As life expectancy in the EU increases, people face lengthy periods of retirement with proportionally less pension provision, unless they stay economically active for longer. Longer working lives raises key challenges both for employers and for prospective older workers. In 2011 CEDEFOP asserted that “Guidance and counselling is crucial for longer and more satisfying careers by supporting ageing people in terms of learning, career development and employability”. The concepts and practices of career counselling are today transforming from the traditional way of comparing working life and job requirements to an individuals’ skills and dispositions, towards a focus on developing and enhancing the individual’s relationship with working life as a whole and in the context of their life course. SASSI-Working On addresses the challenge of 'working on' by developing and testing age-sensitive and ‘working-life’ approaches to career review and guidance. It will do this within the context of Continuing VET (C-VET) and meeting the needs of older people (aged 50+) who have to or want to keep ‘Working On’ into their 60s, 70s+. It does this through an innovative train-the-trainer format which aims to extend and enhance access to age-sensitive careers advice, skills updating and work experience opportunities for older people. We will do this by: Providing C-VET professionals, HR Managers and career coaches (direct target group) with action-orientated methods and useful skills on how to develop Career Pathways for longer working lives Promoting Career Revitalisation Pathways, including the participation of seniors (50+) in learning and work-experiences in order to maintain their workability and sustain motivation/productivity Developing practical online tools and products to support the delivery of these approaches Encouraging workplace mobility for older workers, ‘unretirees’ and job seekers through short-term secondment, sabbaticals and volunteering activities Championing the value of trainers and older people gaining work experiences in other countries in order to improve intercultural understanding, language skills and engender more active participation in European society. The professional competence of C-VET providers, HR Managers, and career coaches will be enhanced by the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary to apply the innovative “SASSI-Working On” approach. In most development processes action-oriented and productive methods are most effective in developing new competences. Therefore, learning will be cascaded and applied through Learning Projects. These will also be a vehicle for the validation of age-sensitive approaches to guidance and careers advice through LEVEL5, a proven methodology for validating personal competences acquired in non-formal learning. We will start the project by conducting a Comparative Analysis of Needs and Practices that will provide the conceptual and factual baseline study for the development of the 5 other Intellectual Outputs. The core of the project is the Methodological Framework with its associated Blended Learning course, learning modules and resources. The methods will be tested and refined through a 4 phase piloting process involving 18 staff trainers (from the partner organisations), who will cascade their learning to 28 participants from the main target group of professionals who, in turn will apply the methods with at least 45 older workers, ‘unretirees’ and job seekers; with 10 of these experiencing a transnational mobility work placement. Other components include: a) processes for promoting work experience for later life career review and planning. We will test and evaluate the impact of these approaches on revitalising and re-motivating older workers and learners. b) Providing guidance to employers on deploying career management in flatter, more matrixed organisations and with an ageing workforce. c) Reporting on our experiences, making recommendations for practice and policy and the provision of exemplar case studies In terms of concrete products “SASSI-Working On” will develop: - A Comparative Analysis of Needs and Practices - Methods and systems re. Career Pathways for Longer Working Lives - An Ambassadors Manual - An Employers Guide - A Toolbox of Resources - An Experience and Recommendations Report Including the project staff from the Consortium, 6 national Multiplier Events and a final conference there will be total of approximately 330 participants in the project ensuring widespread impact. The main outputs will be continued to be offered online via free registration on the SASSI HUB after the end of the project and designed in a way which makes it easy for C-VET professionals to apply “SASSI-Working On” methods and approaches in different C-VET contexts. The partnership is led by Apricot, United Kingdom, and has experienced C-VET providers and HR consultancies from Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Portugal and Belgium as project partners.
As life expectancy in the EU increases, people face lengthy periods of retirement with proportionally less pension provision, unless they stay economically active for longer. Longer working lives raises key challenges both for employers and for prospective older workers. The concepts and practices of career counselling are today transforming from the traditional way of comparing working life and job requirements to an individuals’ skills and dispositions, towards a focus on developing and enhancing the individual’s relationship with working life as a whole and in the context of their life course. This is particularly relevant in Later-Life Careers. SASSI-Working On addressed the challenge of 'Working On' by developing and testing age-sensitive and ‘working-life’ approaches to career review and guidance. It did this within the context of Continuing VET (C-VET) and meeting the needs of older people (aged 50+) who have to or want to keep ‘Working On’ into their 60s, 70s+. Recognising an acute lack of Later-life Career Review and Guidance across the EU, the Partners developed and piloted an innovative training programme for C-VET professionals, HR Managers and career management professionals, career coaches, and advice and guidance professionals on how to promote and support “Career Pathways for Longer Working Lives”. It included: - Providing C-VET professionals, HR Managers and career coaches (direct target group) with action-orientated methods for Later-life Career Review, Advice and Guidance - Promoting Career Revitalisation Pathways, including the participation of older workers in learning and innovative work-experiences in order to maintain their workability and sustain motivation/productivity - Developing practical online tools and products to support the delivery of these approaches - Encouraging workplace mobility for older workers, ‘unretirees’ and job seekers through short-term secondment, sabbaticals and volunteering activities - Championing the value of trainers and older people gaining work experiences in other countries in order to improve intercultural understanding, language skills and engender more active participation in European society. The professional competence of C-VET providers, HR Managers, and career coaches was demonstrably enhanced by the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary to apply the “SASSI-Working On” approach. Recognising that competences are most effectively developed using action-oriented and productive methods, learning was cascaded and applied through Learning Projects. These were also the vehicle for the validation of competences in the effective provision of Later-life Guidance and Careers Advice through LEVEL5, a proven methodology for validating personal competences acquired in non-formal learning. The core of the project is a Methodological Framework including a Blended Learning course, learning modules and resources. The methods were tested and refined through a 3 phase piloting process involving 15 staff trainers (from partner organisations), who cascaded their learning to 41 C-VET/HR/careers guidance professionals through Learning Projects and who, in turn, applied the methods with 54 older workers, ‘unretirees’ and job seekers/changers. Tactics included: a) promoting work experience for later life career review and planning to test and evaluate the impact of these on revitalising and re-motivating older workers. b) Providing guidance to employers on deploying Career Management in flatter, more matrixed organisations and with an ageing workforce. c) creating a repository of tools, case studies and resources for use by C-VET providers, HR Managers and career coaches The products developed and shared by SASSI-Working On are: - ‘Career Pathways for Longer Working Lives’: Methodology and Resources - An Ambassadors Manual - An Employers Guide - A Toolbox of Resources - An Experience and Recommendations Report Including the project staff from the Consortium, a Virtual Final Conference, multiplier events and the successful piloting activities, a total of 397 participants were involved in the project, ensuring widespread impact. These Outputs are all available via the SASSI-Working On HUB. They have been designed to make it easy for C-VET professionals to apply the methods and approaches in different C-VET contexts. The sustainability and exploitation of our outputs is ensured; not only by the commitment of the partners to continue using the products in our own organisations, but by engaging a wide range of stakeholders; C-VET providers, advice and guidance organisations, employers, HR managers, Line Managers with people management responsibilities in the successful piloting of the products and through our dissemination and engagement activities. The SASSI-Working On partnership consisted of seven experienced C-VET providers and HR consultancies from Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Portugal and Belgium.