Innovation: Talent Plus

Netherlands

AAI Domains:

• Employment (employment rate)

• Independent, healthy and secure living (financial security, lifelong learning)

• Participation in society (voluntary activity)

Improving the employment position of people in their forties, fifties and beyond is an important element of active ageing although it is far from the only part of the process. A qualified professional who loses their job after the age of 45 can find it difficult to return to the labour market but active labour market policies to assist and support people into work tend to be focused on younger people or other marginalised groups. Some active labour market polices in the Netherlands have been retrenched at the national and local level leaving a gap for social innovations to fill.

Talent Plus was formed in 1995 as a charitable foundation and reformed into an association in 2010. It operates across the Netherlands working in partnership with municipalities or UWV, the administrative body for employee and labour insurance of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. It aims to improve the labour market position of people aged 45 and over with graduate or professional qualifications who have become unemployed and are finding it difficult to find their next job. Participation in Talent Plus is entirely voluntary and participants pay modest fees, €25 to register and €10 per month for full membership, for a training and support programme that can last up to 16 months although most people find their next job long before then.

The Talent Plus programme has three elements starting with re-orientation and motivation for people who have often experienced a shock from losing their job. The second part is on presentation and a focus on the future for their work and career while the final part is networking and job-finding. There are weekly meetings with groups guided through the process but largely autonomous and using their accumulated experience for mutual self-help.

Talent Plus uses LinkedIn to improve job searching and networking, offers training to improve employability, increases knowledge of the labour market but is not an employment agency and seeks to raise the level of interest of age-friendly employment practices among policy makers and social actors. Talent Plus is an entrepreneurial organisation that seeks to empower participants who have many attributes and skills and who can benefit from mutual support and guidance back into the world of work.

The number of people taking the Talent Plus course are relatively small, typically around 500 people at any one time with about half finding work before completing the course and most within six months. People who have gone through the Talent Plus programme are encouraged to act as ambassadors for the process and support people who go through a similar experience in the labour market.

In relation to active ageing, Talent Plus aims to improve the employment rate of people aged 45 and over with professional career backgrounds. There is an element of voluntary activity within the programme and lifelong learning as participants receive advice, guidance and training in relation to employability and age-friendly labour market practices. Helping middle aged and older workers back into the labour market is a route to improving their financial security and this is undertaken through mutual support and social connections among participants.