Best Agers. EU-project to retain the older workforce
Short description
They have better health than ever and are competent. Still, they stop working prematurely.
In this EU project where the University of Gothenburg is one of the actors, it is investigated how the knowledge of the older workforce can be better utilized and retained in both companies and organizations.
- In order to maintain welfare, the supply ratio must be maintained. More people must work in relation to those who do not, says Roland Kadefors, associate professor and researcher at the Department of Work Science at the University of Gothenburg and Swedish sub-project manager in the Best Agers project.
The goal of the project is to find the good examples of how the skills of the older workforce - older than 55 years - are best passed on.
Eight countries 19 organizations from eight countries around the Baltic Sea participate in the EU project Best Agers within the so-called Baltic Sea program. The background is the aging population of the EU. Age composition has been identified by the EU as one of the Community's four major challenges. The combination of the exclusion of older workers plus the growing shortage of valuable skills is a trend throughout Europe and this development tends to increase precisely because of the age composition of the population. The supply ratio up - Overall strategic labor market policy goals for the EU say that more people must work in relation to those who do not, and do so for more years than today for the economy to go together, says Roland Kadefors, who has been researching the issues of sustainable working life for many years. and obstacles to an extended working life. The three-year Best Agers project has a budget of SEK 44 million and officially started at a kick-off meeting in Riga in mid-February 2010. The project is partly about finding and disseminating working methods in the eight countries to retain the older workforce. . Find the obstacles The Department of Work Science is responsible for one of the research packages within Best Agers. It is a matter of clarifying in the countries concerned what in each country are the obstacles to staying in or re-entering working life after the age of 55. - It can be about obstacles in the form of laws / regulations, health, competence or attitudes, says Roland Kadefors. Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular are sensitive to the issue of key competences that are at risk of being lost. Today, there are no really good systems that take advantage of or transfer competence internally in the workplace, such as mentoring programs.