Demographic trends are a key factor for the future of the European Union. The consequence of demographic change in Europe, with the population continuously growing older, is a huge challenge in every EU member country. The need for an effective age management is obvious; by 2025 about one-third of Europe’s population will be aged 60 years and over, and there will be a particularly rapid increase in the number of people aged 80 years and older. This will have an enormous impact on European societies. They need to increase knowledge about how to promote age management strategies among companies, authorities, and within society in general so as to promote positive features of employability of the older people and to prevent costly and negative impacts on the population as a whole. Policy-makers need good outlines on which to make decisions, based on research and good practice. This in turn requires that the bridge between research and public policy is open and constructive. Practitioners and NGOs also need to know about evidence and good practice in age management implementation. Although the concept of the age management is not new in EU context, the difference in the level at which the age management has been considered in the national policies of the member states is very big. While there are countries, where the age management strategies have been implemented into the policies and laws for decades now (Finland, Sweden, UK...), there are countries where this process has not even started (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania...) and the society is completely unaware about the tools that can be used for the effective implementation of the age management strategies. This project plans to design a specific tool - a guidelines - for the transfer of the good practice in the implementation of age management among the EU countries, specifically among the countries involved in this project (Czech Republic, Italy, Finland, Romania and Austria). We plan to collect a minimum of 25 good practice examples and process them in the form of a well-structured user's-friendly web-page, providing a step-by-step description of the particular strategy implementation. This collection will be further elaborated into a form of a methodological recommendation, focused on the process of problem solving and decision making during the strategy implementation. These two project outputs will provide a very practical help for the professionals within the age management: advisors implementing the age management strategies, in-company trainers as well as the VET teachers and trainers from the education providers. The project outputs represent just a small part of the possible actions the EU countries could use in the field of the age management, however it will provide a significant help in terms of inspiration, motivation and detailed guidance especially during the first steps of the age management implementation in central and eastern EU countries. The biggest impact of the project appears to be in the rise of awareness of the significant demographic changes within entire EU and in providing a handy tool enabling an effective start of implementation of age management strategies in the organizations. This project will be the beginning of the series of actions regarding the age management the project partners plan to implement in the near future.
Demographic trends are a key factor for the future of the European Union. The consequence of demographic change in Europe, with the population continuously growing older, is a huge challenge in every EU member country. The need for an effective age management is obvious; by 2025 about one-third of Europe’s population will be aged 60 years and over, and there will be a particularly rapid increase in the number of people aged 80 years and older. This will have an enormous impact on European societies. They need to increase knowledge about how to promote age management strategies among companies, authorities, and within society in general so as to promote positive features of employability of the older people and to prevent costly and negative impacts on the population as a whole. Policy-makers need good outlines on which to make decisions, based on research and good practice. This in turn requires that the bridge between research and public policy is open and constructive. Practitioners and NGOs also need to know about evidence and good practice in age management implementation. Although the concept of the age management is not new in EU context, the difference in the level at which the age management has been considered in the national policies of the member states is very big. While there are countries, where the age management strategies have been implemented into the policies and laws for decades now (Finland, Sweden, UK...), there are countries where this process has not even started (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania...) and the society is completely unaware about the tools that can be used for the effective implementation of the age management strategies. The project has reached its main goal: helping the process of adaptation to the rising requirements of the labor market (influenced by ageing EU society) by providing the quality guidance tool for companies (age management advisors or in-company trainers) and VET providers (teachers and trainers). This project has designed a specific tool - a guidelines - for the transfer of the good practice in the implementation of age management among the EU countries, specifically among the countries involved in this project (Czech Republic, Italy, Finland, Romania and Austria). We have collected 28 good practice examples and processed them in the form of a well-structured user's-friendly web-page, providing a step-by-step description of the particular strategy implementation. This collection has been further elaborated into a form of a methodological recommendation, focused on the process of problem solving and decision making during the strategy implementation. These two project outputs provide a practical help for the professionals within the age management: advisors implementing the age management strategies, in-company trainers as well as the VET teachers and trainers from the education providers. The project outputs provide a significant help in terms of inspiration, motivation and detailed guidance especially during the first steps of the age management implementation in central and eastern EU countries. The biggest impact of the project appears to be in the rise of awareness of the significant demographic changes within entire EU and in providing a handy tool enabling an effective start of implementation of age management strategies in the organizations. This project is the beginning of the series of actions regarding the age management the project partners plan to implement in the near future.