Introduction

There is a range of definitions of guidance across Europe, but essentially it is a multi-faceted process, which includes the provision of information and advice, to help people make well informed and individually appropriate life decisions, especially in relation to work and learning and in any point of their lives (Ford 2007).

Guidance is not only an “individual practice” (Greco et al. 2007, p. 20). It is also more than a “face-to-face interview” (Plant 2001, p. 4). Building on the seven guidance activities (informing, advising, counselling, assessing, enabling, advocating, and feeding back) previously set out by the Unit for the Development of Adult Continuing Education (UDACE) (1986), the Standing Conference of Associations for Guidance in Educational Settings (SCAGES) (1992) identified eleven adult guidance activities (adding to the former list: teaching, networking, managing, innovation/systems change). Ford (2001; 2002) who uses the word “career” in the context of work, learning and related life-development activities, extended the SCAGES definition of guidance to include four main activities that have proved their effectiveness during the past decade (signposting, mentoring, sampling and following up) (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
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Guidance activities classification using a strategic approach

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A new consideration of guidance could be added to those already existing (see for instance Greco 2007). Taking into account a strategic model approach, the former practices constituting guidance could be classified into five stages (see Fig. 1):

  • External analysis (or situational analysis): to identify the main opportunities and threats that the labour market represents.

  • Internal analysis: considering the strengths and weaknesses of each person.

  • Choice: every individual should choose the best “strategy” or plan of action with the guidance provider’s help.

  • Implementation: is the evidence that something is being carried out.

  • Evaluation and control: guidance is an ongoing process; it needs feedback and assessment to be continuously updated.

It is pertinent to refer to a broad concept of guidance and aimed at a varied group that includes young people searching for their first job, long-term unemployed older people, active workers who want a change of professional career, etc. It is well known that older workers are a high risk group in terms of discrimination and social exclusion (Bendick et al. 1997; Haight 2003). Employers are often too reluctant to hire older workers or to retain them. Their views of this collective are based on negative stereotypes (see among others, London 1990; Canaff 1997; Hively 2004; Kirk and Belovics 2005).

In the case of older people, the holistic approach of guidance and a life course perspective, that emerged at the end of the 90’s (Brewington and Nassar-Mc Millan 2000; Sultana 2004) can have a special added value, since it bears in mind all aspects of his/her personality (not only those lined to education and work but also family-balance, health, etc). Ford (2007, p. 128) stated that “without sufficient attention to the health of ageing workers, strategies to extend working life could result in a marked increase in the numbers of older workers retiring on health grounds and claiming sickness or invalidity benefit or the national equivalents, instead of a genuine enrichment of the national skills repertoire”.

Older people at risk of unemployment or under employment include a number of groups: people who have been made redundant; those who lack skills and confidence, those who are trying to change career or return after a break, those who are seeking more flexible working patterns, those who need to cope with other kinds of discrimination (minority ethnic communities, migrants, etc) and those with health problems.

Guidance could help them to rejoin employment, after long term unemployment, to enter the labour market for the first time at an advanced age (for instance women whose sons and daughters have grown and enjoy more free time), to change their professional career and to retain workers about to undergo early retirement.

It will be demonstrated that guidance could be an economic instrument contributing to active ageing of the population. Answering to the question: Is there a need for such demonstration? Or, is there evidence that guidance is not being utilized fully? For Governments of some Southern European countries, such as Italy and Spain, with a late spread of guidance due to the fact that for a long time in these countries it was mainly the family that was responsible for providing guidance both in terms of education and job choices (Castelli and Venini 2002), the priority collective for careers guidance is the unemployed owing to the fact that they receive the greatest amount of social benefits. For the social partners the main target group is also the unemployed, followed by the over-45 s (young adults) and finally, employed workers. A review of career guidance policies in Spain (OECD 2002) showed that by age groups, those who make most use of the careers guidance services are the younger individuals (21–25 years), while the over-45 s constitute the collective that least benefits from this type of programme. Some awareness-raising on the role and effectiveness of third age guidance, is therefore needed in some countries.

The practice of guidance was initially developed in the United States thanks to his founding father, the engineer, teacher and lawyer Frank Parsons (1908) during the massive period of industrialisation. Since then, theoretical approaches have been increasingly enriched by social sciences such as psychology, pedagogy, sociology and economics (Clayton et al. 2007). For instance, Greco (2007) analysed the impact of the profound economic, social and cultural changes occurred since the 1970 s, on increasingly changing biographies and the crucial role of guidance for older adults from a social perspective. This paper aims to attract attention on guidance from an economic policy approach. Guidance will be considered as an economic instrument or an active ageing strategy, for keeping older workers actively in the labour market.

Although guidance services in Spain are traditionally addressed to unemployed they are now provided to any interested individual at any point of his career, but still the age is not considered as a relevant factor. In an attempt to demonstrate how guidance can help to older workers, three hundred and seventy five interviews among guidance beneficiaries (focusing on one specific case-study), social partners (employers’ organisations and trade unions) and counsellors were conducted. The survey was carried out in the province of Alicante (Valencian Community). This data is complemented with some conclusions of a Report of the European Commission (2007b) evaluating the effectiveness and impact of a Guidance Programme in Spain.

Many authors have tried to define the term “older worker” (see among others: Myers 1992; Kirk and Belovics 2005). In some cases, the Third Age is defined as 50+, or even as low as 45+ (Clayton et al. 2007). At the European Union (EU) we consider any worker of 55 years of age as an “older worker”.

Third Age Guidance From an Economic Policy Approach

The term “Economic Policy” is generally understood to mean the application of certain measures or instruments by the authorities in order to achieve a set of aims or objectives (Cuadrado et al. 2006). Currently in the economic policy structure, three stages of objectives are identified (Jané 1974): intermediate objectives, operational objectives also known as interim or short-term objectives, and longterm objectives. The interdependence between these three phases of objectives is very close, since because the longterm objectives are so abstract, they are given content by the operational objectives and these in turn are defined by the more specific objectives, that is, by the intermediate ones.

If the classification is ranked from the most defined and specific to the most abstract, the intermediate objective must be fixed first in order to then move on towards greater amounts of generality. It will be defined in this study, as the promotion of active ageing of the population.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2002 p. 12) active ageing is “the process of optimisation of the opportunities for health, participation and security with the aim of improving people’s quality of life as they age”. The term “active” makes reference to a continued participation in social, economic, cultural, spiritual and civic issues, not just the ability to remain physically active or take part in the labour market. Described thus, it indeed seems quite broad and generic to be defined as an intermediate objective, so its meaning needs to be more concrete. The guidelines for Member States’ employment policies 2005–2008 (Consejo de la Unión Europea 2005) explicitly mentions the need to promote support for active ageing, for example with adequate working conditions, improved health at work and appropriate measures that provide incentives at work and dissuade people from early retirement. This paper will focus solely on the basic principles of active ageing that involve the active participation of older people in work activities.

The intermediate objectives are achieved, through the application of specific economic policies. In this case, instrumental policies could be applied, namely labour market policies where career guidance is found. It is well known that intermediate objectives serve to achieve short-term economic objectives. Out of the five objectives traditionally identified in this category (Cuadrado et al. 2006): full employment; economic growth; external economic balance; price stability; and income redistribution; that of “full employment” will be the most appropriate. Lastly, this objective of full employment will give meaning and definition to the longterm objectives that are fixed in each economy depending fundamentally on the ideas and operation of each society such as freedom, justice, equality, independence (see Plath 2009), etc. In fact, according to psychologists Alfred Binet (1908) and Emile Tolouse (1903) the ultimate version of guidance practices was the creation of a harmonious society based on the recognition, by all those concerned, of holding a position corresponding to their abilities (Guichard & Huteau 2003).

Active versus Passive Employment Policies in Europe: Where is Guidance Found?

The Guidelines for employment policy in Member States of the EU (2005–2008) states that the objectives of full employment, quality and productivity at work and social cohesion must be translated into clear priorities: to attract more people to join and stay in the labour market, to improve the adaptability of workers and companies, and to increase investment in human capital by improving education and qualifications (Consejo de la Unión Europea 2005).

As briefly referred before, guidance is an instrument that aims to fostering full employment in the economies and its contribution needs to be examined in more detail. To understand its importance, the EU and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) classification of these labour market policies will be considered.

The OECD (1993) distinguishes active labour programmes from passive. The objectives of these active actions include increasing entry into the workplace for the unemployed, particularly in the case of highly disadvantaged groups; improving the qualifications and training of workers and the unemployed and in short, correcting all the specific deficiencies of the labour market. They differ from passive employment policies in that the latter basically consist in providing income for the unemployed or workers in special circumstances, including some measures for encouraging early retirement (Gámir 2000). Active employment policies include a very heterogeneous mix of measures that aim to solve very diverse problems in the labour market (Fina 1999). This group of active programmes, to be examined here, makes the following classification broken down into the following subcategories: public employment services and programme administration; vocational training; measures aimed at young people; subsidies for creating employment; measures to benefit of the disabled. The first subcategory specifically includes: services related to professional placement, assessment and guidance.

According to the definitions of the categories and subcategories of the European Commission programmes related to the labour market (Eurostat 2004) they are classified by type of action. By selecting those which correspond to active measures, the following categories are found: public employment services; intensive assessment and assistance in finding employment; vocational training; work rotation and job sharing; employment incentives; integration of the disabled; incentives for start-up business. In this case no specific mention is made of guidance, although as in the OECD classification, it is included in the second subcategory of: intensive assessment and assistance in finding employment, under the definition of programmes for assistance in the employment search process by intensive and individual assessment. These are aimed only at people who are registered unemployed, searching for employment and who have special difficulties getting a job, as well as groups with problems of access to the labour market. Following this classification utilized by the European Commission we observe that the guidance needs of those workers who are employed were not being fully considered in the past.

To understand this, we need to look back in time when the countries of the European Union saw how unemployment had been growing gradually and almost constantly from the mid-70’s to the recent time. The aggravation of the problem since the economic recession of the 90’s and the confirmation that this is due to structural reasons, has prompted European authorities to abandon policies that were ineffective and to adopt new policies to alleviate Member States´ main problem: unemployment. Up to the mid-90’s, passive employment policies were predominant in Europe (Suso 1997) but since then, active policies were becoming more and more significant. This trend lasted until the beginning of the new century where again the expenditure on passive or also called support measures was increasing every year since 2000 until 2005 (see Table 1).

Table 1 Expenditure on Labour Market Policy (LMP) per person wanting to work in Spain
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Is Third Age Guidance, an Active Ageing Strategy Implemented in the EU?

The EU started to tackle the challenges caused by the ageing of the workforce since the middle of the 90’s (Walker 2009). The 2001 Stockholm European Council set the activity rate target for 50% of the 55–64 age group to be implemented by 2010. Although the European Bureau of Statistics, also known as Eurostat, (2007) reported that the gap from the 50 per cent has diminished from 13.2 percentage points in 2000 to 5.3 percentage points in 2007, most Member States have to step up their effort.

A recent report on active ageing (Council of the European Union 2007) states that there is no single model to foster active ageing within the EU, but the different measures or instruments implemented fall in four main policy areas, such as follows: overcoming employment barriers for active ageing; overcoming barriers to learning and training for active ageing (this includes counselling adapted to the needs of old workers, so therefore, third age guidance); overcoming barriers to inadequate work environments for active ageing; and overcoming barriers to sustainable social protection systems for active ageing.

According to Watts and Sultana (2004) a life-stage where current guidance provision is inadequate and insufficient is the third age. The evidence shows that human capital gap between young and older workers remains high in the EU, with older workers characterized by low attainment levels and very low participation rates in education and training. Skill levels have an important relation with activity / employment rates; the greater the educational level the higher the employment rate. Furthermore, in all Member States older workers receive far less training than younger workers although with considerable variations across countries in the size of this gap as well as in the overall incidence of training. The training gap between young adults (25–34) and older workers (55–64) is narrowing but the pace is slow, the EU Labour Force Survey data (European Commission 2008) show a significant increase in the proportion of old workers in EU(15) participating in training from 2.9 per cent in 2000 to 5.8 per cent in 2007 (see Tables 2 and 3).

Table 2 Life-long learning in Spain
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Table 3 Percentages of older workers (age 50–64) leaving the workforce by receiving training and country, 1994–2000
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Important differences exist among Member States, in 2007 there are only seven: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, Sweden, The Netherlands and The United Kingdom, in which the relative number of workers participating in training is above the 12.5 per cent benchmark set for 2010 (European Commission 2007b). One of these countries not reaching the target is Spain (see Table 2) although some labour market policies considering old workers have been implemented in the last years.

Older Workers and Career Guidance in Spain

Although the activity rate of the over 55 workers has improved in the recent years, Spain is still under the target, reaching 47.4 per cent in 2007 and therefore under the European, average EU(15), which is 49.3 per cent (see Table 4). One of the problems facing employment in Spain is the discrimination against older workers, who are systematically thrown out of their jobs and increasingly treated as a group of people of reduced worth who have lost their capacity for employment. The situation has now reached the point where older workers are beginning to have serious problems to find a job. The Instituto de Empleo Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal (INEM 2002) the Spanish employment office, prepared a monographic report on the situation of the over 44 s in which it is demonstrated that the employment of occupationally trained students over the age of 44 in 2002 is 26 per cent lower than the population as a whole. The highest percentage of employment of this age group corresponds to men between the ages of 45 and 50 in the construction sector, whereas the lowest percentage corresponds to the service sector.

Table 4 Indicators for employment analysis. In age groups
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Guidance Provision in Spain: an Overview

The action taken by the Spanish government regarding employment and social affairs includes information and guidance services specially geared to the unemployed, but also to other collectives with specific needs (women, young adults, the disabled and immigrants).

Other authorities (economic and local corporations) provide guidance and counselling for self-employment and the establishment of business. Government resources tend to be used to deliver information and provision of guidance in the form of a series of schemes, encounters and workshops, as well as subsidies for different kinds of collaborating agencies (non governmental organisations, social partners, non profit entities).

Active labour policies are structured in Spain, around three core themes:

  • Employment services: job placement activities, information, guidance and advice on the search of employment.

  • Training measures: basically occupational and continuous

  • Employment grants: employment in the private sector, self employment and direct job creation in the public sector, and employment programmes targeted at disabled people.

The main efforts along the lines of guidance are geared to the unemployed (young people without experience, the long-term unemployed and unemployed over-45 s). The other negatively affected collectives, which include young adults, are also given special treatment. However, when they find a job, guidance loses importance to the point where it ceases to exist. Furthermore, older people rarely use the few guidance services available and are often unaware of their existence as a result of their difficult access (e.g. more and more services are provided over the internet and consequently aimed at younger people). A recent report of the OECD (2002) also highlighted that there is a specific need at national level to improve the coordination and effective publicity regarding existing guidance services and their accessibility.

Recent Evolution of Employment Measures for Older People in Spain

Since 1998, several different Action Plans for Employment (PNAE) have been drafted, and these have included a range of measures aimed at those groups that have shown greater difficulties in entering the labour market. The framework of action of the PNAE includes the start-up of measures aimed at finding employment for people over the age of 44 and their maintenance in employment even after the age of 65. In particular, the PNAE for 2002 (Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales 2002) proposed the following active employment measures as part of its guideline 3: “Employment for older people”:

  • Reform for partial retirement making it possible for retired people to work, with a reduced pension while doing so.

  • Change in the way retirement pensions are calculated, in such a way that those who continue to work after the age of 65 receive a higher pension.

  • To motivate employers to employ older workers, a new system for reducing social security contributions.

  • If workers over the age of 55 are dismissed as part of lay-offs, the employer has to pay a part of the social security contributions until the worker reaches the age of 61.

  • Programme for Active Employment Income (RAI): the unemployed over the age of 45 that have been registered as such for more than 12 months and have no income can apply for this RAI as long as they undertake to carry out actions in favour of gaining employment.

  • Employment Workshops: programmes that combine employment with training.

Although the total Spanish rate of activity has improved during the years in which European Strategy for Employment has been applied, mainly thanks to the greater participation of women in the last decades, older workers have not made such good progress towards the objectives set forth in Lisbon and Stockholm.

For the first time, the National Employment Action Plan (PNAE) 2004 (Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales 2004) included quantitative objectives for the rate of activity that was to be reached in 2005 as part of the plan to reach full employment by 2010. The age group of 55 to 64 was expected to reach 0.5 per cent more than in 2004. The orientations and objectives of European summits in Stockholm and Barcelona were taken up in the PNAE 2004 guidelines, under the promising header “increase of manpower and promotion of a working life”. The guidelines also recognize that “the first steps towards the development of an active ageing strategy” are being taken.

The Qualifications and Vocational Training Law (Boletín Oficial del Estado 2002) meant a step further in giving relevance to guidance provision to all workers, including also those with an employment, since it includes supplying adequate information and guidance on vocational training and employment qualifications to any individual. This law came into force in 2002, but in practice it is being implemented firmly although slowly.

The most recent progress on active ageing taken by the Spanish Government was an active employment measure in order to elevate the retirement age that has been falling since the 70’s and was stabilized at the age of 62 until 2005 as it is stated in the Report on the Spanish national strategy with relation to the pension system (Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales 2005) reaching nowadays the age of 63.66 (Ministerio de Trabajo e Inmigración 2008). In the framework of the agreements between the government and the social partners on labour market and social security measures, Spain has introduced a package on incentives both to employers and workers to continue employment. All workers who postpone the retirement for one or more years after the age of 65, until 70, will have additional increments in their pension, two per cent for each extra year independently of the contributed years, or three per cent to those who have paid more than forty years of contributions.

Third Age Guidance Provision in Spain: The Evidence

As seen before, the case of Spain has shown significant progress in the area of social dialogue regarding the treatment that older workers are to be given in the labour market. Another proof of this is that new and recent initiatives have been created for the provision of careers guidance, advice and information services in employers’ organisations and trade unions. A good example is a guidance programme addressed to unemployed, called: Professional Guidance for Employment and Assistance for Self-Employment Actions (OPEA Actions) established by PNAE 2004, through which it is sought: adopt, insofar as is possible, an active and participatory approach by the user using the methodology designed by the general Directorate for Labour Mediation, and revealing the user’s potential so as to increase effectiveness in the search for employment and the adaptation of the actions undertaken to individual professionals goals, bearing self-employment in mind as another professional option.

The conclusions of a report of the European Commission (2007a) that evaluates the effectiveness and impact of the OPEA Actions in Spain, show that although people older than 45 are considered as one of the priority groups of this programme, representing the 42 per cent of total beneficiaries of OPEA actions carried out in the Valencian Community during the year 2004–2005, the effectiveness of this guidance programme, measured in terms of finding an employment, are not very satisfactory for them. Table 5 shows that the 50.8 per cent of them could still not find a job after receiving guidance.

Table 5 Have you worked after participation in OPEA? By age of participants of OPEA actions of the Valencian Community during 2004–05. (Percentages)
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Taking this fact as a starting point, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate third age guidance is not fully utilized in Spain. Consequently, this country is not using this active labour policy, as an instrument fostering the intermediate objective of active ageing of its population. For that, we used the methodology described below.

Methodology

The methodology is based on a combination of techniques aimed at gathering qualitative and quantitative information, including statistical analysis data obtained from 369 personal interviews with the participants of the Guidance Service of the Business Confederation of the Province of Alicante (the case-study approach was also used), ten individual interviews with social partners: employers’ organisations and trade unions representatives, and a working session with guidance experts: six counsellors. The statistical treatment of the data was carried out using statistical package SPSS for windows v.15.

The survey took place during 2007 and 2008 in the Province of Alicante, a declining manufacturing industrial area (footwear, textile, toy and plastic, marble processing-plants) facing high unemployment, also with agriculture and important tourism activity, belonging to the Valencian Community, a coastal region by the Mediterranean Sea. Main findings in the total of 375 interviews are listed below.

Third Age Guidance from the Social Partners’ Point of View

Seven personal interviews we re conducted to representatives of the Confederación Empresarial de la Provincia de Alicante (COEPA) a business confederation representing the 96% of total enterprises of the province of Alicante, and three telephone interviews with the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), the most important trade union in the country.

The majority of interviewed (8 of 10) agreed on the convenience of career guidance for older workers as a way to enhance workers’ labour life. The other two did believe that being active at work is indeed an active ageing strategy but did not see the need of giving a special treatment in terms of guidance to this collective.

Those eight who thought that the labour situation of older workers would improve (in terms of quality and continuity in time) and therefore the physical and mental situation of each individual, by having specific guidance services and by improving the accessibility for this collective, also recognised that the situation in Spain is still far of reaching this aim. These are the main findings, including general conclusions about guidance but also specific opinions on third age guidance.

General conclusions on guidance activities carried out in Spain:

  • There is not really a guidance culture in Spain. Main reasons seemed to be economic, since the available services usually depend on the existence of public subsidies received by the institutions willing to provide guidance (mainly social partners). Consequently, the experiences are isolated and temporary, they last as long as the public funding (e.g. OPEA Actions). This prevents continuity and does give citizens time to realise that it is a service as stable as ‘going to see the doctor’.

  • Career guidance is almost always aimed at the unemployed and there is hardly anything for employed workers.

  • Career guidance for the unemployed could be improved because in some cases it is limited to selecting unemployed workers for certain vocational training courses in order to help them find employment. The recruitment and selection process takes the form of a test, which often consists of a personal interview and is usually insufficient.

  • For the over-45 s lately in Spain, social dialogue is beginning to talk about finding formulas to prevent a ‘brain drain’. Progress has indeed been made, with Spanish legislation now making it possible to combine a retirement pension with a certain number of work hours. For jobs that involve physical work, such as the construction sector, the unions have, for a long time, been demanding the situation where each working day completed by a bricklayer counts for 1.5 days’ contribution to the social security system, which would make it possible for said collective to enjoy early retirement at the age of, for example, 50. In other words, the focus in this case is not preventive, i.e. using career guidance services to prevent a worker from leaving the job market at the age of 50, but only reactive by adapting legislation to the problem.

Specific conclusions on third age guidance:

  • Qualifications and skills required for gainful work have to be enhanced over the entire lifecycle. In particular, employers should take more initiatives, such as career guidance, to train and motivate their workers.

  • The level of continuous education and training is related more closely to the base level of education than to age. Active ageing, therefore, starts with early education. A life cycle perspective is essential. Active ageing must not start with older people but much earlier than this.

  • Social partners have a key role in addressing and promoting active ageing, in particular in the fields of lifelong learning and the improvement of working conditions.

Guidance Beneficiaries’ Point of View: Is it Possible to Rebuild a Professional Career at the Age of 54?

Three hundred and sixty nine personal interviews were conducted among all users of the Guidance Service of COEPA during October 2007 and May 2008. This is a free and no need to make a prior appointment service, addressed to any person (employed and unemployed) over 16 (See Fig. 2). This is the main difference with OPEA actions, only addressed to unemployed.

Fig. 2
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Description of careers Guidance Service of COEPA

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The survey contained two clearly identified parts:

  • First: a) general descriptive information: age, gender, province, education background and b) analysis of the current situation of those interviewed (working, studying, working and studying, and unemployed)

  • Second: using a questionnaire, different issues of a general nature were explored such as, their access to the guidance programme carried out by COEPA, the reasons why they decided to ask for help, etc.

The descriptive analysis resulting from the statistical report corroborates that from the total number of interviews subjects:

  • 58.6 per cent were women and 41.4 were men.

  • 18 of the respondents were over 55 years, three women and fifteen men, representing 5.4 per cent of the total users.

  • 39 per cent of the users over 55 had no job (see Table 6)

    Table 6 Labour situation of participants of COEPA Guidance Service. By age. (Percentages)
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  • Of those unemployed over 55, 41 per cent were unemployed between 2 and 5 years, 22 per cent between 5 to 15 years and 11 per cent over 15 years (see Table 7).

    Table 7 How long have you been unemployed? By age of unemployed participants. (Percentages)
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Special attention, in the second part of the survey, was given to the 96 users over 45 years, an age were it starts to be difficult to find an employment in Spain:

  • 30 per cent were women and 70 per cent were men.

  • 24.8 per cent had no job, being unemployment much more common in women for this age group.

From those ninety six different case-studies of people over 45, that of a 54 years old immigrant from Argentina coming to Spain is reproduced below to understand the way old workers think and why careers guidance, and specially the holistic approach, could be so convenient.

“When you’re desperate, you always find a way out”.

Julio has been in Spain for three years and now he delivers freshly picked fruit and vegetables from a farming area to luxury hotels and restaurants. The key: a lorry he bought with a micro credit of €15,000.

When the economic crisis hit Argentina in 2000, he lost everything he had earned over 30 years’ hard work. He had to shut down his tights and stockings factory, which was the fourth-largest textile industry in Argentina, and his 350 employees lost their sources of income, as did Julio’s family. In desperation, he packed his bags and chose Spain as the country in which he would try to look after his wife, two children and mother-in-law. ‘I lost everything: my home, my three factories. “I had to start again at the age of 54. I thought Spain was the right place to find stability and subsidies for entrepreneurs,” he remembers sadly.

He had hundreds of interviews and was selected in more than thirty processes, but he always came up against the same disadvantage: he was too old. His options had become very limited: “All I could do was start up my own business, but where was I going to get the money from? Every loan I applied for required economic guarantees I couldn’t provide”. He dreamt about setting up his own travel agency or a tourist business where his children could also work, but in the end, he had to settle for working as a driver for a security firm.

His boss gave him the idea for his business. He had land but didn’t know how to make it profitable. “I suggested he should grow products that were typical from this area such as strawberries, asparagus and vegetables. I said I would buy them from him. And then I sold and delivered them to luxury restaurants and to the best hotels. I gave them a better price than their usual distributors and also guaranteed that the products would be freshly picked,” he explains.

He told his idea to the counsellor who spoke to him about micro credits. He helped him draw up his project and gave him a moral guarantee for his application. “Thanks to that, I managed to start again, although, at the moment we’re still in the initial stages.” He now has forty clients, although it still is not profitable enough and he has to carry on working for the security firm, where he started out as a driver and is now the administrator.

When we asked his opinion on what a careers guidance service for old workers should offer, for instance if it should focus on certain competences (computers, languages, etc.) or more importance should be given to aspects such as self-esteem and confidence, he gave us this simple explanation:

“In my case, the most important thing was not to lose my self-esteem. When I realised that I could not compete in my profession as an accountant owing to my age and in spite of my experience (more than 30 years’ in the profession), I considered the following: in a country as unstable as Argentina, I managed to create a company and make it grow for more than 25 years. After this stage of my life came to an end as a result of circumstances that are well known, I successfully managed a firm with over twenty professional legal experts, which had to close due to the fact that the 80% of the companies that owed it money were declared bankrupt. My consideration was then the following: I am trained as an accountant, but my real profession over the last 31 years has been that of entrepreneur. That is where I need to compete and that’s where I might have things in my favour. This might seem simple enough, but it wasn’t so clear for me because when one is on a difficult situation, one sometimes can’t see the wood for the trees. Everyday routines, the lack of resources and non-productive time drain away that capacity. In that situation, it is not easy to resort to new know-how.”

Counsellors’ Point of View

The last phase was carried out with the participation of a working session with six guidance experts among the counsellors team of COEPA (two men and four women from 32 to 41 years of age). The session was led by an expert in participative methodologies and it was divided into two clearly identifiable sections:

  • First: to collect information about the beneficiaries on aspects such as: reasons for attending the guidance service, motivation, usefulness and degree of satisfaction, needs and worries, access barriers, strengths. The differences between the older workers and the rest of participants were asked to be considered and highlighted.

  • Second: finding out their opinion in relation to the impact and effectiveness that the actions are having on the users of the service, in terms of improvements in employability and labour integration.

Conclusions about older workers are:

  • This group of older workers is less motivated. This scepticism is related with low levels of education. Most of them have been working in the same job and they feel it is too late now to learn (they do not like the idea of coming back to school).

  • In general terms, they are very responsible and serious people but with low self-confidence and self-esteem, low interest in starting up a new business and low geographical mobility.

  • Main reasons for attending to guidance services are either find a job (or getting a new one) and getting a stable work with continuity in time.

Conclusions about the type of guidance better suits them:

  • This group needs specific training in new tools and techniques to understand the labour market nowadays. They like learning for a practical purpose such as improving employability and learning specific work skills.

  • Older learners favour small groups and one-to one support from tutors. Learning from computers can be isolating.

  • Courses where older people are positively welcome and made to feel like home are more successful and regular review of progress is strongly recommended.

  • 100 per cent of interviewees state that guidance, in order to be effective in terms of helping people in finding an employment, must be based on the needs of the users. It should be an “á la carte” service. This is also highlighted by the Valencian Community OPEA Programme experts (see European Commission 2007a)

Results

In May 2009, COEPA started to measure the impact of the guidance service. For that, COEPA guidance team telephoned to the 369 users of the survey since October 2007 until May 2008. The central questions were: Did you find an employment? did you start up a new business? and how long did you take? Data is available for 96% of participants.

Findings showed that older workers had more difficulties for entering the labour market than other age groups. Comparing Tables 6 and 8, we observe that this collective has improved very slightly in terms of employment. Of the 18 participants over 55 with no employment at the time they attended the guidance service, only three found a job. On the other hand, two workers who were in risk of losing his job did so. Therefore one year later, 33% of participants over 55, were unemployed, which in absolute terms means only one person found a job. Looking at the other age groups, guidance effectiveness is clearly higher, especially for the younger group.

Table 8 Have you worked after participation in COEPA Guidance service? By age of participants. (Percentages)
Full size table

Referring again to the low rate of activity for older workers in Spain (see Table 4) and the real difficulties that older workers have to re-enter the labour market, it should be stated that although this country has implemented some ageing policies, there is still a real need of helping older workers and therefore the age should be taken more in consideration when designing equal opportunities policies.

Secondly, common to all the policy interventions is indeed the role of social partners in the age management process (Gruber and Wise 2001). Kirks and Belovics (2005, p. 56) stated that “recognizing that the workforce predictions of the past are rapidly becoming a reality, many groups (e.g., employers, governments, agencies, counsellors) are beginning to address the needs of older workers”. The European Employment Committee also highlights that “the social partners have a key role to play in the implementation of the policy of ageing. It is important that employers, workers and their representatives are deeply involved in developing new programmes since this will ensure a better match with the actual problems facing old workers in their workplaces or unemployed people” (Council of the European Union 2007, p.6). The social partners’, counsellors’ and beneficiaries’ opinions in the survey go in the same direction: publicly-funded career guidance to older workers is not being implemented in Spain. Furthermore, social partners consider career guidance as a positive ageing strategy. This lead to the conclusion that there is a gap between what old workers and social partners are demanding in terms of career guidance provision, and the active labour policies that are being implemented by the Authorities (i.e. OPEA programmes addressed to any unemployed over 16 years)

Thirdly, the study case of the Argentinean immigrant is also representative of the self-individual impact level that age guidance may have. As Ford (2007) stated, recent projects and researches (see for instance Brewington and Nassar-Mc Millan 2000) have demonstrated that in order to respond efficiently to the needs of older workers, age guidance, and especially holistic guidance, can do many important things, such as: help individuals to overcome low self confidence and self-stereotyping, to overcome barriers to work and learning, aspiring to career change; help in finding affordable training opportunities; support the full range of individuals needs: employment, health, financial circumstances and retirement plans, among others.

Lastly all counsellors’ opinions in the survey evidenced that this group has specific needs and although they are a very heterogonous collective they should be given special attention. Therefore some recommendations have been listed to better meet their needs.

Conclusion

Population ageing is both a challenge and an opportunity. Challenge and opportunities will be more easily met if the labour resources of older people can be utilised more fully by comprehensive active ageing policies. Special attention should be paid to older people because they face particular difficulties in re-entering and maintaining in the labour market.

Although the outcomes of guidance are difficult to be measured (Plant 2001), two levels of impact should be differentiated. To analyse the results at macro level, the economic policy structure (instruments and objectives approach) (Jané 1974) could be used as a tool to understand the connection between the holistic approach of guidance (instrument) with the active ageing of the population (intermediate objective) and simultaneously with other more general economic objectives such as full employment, independence, welfare, etc.

Regarding the micro level impact, some studies highlight the good attitude at work and experience of old workers compared to younger workers (Gilsdorf 1992; Hively 2004; Kirk and Belovics 2005). All this benefits, intangible and therefore difficult to measure in many cases, create in the end a series of positive externalities that old workers generate (Ng and Feldman 2008) and companies should take as given. In other words, they can benefit from old workers without any added cost.

Although many European countries have already set priorities in the field of lifelong learning e.g. through national strategies on lifelong learning, action plans and programmes, it is certain that these approaches are not specifically designed for old workers (European Commission 2006).

As seen in the Spanish case, holistic guidance to older workers is not fully utilized and furthermore, social partners and guidance providers consider it would be a valid and positive ageing strategy. Older workers need more attention and better treatment from the active labour policies in this country.

It has been also argued that in order to respond efficiently to the needs of older workers, career guidance can do relevant things at self-individual level (see the case example of the Argentinean immigrant). Other active employment market interventions which were not considered in this paper, such as: activation strategies that establish rights and duties of older unemployed people; economic incentives for employers to hire or retain older workers; economic incentives to workers to stay at work longer; or attractive marketing policies to build a third age culture, e.g. Grijs Werkt which means Grey is Ok, implemented in the Netherlands, etc., may have similar results at macro and micro level as described before.

The main differences come in the direct effect that these active ageing strategies produce in the individual. Considering older workers a heterogeneous and diverse group (Caro and Tull 2009) other interventions that do not take into account a holistic approach and a life course perspective, are considerably less effective in terms of the wellbeing of each individual himself. Spanish survey showed that in order to get this effectiveness, career guidance must give response to old workers’ needs, by paying full and specific attention to this collective.