21st century skills: keeping employees on board Erasmus Project

Project Title

21st century skills: keeping employees on board

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

Society is ageing rapidly: across OECD countries the ratio of elderly people (65 and over) to people of working age (15-64) is projected to rise from 1 in 4 in 2015 to 1 in 2 in 2050. Within all 5 of the countries participating in this cooperation, the aging of society comes with the not so distant future of 55 plus employees growing meaningfully in numbers when compared to the younger employees. Governments and stakeholders urge for measures to keep people professionally active for longer. The statutory retirement age is rising. But the employment rate for workers aged 55-64 is low, so a lot of work is still ahead of us. The accessibility rate of learning opportunities for older employees is of the lowest– specific measures are needed to enhance learning opportunities. Adding to this, with age comes physical vulnerability, which can play a role in various jobs. The workplace and job content should at least not amount to aggravation. Workability is decreasing instead of increasing, which is alarming when considering that we are actually expected to continue our working careers longer while mental fatigue amongst employees is rising, well-being at work is declining, learning opportunities are not equally accessible and work-life balance is hard to manage.

Apart from being challenged, employees aged 55 and over come with specific strengths – often linked to their age. Examples of skills linked specifically with age, are: accuracy, communication skills, critical thinking & judgment, independence, awareness of responsibility.The challenges and opportunities for employees aged 55 and over, are themselves embedded in a global society that is dealing with an increasing degree of digitization. A substantial percentage of European citizens are at risk of being digitally excluded. In the digitizing society, this means that they are also socially excluded, thereby compromising access to social rights.

Taking the challenges and opportunities of older employees into account and considering the overall digitization of society and the fact that we are supposed to keep on working longer and want to do so in as much as possible a ‘workable’ way, the 21st century skills are an adequate frame for addressing durable employability of employees aged 55 and over.
Within ‘21st Century Skills: Keeping employees on board’ we therefore break the collection of 21st century skills down into 3 low threshold clusters so as to formulate an answer to the central question ‘how to merge the working environment of employees aged 55 and over into a learning environment’?

We want to answer our central question by addressing digital literacy (computational thinking skills, basic ICT skills, media literacy, information skills); workplace culture (communication, collaboration, self-regulation, social and cultural skills) and innovation and adaptation (problem solving, creativity, critical thinking). In doing so we aim at
(1) instigating a dynamic in the workplace: a shift of view that puts the workplace forward as the micro-society that it is
(2) making learning opportunities more accessible for employees aged 55 and above
(3) giving employers and employees tools and methods to ‘keep employees aged 55 and above on board’, meaning: keeping the same job with the same employer; or job-creating a new job with the same employer; or making a meaningful transition into a new employer

This projects entails following methodologies: service design, co-creation, skills’ web, learning from the emerging future, learning by doing, blended learning, peer learning, story-telling, theory of change, jobcrafting. With the input of 5 partners (Future Learn, U.K. – Blenders, Belgium, Topcoach, Slovakia – ASEP, Austria – ExpertPlus, the Netherlands) we develop train the trainer trajectories that reach 120 direct learners, and 4 online courses that multiply the learners reached.

We develop intensive courses in the form of webinars, we organize introductions to jobcrafting in at least 12 companies, we organize workshops and discussion panels. All results and progress will be freely accessible in the inspiration toolbox: an online toolbox in multiple languages, that comes with a newsletter that you can register for in order to keep up to date with all progress and insights.

All objectives, aims and impact are embedded in the Europe 2020 Agenda; the realisation of SDG 4.7; the realisation of the goals and objectives on lifelong learning as stated in the Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning; the realisation and objectives on lifelong learning as stated in the Council Resolution on a Renewed European Agenda for Adult Learning; the implementation of the European policy agenda for growth, jobs, equity and social inclusion; making EU businesses more competitive through talent and innovation; and building more inclusive and cohesive societies which allow citizens to play an active role in democratic life.

Project Website

https://keepingemployeesonboard.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 420416 Eur

Project Coordinator

Blenders vzw & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Coöperatieve vereniging ExpertPlus U.A.
• FUTURELEARN LIMITED
• TOPCOACH SRO
• ASEP Austrian Senior Experts Pool