Developing Sustainable Careers Across the Lifespan: European Social Fund Network on 'Career and AGE (Age, Generations, Experience)

121 Pages·2016·1.46 MB·English

by  Ans De Vos

Ans De Vos · Jean-Marie Dujardin
Tim Gielens · Caroline Meyers
Developing
Sustainable Careers
Across the Lifespan
European Social Fund Network on
Career and AGE (Age, Generations,
Experience)
Developing Sustainable Careers Across
the Lifespan
Ans De Vos • Jean- Marie Dujardin
Tim Gielens • Caroline Meyers
Developing Sustainable
Careers Across the Lifespan
European Social Fund Network on Career
and AGE (Age, Generations, Experience)
Ans De Vos Jean-Marie Dujardin
Antwerp Management School and University of Liège
University of Antwerp HEC-Management School
Antwerp, Belgium Liège, Belgium
Tim Gielens Caroline Meyers
Antwerp Management School ESF Flanders
Antwerp, Belgium Brussels, Belgium
ISBN 978-3-319-47740-4 ISBN 978-3-319-47741-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47741-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959457
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Preface
For many people, a job is more than an income – it’s an important part of who we
are. So a career transition of any sort is one of the most unsettling experiences you
can face in your life.
The “career” concept is very broad, and it is often filled in differently depending
on the type of organisation and the individual involved. While the traditional mean-
ing of a career could be summarised in terms of making a number of (generally)
vertical steps, we now see that a career can refer to much more.
“Career-making” today in many organisations is considered as being much more
than climbing up the hierarchy; it requires skills that enable people to assess what
they need to develop to steer their career in the desired direction. Each one of us is
confronted with a simple question “What am I good at, and what do I want to do or
achieve?” which, however, is not that easy to respond to. During our studies, we
never needed to answer such questions. Our education system is still geared towards
a lifelong career with a single employer. But things have changed and transitions
throughout the life course are now becoming the everyday reality.
Of course, education and work cannot be separated. Yet the type of study and
diploma are not anymore the most decisive factors as regards our career paths. There
is a growing consensus that everyone should be involved with lifelong learning.
Knowledge is passé before you know it, and it’s not because you are older that you
may not have up-to-date knowledge in order to enable you to navigate smoothly in
life.
Ready or not, we all go through numerous transitions in our lives – leaving high
school to go to college or work, changing jobs, getting married, having children.
While it sounds like a cliché, the next step after an end is a new beginning, a new
chapter, and keeping this in mind can give you a sense of a fresh start. And while the
particular circumstances are new, the process itself is familiar. You have, after all,
made transitions before – changing schools, neighbourhoods, relationships, jobs.
You know the territory; you have acquired experience and skills along the way. You
can do this again, and this time even better.
Almost all of us will experience a few of these during our lifetime, so being able
to manage these situations in a healthy manner is crucial.
v
vi Preface
ESF (European Social Fund) Flanders together with ESF of the Autonomous
Province of Trento took up the challenge of addressing this issue through the estab-
lishment of the transnational network “Career and AGE (Age, Generations,
Experience)” in order to explore the life course approach and how it can contribute
to the creation of sustainable careers and longer working lives.
This “life course” framework takes into account the different needs and expecta-
tions of the individuals during their entire working life, especially in times of transi-
tions. During these transition moments, it is extremely important to take into
consideration the specificities of each individual in order to provide them with the
appropriate tools for getting on with their lives.
The innovative model, developed within the scope of this network, can help
human resources departments and intermediate organisations, for example, public
employment services, to adapt their services by incorporating the life course
approach in the way they perform their tasks. The different tools provided along
with the theoretical models, such as methodologies, manuals and examples, will
help companies and intermediate organisations to work on sustainable careers for
the different target groups in order to enable them to provide the support that is
needed.
Finally, I would like to thank all the stakeholders who, in the course of the net-
work’s short lifespan, brought in their valuable expertise and experience in order to
build the knowledge base needed for making transitions throughout life a success
story.
Senior Policy Officer Marie-Anne Paraskevas
European Commission, DG EMPL
Brussels, Belgium
Acknowledgements
This book is the result of the efforts of many people. Our journey started when the
European Social Fund initiated the “Career and AGE (Age, Generation, Experience)”
network, which brought together ten countries around the timely topic of sustain-
able careers.
We would like to express our indebtedness to many people. In the first place, we
are grateful for the opportunity the European Commission has given us, via the ESF
network, to explore a wide variety of examples of good practice across Europe and
to share our experiences with the actors involved and with ESF representatives dur-
ing several learning seminars.
Getting access to the examples of good practice would not have been possible
without the active cooperation of the local ESF authorities from the ten countries
involved: Belgium (Flanders), Belgium (Wallonia), Italy (Trento), Spain (Andalusia),
Czech Republic, Romania, Finland, Hungary, Northern Ireland and Germany). We
would like to thank the whole team for the fruitful collaboration we have experi-
enced throughout the project.
This book contains a selection of examples of good practice that demonstrate
how sustainable career management can be put into practice in diverse contexts.
This would not have been possible without the consent from the organisations
involved and the input and feedback we received from the people concerned with
the project in each organisation. Therefore, our profound thanks to Mieke Smet
(Janssen), Herman Verhoelst (KBC), Bernadette Thomas (Cité des Métiers),
Heikkilä Titi (City of Helsinki), Susan Russam (GEM Northern Ireland), David
Meulemans (VDAB), Philippe Bernier (C.I.F.) and Heidi Brie (Novartis).
We would like to thank Monique Valcour for her contribution to this book. Her
reflection on the examples of good practice from a broader, non-European perspec-
tive underscores the broader relevance of sustainable career management.
We would also like to thank European Commissioner Marianne Thyssen,
Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, for
writing an epilogue to this book and Marie-Anne Paraskevas, Senior Policy Officer
European Commission, DG EMPL, for writing the preface.
vii
viii Acknowledgements
We are also indebted to Pat Donnelly for his careful revision of the text. Pat put
in a great deal of time, and his editing abilities added greatly to the clarity of the
book.
We would like to thank our partners at Springer, for their enthusiasm about pub-
lishing this book and their support throughout the publication process, especially
Corina van der Giessen, Stefan Einarson and Stephen O’Reilly.
Contents
1 Introduction: ESF Network Career & AGE
(Age, Generation, Experience) ................................................................. 1
1.1 The Challenge of Making Careers More Sustainable ........................ 4
1.2 Aims and Scope of This Book ........................................................... 5
1.3 ESF Career and AGE Network: Methodology and Approach ........... 5
1.4 Structure of This Book ....................................................................... 6
1.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 7
References ................................................................................................... 7
2 Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Careers ................................... 9
2.1 Careers Within a Changing Career Context ....................................... 9
2.2 Sustainable Careers ............................................................................ 11
2.3 Career Dynamics: Careers as Learning Cycles ................................. 14
2.4 The Broader Picture: A Lifecourse Perspective on Careers............... 16
2.5 Sustainable Career Management ....................................................... 17
2.5.1 Focus on Employability and Workability .............................. 19
2.5.2 Anticipating for the Future: A Proactive Approach ............... 21
2.5.3 Inclusive Approach: A Broad Scope ...................................... 22
2.5.4 Enabling a Tailor-Made and Individualized Approach .......... 24
2.5.5 Active Involvement of Employees ......................................... 25
2.5.6 Career Support ....................................................................... 26
2.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 27
References ................................................................................................... 27
3 Examples of Good Practices at Multiple Levels ..................................... 29
3.1 Food for Thought Coming from European Good Practice ................ 29
3.1.1 Career Vouchers (Belgium, Flanders) .................................... 30
3.1.2 Cité des Métiers ..................................................................... 32
3.1.3 Age Management in the City of Helsinki (Finland) .............. 35
3.1.4 C.I.F.: Le Compte Individuel de Formation (France) ............ 37
3.1.5 The House of Workability (Johnson & Johnson Belgium) .... 39
3.1.6 Minerva Plan (KBC Bank, Belgium) ..................................... 44
ix
x Contents
3.1.7 Kestrel (United Kingdom, Northern Ireland) ........................ 45
3.1.8 Navigator Centres (Sweden) .................................................. 47
3.1.9 Diversity & Inclusion Program (Novartis) ............................. 49
3.2 Reflection by Monique Valcour ......................................................... 54
3.3 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 56
4 Context & Transfer Issues: How Can Good Practices
Be Transferred? ......................................................................................... 57
4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................ 57
4.2 From the Original Context to the Target Context. Analysis
of the Literature About Policy Transfer Studies ................................ 58
4.2.1 How to Define Policy Transfer and Transferability
of a Good Practice? ................................................................ 58
4.2.2 Which Elements to Transfer: Global
or Selective Transfer? ............................................................ 59
4.2.3 Which Criteria for Assessing the Transfer Success? ............. 60
4.2.4 Looking for Transfer Is a Lesson-Drawing Process .............. 61
4.2.5 How Does Transferability Work in Practice?
The Transfer Process .............................................................. 62
4.2.6 Voluntary or Coercive Transfer? ............................................ 64
4.2.7 What Are the Key Success Factors Leveraging
a Transfer? ............................................................................. 64
4.2.8 What Are Possible Obstacles or Potential
Factors Generating Failures? ................................................. 64
4.2.9 How to Manage the Change in the Transfer Process? ........... 65
4.3 Description of a Socio-economic Context ......................................... 65
4.4 Description of an Organisational Context.......................................... 67
4.5 Examples of Potential Transfers ........................................................ 69
4.5.1 Career Vouchers: Transfer from Flanders to Wallonia ........... 70
4.5.2 Transferring the House of Workability
from Johnson & Johnson to an SME ..................................... 71
4.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 72
References ................................................................................................... 73
5 Five Recommendations for Facilitating Sustainable Careers ............... 75
5.1 Follow a Lifecourse Approach ........................................................... 75
5.2 B ring the Individual in the Driver’s Seat of the Career ..................... 78
5.3 Make Career Options More Flexible in a Structured Way ................. 81
5.4 Create a Canvas for an Integrated Approach ..................................... 83
5.5 Think Beyond the Borders of One Single Organisation .................... 84
5.6 Discussion .......................................................................................... 88
References ................................................................................................... 89