Canada: Older Workers Pilot Projects Initiative
By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2006-09-19 14:36:00-04:00
While industrialized nations face the challenge of how to provide adequate Social Security programs for their aging populations, older individuals continue to confront obstacles in obtaining (and even retaining) employment in their later years. Some countries are taking pro-active steps to counter this societal reality. In Canada, a seven-year government initiative to promote older workers came to a close on May 20, 2006. The Older Workers Pilot Projects Initiative (OWPPI), originally scheduled to end in 2003, received three year-long extensions to explore additional innovative approaches to employment for older people. The initiative provided funds from the central government to participating territories and provinces, in order to pursue projects with one of two main objectives: re-integration of unemployed older workers and employment retention.
Across Canada, the initiative engaged over 9,500 people within 130 separate projects in 11 provinces and territories. Over half of the participants were between 55 and 59 years of age, while 96 percent were between 50 and 65. Each project employed one or a combination of the following approaches in its design: employment assistance (e.g., counseling, assessment), work experience, training, marketing of the individual to the potential employer, and retention (designed to accommodate older workers at risk of losing existing employment).
An overview report published in December 2005 highlighted significant success in the achievement of the project’s goals. Flexibility in program design allowed the assessment of innovative strategies to promote employment for older workers. Positive employment outcomes were observed and employer awareness of older workers’ value increased. In addition, participants reported a high level of satisfaction with the program independent of the actual employment outcome.
In its approach to develop employment assistance programs for older workers, OWPPI led to a number of conclusions and lessons learned. For unemployed workers, a combination of approaches proved most effective at re-integration into the labor force. Some examples include individual assessments with subsequent tailored programs and skills training combined with marketing of the worker. Overall, programs without employment assistance or worker marketing to employers achieved very low levels of success. Regarding employment retention, the “at risk” employed participants showed the highest levels of success, with 88 percent still employed at the survey’s end in March 2005. Variations in the needs and circumstances relevant to employed older workers support the idea that separate programs be developed to assist older workers who are unemployed and those who fear job displacement.
For more information, the overview report can be viewed at: www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/lp/spila/wlb/pdf/OWPPI.pdf
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