Innovation: Project Go 50 Go

Czech Republic

AAI Domains:

• Employment (extending working life after 50)

• Independent, healthy and secure living (financial security)

Good quality paid work or employment is an important social element of health and a major contributor to active ageing. If work is stressful, insecure and hazardous then it has negative effects on health and well-being over the life course and therefore undermines the potential of people, groups and the whole population to age well. Unemployment frequently has negative effects on people’s standard of living and if it is over a long-term period it can reduce their sense of self-esteem and can increase the risk of poor health. Older people can find it particularly difficult to find another job when they are in their fifties and sixties due to age discrimination and this is an element, though far from the only part, of active ageing.

The Prague based employment agency, Fala, proposed the Project Go 50 Go and received support from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs for it to begin in 2014. Project Go 50 Go offers counselling and support for unemployed people in their fifties and sixties to help them overcome the barriers they face in securing their next job. This includes the Academy Go 50 Go which provides courses on ICT, employability and interview techniques for which participants pay a modest fee.

The project also works with employers in an effort to change entrenched attitudes towards older workers so that the employment rate can increase in the future. The project included a conference at the end of 2014 and has also established the Go 50 Go Club that meets quarterly to provide peer support. The project also provides counselling on employment rights and human resource practices so that older people have the capacity to seek redress against discrimination. The project is mostly centred on Prague but operates in other regions as well, particularly for the Go 50 Go Club, albeit on a modest scale.

In relation to active ageing, the Go 50 Go project is part of the employment agenda of extending working life after the age of 50 years. It is also relevant to lifelong learning and financial security for older people who are heightened risk of poverty if they are not able to secure paid work.