esf6cia

Despite inequalities between EU member countries, most experience demographic change which is characterised by a decrease in mortality and fertility rates leading to a decline in the proportion of the working population. Demographic change poses a range of economic challenges in terms of financing health care and retirement as well as maintaining the employment skills base. This leads to a discussion involving employers, older workers, trade unions and other key stakeholders on how the quality of work should encourage prolonged working.

Some good working practices related to the management of an ageing workforce have been developed under a previous European Social Fund Article 6 funding stream and the 2-year ‘ESF6 CIA’ project builds on these. Thus 'ESF6 CIA' capitalises innovative approaches towards demographic change through the exchange and transfer of already existing good practices. The project is financed under INTERREG IVC and has been labelled as a 'Fast Track Network' by the European Commission under the 'Regions for Economic Change' initiative.

The partner structure of the 'ESF6 CIA' project has the objective of matching less experienced with more advanced regions. Thereby, facilitating that all partners benefit from each other in one of two ways. Firstly, partners (especially from the new Member States) with less experiences related to the management of demographic change will chose from a pool of good practices developed under the previous ESF Article 6 funding stream those that provide the best match to their regional demographic situation. Secondly, partners providing these good practices will further exchange these with other partners who offer equally good practices. Thus each partner region benefits from another’s work related to workforce ageing and demographic change.

In summary, the development and improvement of good practices from ESF Article 6 projects was only the first step. The second logical step is the capitalisation and transfer of identified good practices to other regions. Through the involvement of managing authorities and other relevant stakeholders, the third step, will be the implementation of these good practices analysed and formulated in specific regional Action Plans, the main outcome of the ESF6 CIA project. These action plans will ultimately form the final result of an intensive interregional exchange between the partners, involving workshops and thematic seminars conducted throughout the lifetime of the project.

Good practice Work Book