Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
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54<br />
<strong>Working</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>ageing</strong><br />
Guidance <strong>and</strong> counselling for mature learners<br />
occupations – be it hobbies, small-scale utility value production for<br />
the household, the neighbourhood or the community, membership<br />
of clubs or associations, care for children, gr<strong>and</strong>children or other<br />
family members – then a ʻjumpʼ out of the labour force, away from<br />
wage work towards self-determination of everyday life, would<br />
seem rather tempting. This of course has to be balanced against<br />
the economic costs of retirement from the labour market. If the<br />
costs in terms of income loss are not too high, the temptation to<br />
ʻjumpʼ is naturally higher (Sørensen <strong>and</strong> Møberg, 2005).<br />
3.4.4. Transitional forces influencing labour dem<strong>and</strong><br />
Stay Permanent updating of qualifications of older employees <strong>and</strong><br />
hence regular continuing vocational training of older employees<br />
is one dimension which supports the stay forces. Another<br />
dimension is improving working <strong>and</strong> health conditions for older<br />
employees <strong>and</strong> to offer more attractive jobs so older workers are<br />
willing to stay longer on the labour market.<br />
(Re)entry In case of dismissals of (older) employees having very little chance<br />
of finding another job, training or retraining of the unemployed is<br />
an important policy option. The crucial question is what chances<br />
the individual might have to return to employment. This depends<br />
on individual characteristics, especially if qualifications have a<br />
transfer value <strong>and</strong> are in dem<strong>and</strong> elsewhere in the labour market<br />
<strong>and</strong>, of course, there must remain a certain time span in which the<br />
enterprise could profit from the (new) qualifications. Naturally it is<br />
much shorter for older workers. Even with appropriate<br />
qualifications, an enterprise might prefer a younger applicant for<br />
whom financing continuing vocational training shows a better<br />
return on the balance sheet. Particularly unskilled or low-skilled<br />
older unemployed are in danger of being excluded from (re)entry<br />
measures – <strong>and</strong> so are some skilled unemployed, depending on<br />
whether their qualifications are scarce (or unique, which might be<br />
the case for some groups of highly educated top-level employees)<br />
or are common <strong>and</strong> in surplus in the labour market. Older persons<br />
with (partial) incapacity, who therefore cannot find a job on ʻnormalʼ<br />
terms, can be integrated into the labour market if they are offered<br />
public support for establishing jobs with some kind of protected<br />
conditions. Employers could also make jobs for older employees