(www.ic50plus.eu )

Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project (2012-2014) BE, AT, IT, UK, NO, RO

Levanto vzw (www.levanto.be ) (2012-1-BE3-LEO05-05468)

Application summary:

The preservation and strengthening of the employment standards of people aged 50+, is a topic of great interest at EU level because of the progressive aging of the population and the radical changes on the labour market. The problem involves both SMEs and their workers. Companies have to face the obsolescence of the internal know how as new technology and processes make existing practices redundant and one outcome is a decrease in motivation,  at a time of general economic recession when Europe looks to SMEs  to become more innovative and competitive therefore increasing employment. On the other side, 50+ workers need to take up a path of empowerment, in order to update their competences and improve their motivation to reach the objectives foreseen by the Europa 2020 Strategy and the New Skills for New Jobs policy “to provide job opportunities for all and create a more competitive and sustainable economy”.

That’s why vocational training measures that help experienced workers to maintain and/or increase their employability are very important. The project’s main aim is to transfer into SMEs innovative methods and skills that will analyse the lack of competences leading to falling motivation levels; and support the 50+ workers in redefining their professional career.

The innovation transfer will be corporate coaching which enables participants to support the planning, organisation, implementation and evaluation of further vocational qualification measures for 50+-employees. The training described in this curriculum will enable future coaches to support experienced employees in the improvement of their learning competences to design, implement and support a plan for increasing employability. The educational model comes from Germany. The partnership involves organizations in the VET sector from a wide European area.

We want to test and adapt the model in the following countries that, among the others, have experimented the crises and the expulsion of older workers from the labour markets: Italy, United Kingdom, Belgium, Romenia and Austria. We want to compare experiences and results from different countries and develop best practices in order to put in practice an European model suitable to ECVET system, in order to promote transparency and recognition of Learning Outcomes. This result will be guaranteed by the longtime experience in evaluation and validation of the Norwegian partner.

The partnership will produce a manual about the tools (the one transferred and adapted from Germany and the European one) which will be spread to the competent Institution and to other VET providers and stakeholders in order to disseminate the project results.