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

such as interviewing, counselling and advising, with a certain depth, in which
testing plays a secondary role. Narrative interviews are among some of the most
popular methodologies in this later approach.
Guidance covers various activities for individuals (information, interviews,
evaluation, counselling), groups (information, coordination, evaluation,
counselling), and institutions (setting up workshops and procedures to aid
guidance with teams of teachers or trainers, updating evaluation procedures
which all actors in an institution must apply).
The principle that underlies these actions is that of developing individuals’
autonomy. The aim of guidance is to allow the individual to make informed
choices, respecting the individuality and the voluntary nature of guidance. Some
of the most common guidance activities are listed in Table 2, with reference to
aspects related to age management (Ford, 2007; Plant, 2008).
These activities can be combined in different ways to develop a specific age
management approach. Validation of skills and qualifications, for example, makes
extensive use of assessment methods and frequently attributes a complementary
role to advising and counselling. Other approaches might rely on in-depth
interviews within a stepwise counselling process aiming at personal clarification.
Table 2 will serve as a reference to guidance activities during the analysis of
age management practices in organisations.

2.2.4. Defining older workers
While integrating a lifespan approach into the interpretation of the observed
guidance practices, this study focuses especially on the older age group of
workers and so demands a clear definition of ‘older workers’. From the country
reports it is apparent there is no single definition.
Already at this stage, the group of older workers is by no means
homogeneous. The characteristics of older workers throughout Europe are very
diverse and no homogeneous profile can be drawn up: they can live in towns or
rural areas, in regions that face rapid economic change, they can have different
levels of qualifications, they can be employed or unemployed, male or female,
disabled or not. A person may even combine several potentially challenging
aspects, as in the case of a low-qualified migrant, aged 57, living in a deprived
area.
The differences in characteristics affect the challenges older workers face for
active ageing. Although identified as one group, the barriers, and subsequently
the measures to diminish the barriers, can be very different.

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