Innovation: Lavoro Over 40 (Jobs over 40)

Italy

AAI Domains:

• Employment (extending working life)

• Independent, healthy and secure living (lifelong learning, mental well-being)

Unemployment damages people’s health and well-being no matter what their age, however there is a tendency for policymakers to focus their attention on the issue of youth unemployment as it is hyper-cyclical (higher than the average rate of unemployment) and it can blight the career prospects and lives of even highly qualified young people. In comparison, the issue of people who become unemployed in their forties or fifties is relatively neglected even though this group are many years away from their retirement pension.

A young person who is unemployed can often rely on the support of their parents but when somebody in their forties or fifties loses their job, they are unable to provide that support and it affects the health and well-being of the whole family. To address this relatively neglected issue, Lavoro Over 40 was established as a voluntary association in 2003.

Lavoro Over 40 aims to collaborate with existing labour market organisations and institutions to promote the re-entry of mature workers into paid work. It is not an employment agency but an association that lobbies for legislative change, challenges ageism as a form of discrimination and participates in innovative research projects and employment initiatives that break down barriers to paid work for mature workers.

Lavoro Over 40 works in partnership with trade unions, trade associations and all levels of government to promote the interests of mature workers and has more than 6,000 individual members from across Italy. The main sources of income are from modest membership fees, donations and income from research and employment/training projects with most of the work of the association undertaken on a voluntary basis.

Activities in recent years:

• Project Maieuta (midwife) validated the prior learning of mature workers to improve their level of formal qualification and to increase their self-confidence that can easily be eroded by a period of unemployment.

• Project Nanny provided a bespoke training course for people interested in providing care in the domestic setting, potentially up the generational tree to older people and down to children, and has run three times.

• Project Needle and Thread provided training for women to acquire tailoring skills and Lavoro Over 40 also provides advice and support to mature workers who want to set up their own business. They also work with UNAR, the Anti-discrimination Office of the Presidency of the Council, to combat age discrimination which still blights Italian society.

In relation to active ageing, Lavoro Over 40 is primarily focused on extending the working lives of mature workers along with lifelong learning for this group. Losing a job in your forties or fifties can have detrimental effects on mental well-being as people can feel that after more than 20 years of working life that they are no longer valued by employers and wider society.

Lavoro Over 40 website