008a).

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