CONTEXT A priority of the Europe 2020 Strategy is raising Europe’s employment rate “especially for women, young people and older workers". The Draft Joint Employment Report (European Commission, 2018) states that employment is improving but: “still more people need to work and for a longer period to maintain growth, especially in view of ageing societies” and ‘considerably lower employment rates are observed for women than men’ especially ‘for those caring for children, dependent family members or grandchildren.’ ‘Particular attention needs to be given to women, older workers and young people.’ (Eurostat, December 2014) In particular, older women, from the age of 55 (and even younger) are disadvantaged in the labour market for complex reasons that include age and gender discrimination, low skills/qualifications, caring duties etc. Some women never enter the labour market at all. OBJECTIVES BREW will create an entrepreneurship and digital skills training programme for older women underpinned by coaching in resilience, motivation and confidence building. 1.Develop training & coaching resources in entrepreneurship and digital skills that embed coaching in resilience, motivation and confidence building based on needs analysis in each partner country (IO1) 2.Test with 200 older women and 10 teachers/coaches – total 20 hours per learner (IO1) 3.Create an engagement and outreach toolkit (IO2) 4. Create a project platform and handbook (IO3) for: - the training/coaching/outreach resources - an online guide for using the resources with practical and policy recommendations for transferring the BREW programme to other local contexts and groups based on a comparison of the results in partner countries - a networking space for participants to network and share entrepreneurial opportunities - the project website and social media 5.Disseminate widely via social media and local and international multiplier events and secure resources to ensure its sustainability PARTICIPANTS We will target older women on aged 55+ (and some younger women 50 upwards) who experience the same complex barriers to employment and inclusion, for example: * Discrimination (gender/age) * Caring responsibilities * Lack of visibility to policy makers * Lack of confidence and ambivalent relation to ambition, money and risk, * Low skills and lack of up-to-date training and qualifications * Less willing to take risks because of financial commitments * Lack of relevant information/ advice and participation in business networks * Social and economic isolation BREW is creating a unique approach to improving older women’s resilience, employability skills and transversal competencies and through its creation of a training and coaching curriculum and materials that combine entrepreneurship and digital skills training with resilience coaching. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY BREW will create a high quality project platform that incorporates learning and coaching materials combining entrepreneurship, digital skills training and resilience coaching resources (30 hours) with outreach strategies specifically targeting older women. We will cdisseminate the materials widely through partners’ networks which include networks from over 250 EU projects. The project will use participatory approaches co-designing materials and evaluation methods with the target learner group as much as practical. Each partner brings different expertise to the project and will be responsible for specific activities as detailed in the project workplan and enshrined in the Partnership Agreement. RESULTS AND IMPACTS BREW will: * contribute to research on older women as entrepreneurs (a group that are underrepresented in entrepreneurship) * potentially increase the length of the working lives of some older women * improve health and well being of older women * enrich other aspects of older women personal lives * develop educators’ professional competences * contribute to partners’ local and regional objectives of widening the participation of disadvantaged groups in education and the labour market * save social, health and welfare costs by positive impact on health and well being * save pension and unemployment benefit costs by providing more opportunities for older people to work * create a model of training and development that is economic, sustainable and transferable to other countries and other disadvantaged groups.
CONTEXT ‘Considerably lower employment rates are observed for women than men’ .. ‘Particular attention needs to be given to women [and] older workers.’ (Eurostat, December 2014). Older women are disadvantaged in the labour market for complex reasons that include age and gender discrimination, low skills/qualifications, caring roles etc. BREW aims to improve older women’s economic inclusion through its training Toolkit that combines training in entrepreneurship and digital skills with resilience and confidence building supported by a guide on engaging this target group. OBJECTIVES * Creation of the BREW Toolkit, comprising: - Training in enterprise and digital skills that embed resilience and confidence building (IO1) - BREW's Outreach, Engagement and Planning Guide (IO2 and incorporating element of IO3) * The pilot of the toolkit with 178 older women and 16 practitioners for an average of 25 hours per learner (IO1/IO2) * Creation of the project platform for the Toolkit * Delivery of a training workshop for to enable partners’ staff to carry out the BREW programme. * Wide dissemination via the project’s website, social media, multiplier and other events: reaching an audience of 12,000+. * Securing BREW’s sustainability through: 1) a follow-on project, ‘ADVANTAGE’ inspired by BREW which includes the BREW toolkit as part of the resources available through its peer mentoring community platform for older women; 2) further related programmes aimed at this target group. PARTICIPANTS Older women who experience many barriers to economic inclusion, e.g.: * Discrimination (gender/age) * Caring responsibilities * Lack of visibility to policy makers * Lack of confidence and ambivalent relation to ambition, money and risk, * Low skills and lack of up-to-date training and qualifications * Less willing to take risks because of financial commitments * Lack of relevant information/ advice and participation in business networks * Social and economic isolation DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY Based on the research carried out for the application, we knew that that women in this age group are often neglected in terms of training tailored specifically to their needs. We had already identified enterprise skills, social media and self-confidence and resilience as key areas for the project’s ‘toolkit’ as well as information and advice on engaging this often hard-to-reach target group. We carried out further needs analyses in each country to refine those topics most needed in these main areas of the toolkit. Each partner then took responsibility for creating a specific aspect of the kit: ALPE for social media and marketing, SEC for enterprise and WCLL for confidence building and resilience. ABN took on the development of the project’s Guide to Engagement including advice on setting up similar programmes. The first year of the project was spent in researching and developing the Toolkit and training programme, culminating in a joint staff training workshop in October 2019 for 10 trainers. The final year was spent in piloting and refining the toolkit. The Covid 19 pandemic meant that ABN and WCLL were unable to complete all of their planned pilot workshops within the original timeframe of the project and a 6-month extension was approved to enable them to do so. The budget for the proposed project platform (IO3) was not approved by the UKNA. It therefore consists of a Google Site linked to the basic project website and is not as versatile as originally foreseen. However, the tools and resources are freely and readily accessible to all and are having a real and lasting impact on many of our participant’s lives. The project has been particularly important to many of them throughout the pandemic which affected the second half of the project as one of its key pillars – building resilience – has been an essential part of everyone’s lives throughout the past very challenging 15+ months. KEY RESULTS AND IMPACTS * The BREW toolkit - a model of training and development that is economic, sustainable and transferable to other sectors and disadvantaged groups. * Partners’ deepened understanding of the importance of embedding resilience generally in teaching and learning. * 100% of participants felt their resilience and confidence had been improved and a range of progression outcomes into enterprise and training also achieved. * Development of educators’ professional competences and understanding of this group * Wider understanding of the application of engagement strategies for this target group. * The potential to extend the length of some participants’ working lives * Potential improvement wellbeing of participants * Enrichment of aspects their personal lives * contribution to partners’ local and regional objectives of widening the participation of disadvantaged groups in education and the labour market: * potential savings in pension/unemployment benefits by providing more opportunities for older people to work.