A New Intergenerational Workplace

For many, retirement will come later than would have a few years ago. Given the economic downturn, more employees in their 60s are delaying retirement for least two to three years, and some are even planning on working beyond 70. Those over 50 who lost 40% or more in investments are about twice as likely to delay retirement as those who lost less. According to the World Health Organization, men and women who are healthy at 60 will, on average, be physically capable of working until they are 74 and 77, respectively. Combine these statistics and the newest employees entering the workforce might be joining their great-grandparents. This translates into a social phenomenon not yet witnessed: five generations are about to be working side by side.
To begin to understand how to manage such a broad group, the Project MATES has released a ‘Guide of Ideas for Planning and Implementing Intergenerational Projects’ for all professionals that are or wish to be enrolled in the development of intergenerational activities. This Guide is the main product of the Project MATES – Mainstreaming Intergenerational Solidarity, co-financed by the Lifelong Learning Programme from the European Commission, as a Grundtvig Accompanying Measures Project. It presents 37 examples of projects, a brief road map to implement Intergenerational Practices and an extensive list of recommendations and ideas on how to move forward and insert the intergenerational solidarity concept, in all fields of life. The Guide and other MATES products (mainly a library of documents), are available at: www.matesproject.eu.

Alter Internationalität Sprache Englisch