Enhancing Employment Opportunities for Adults 55+

Before applying both partner organizations realized they had encountered similar challenges. They faced difficulties in addressing the needs of their adult learners aged 55+. There was a pressing need for their educators, trainers, and mentors to enhance their competencies and adapt to digitalization. Since 2020, Elit-S had witnessed a significant number of its students discontinuing their studies due to the constantly changing COVID-related restrictions which imposed limitations on face-to-face classes, including restrictions on the number of people allowed in a room and the requirement for physical distancing. Additionally, health certificates and new prerequisites for attending indoor classes made it challenging for a small learning center to comply and caused financial hardship. Our goal was to meet the increasing demand by offering employability skills courses and entrepreneurship courses to our adult learners. The second partner Gondomar Municipality had started a large scale informal education initiative for adult leaners and was in the capacity to transfer their precious experience. Additionally, the post-COVID-19 era brought about a demand for social enterprises and a need to connect social entrepreneurs with mentors.

We aimed at increasing the opportunities and benefits for the growing workforce of older workers because the retirement age is increasing to 65, and with the significant impact of COVID-19 on jobs at that time, where millions of people lost their employment, older workers faced the risk of not being able to secure new jobs before retirement or maintaining their current employment. The primary goal was to improve the employability of individuals aged 55 and above who are either unemployed and struggling to re-enter the job market, on the brink of the job market, or interested in pursuing self-employment or starting a business. We aimed to motivate and empower them to acquire new soft skills and strategies necessary to enhance their prospects of finding new employment or exploring entrepreneurial opportunities. Another objective was to strengthen the organizational capacity of our partners by establishing a small transnational cooperation partnership that addresses common needs and priorities in the field of adult education. This involved training trainers to educate and provide guidance/mentorship to adults aged 55 +, as well as sharing experiences and best practices to enhance partner sustainability and educator skills.

We: -designed website (https://eeoaproject.wordpress.com/project/), facebook group account (https://www.facebook.com/groups/683394992866557 ), Linkedin account (https://www.linkedin.com/company/eeoa55/) -designed project logo, poster & leaflet -uploaded announcements on partners’ websites -took part in #Erasmusdays (13-14.10.22), Elit-S, open conferences, visited Mladost Agency of Labour, Sofia – Nov 22; -participated in Cambridge Day, Sofia, poster annotation (22.04.23) -were invited to a large dissemination conference to present our project, 09.09.2023, Plovdiv -held online kick-off (29.04.22), 1 onsite in Sofia (12-13.11.22) & 1 in Porto (20-21.09.23) -conducted staff exchange (20-27.06.22) where 4 employees of Elit-S visited Gondomar and acquired knowledge on their effective practices to educate adults 55+ and seniors -designed two tool-kits for Trainers of Adults 55+ on Entrepreneurship, and for Trainers of Employability Soft Skills for Adults 55+ -designed 2 additional notebooks, 1 per Toolkit, not planned in the application form -had online trainings for mentors of adults 55+ (14, 17.07.23), one per partner in their own countries and languages. The purpose was to pilot-test the two outputs, correct or complement them.

We designed two tool-kits: one for Trainers of Adults 55+ on Entrepreneurship, and one for Trainers of Employability Soft Skills for Adults 55+. Each tool-kit consists of five modules, the first one being the introduction and the other four dwelling on substantial aspects of the themes. The Tool-kits were developed in English and later translated in Bulgarian and Portuguese. They are available on the project website, the partners' websites and the google drive space shared by the project partners. The Toolkits identified potential problem areas and a methodological approach to overcome them, including proposed exercises, links, and quizzes. The Tool-kits come in two volumes each, a manual for trainers/educators/mentors and an exercise book with practical exercises, tasks and assignments for adults 55+. This tool-kits will further improve the skills and abilities of educators/trainers to teach soft skills prior to reemployment to our older adults. In addition, it can be used in online trainings in a group setting or one-to-one. It is possible to use as a self-study kit accessible online by independent internet users. We strengthened the institutional capacity of the partners by exchanging experience and upskilling mentors.