Silver Workers Erasmus Project

Project Title

Silver Workers

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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Recognition, transparency, certification; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

The basic project idea was to offer 50+ unemployed, the so-called “silver workers”, the opportunity to reintegrate into the labour market, transforming their skills, interests and hobbies into business ideas.
The identified target considers the condition in which many middle-aged workers find themselves experiencing the sudden exit from the labor market, and finding themselves forced to look for a job position after years – and maybe decades -, or to reinvent for themselves a new professional and a new life. The fundamental objective of this project was to improve knowledge, skills, attitudes and work tools, available to over 50 unemployed or dismissed from occupation, providing them with training and networking tools able to give birth to a new life-path and any self-employed entrepreneurial work, putting into practice their creativity, their ideas, interests or hobbies.

The project therefore aimed at:
– Improving the provision of a more adequate, effective and more complete training supply for over 50 adults, especially those “low skilled”, in line with the VET priority of including at-risk groups in continuing training courses and more in line with the needs of the labor market;
– Aligning with the Horizontal priority “to develop basic and transversal skills, such as entrepreneurship, digital skills and multilingualism, using innovative pedagogical approaches focused on learners and developing appropriate evaluation and certification methods”.

In the first phase of the project a preliminary study was carried out aimed at developing recommendations for policy-makers, also functional to the second phase of development of contents and tools for the training pathway.
The planned training availed itself, as planned, both of a “traditional” teaching and of a web platform, which have allowed to: use the training material in e-learning mode; lay the foundations for verifying the development of an entrepreneurial idea aimed at launching business start-ups, with the guidance of experts / managers; develop a network of contacts with potential experienced entrepreneurs through networking services. As a final result, the selected target groups have been accompanied in the development of entrepreneurial skills and competences, necessary for the development of business models and potentially to start their own start-up, thanks to mentoring and training received.

The beneficiaries involved in the project were able to test and evaluate the results of their training in the third phase in order to verify the applicative potential of some business ideas developed or matured – at different levels – within the pilot trainings conducted in the different partner countries.
The Pilot experiences have seen the direct involvement (blended and/or online training and evaluation) of about 140 participants differently in Italy, Spain, Portugal and the UK. Participants were chosen through a public call open for over adults 50s interested in renewing their skills, reinventing a profession and acquiring entrepreneurial skills.
The initial target of 30 participants in the 4 partner countries, also thanks to the autonomous accessibility of the online training pathway, has so far been surpassed thanks to visibility, communication and distance learning activities. In the development of the project, the partnership has managed a mapping of stakeholders at national level in the countries involved and at European level thanks to partner networks, in order to identify the organizations potentially interested in exploiting the project products and define a strategy aimed at promoting the 50+ adult training system, also guaranteeing various demonstration activities within the Multiplier Events implemented, to which these indirect targets have also taken part: VET, labour market, business representatives and political decision-makers.
The partnership resulted very well matched, with a good combination and complementarity of expertise starting from the type of entities involved (trade unions, networks, universities, NGOs, VET experts and institutions), of 5 European countries: Italy, Spain , Belgium, UK, Portugal.

In terms of results, the SILVER WORKERS Project has allowed:
– to face “professional obsolescence” by introducing a winning mechanism to help the over 50-year-old worker to “reinvent” new work methods based on personal initiative
– to develop hidden opportunities through a dedicated networking platform
– to develop basic and transversal skills, as well as self-entrepreneurial skills, thanks to the training offered, but also thanks to the guided support of expert managers
– to decrease the digital divide thanks to easily usable e-learning training materials.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 431192 Eur

Project Coordinator

VISES ONLUS & Country: IT

Project Partners

• EUROCREA MERCHANT SRL
• SISTEMI FORMATIVI CONFINDUSTRIA SCPA
• Unione Italiana del Lavoro
• STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY
• SOCIEDADE PORTUGUESA DE INOVACAO – CONSULTADORIA EMPRESARIAL E FOMENTO DA INOVACAO S.A.
• FUNDACION FUNDECYT – PARQUE CIENTIFICO Y TECNOLOGICO DE EXTREMADURA
• EUROPEAN BUSINESS AND INNOVATION CENTRE NETWORK AISBL