The sails are set to get unemployed people over 50 back to work
Paid upgrading, workshops, network meetings, temporary employment agencies and personal career advisors are some of the tools in a new project where Finansforbundet and FTFa are cooperating to get unemployed people over 50 years into jobs. “It’s hard to land a new job when you as a financial employee have turned 50 and are hit by unemployment”, says Steen Lund Olsen, President of FTFa and Vice-President of Finansforbundet.
Many people in the financial sector are seeing their jobs disappear because of the technology and the constant streamlining – and suddenly, after many years, they are in the same job in a job market that they don’t know at all. Unfamiliar with applying for jobs, unclear on job opportunities and blind to their skills. A situation that, as time goes on, challenges self-confidence, especially if they are over 50, where they all too often find that they are rejected based on age alone.
This has led Finansforbundet in cooperation with FTFa to put together a completely new project, where all the tools are used for the participants for up to 26 weeks. A guided effort with network meetings, workshops, personal career advisors, temporary employment agencies, paid upgrading and access to FTFa’s business network, where specific jobs are advertised.
“We can see that it is difficult to land a new job when, as a financial employee, you have turned 50 and are unemployed. That is why we are now implementing an intensive, job-oriented effort for 300 unemployed financial workers who are over 50 and are long-term unemployed or are in danger of becoming so. The goal is to get the participants in the project into regular jobs or private wage subsidy jobs”, says Steen Lund Olsen, President of FTFa and Vice-President of Finansforbundet.
The courses start in week three in both Eastern and Western Denmark and there is a lot of prior interest. At the two introductory meetings last week, more than 100 unemployed people over 50 attended.
“We are now setting the sails with the entire assortment of tools where the participants can get upgrading, create networks and become more aware of their own strengths and skills through personal coaching so that they can better put themselves into play”, says labour market consultant of Finansforbundet Steen Jensen, who expects that it will lead to a lot of people getting into jobs when the focus is taken off of age.
Designed based on the participants’ needs
The project known as “Visibility and ambition” is supported by the Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment with DKK 2.025 million and runs until September 2023. The course of up to 26 weeks, which stops when the unemployed person has gotten a job, typically consists of one day of meetings per week, either physically or online. The content itself is largely composed based on the participants’ own needs and desires. These can be topics with everything from: Skills development, the invisible job market, myths and prejudices, communicating clearly and personally, health, maintaining motivation for inner calm and mindfulness.
“The participants know their own needs best, so a lot is left open. But overall, we generally seek to give participants some opportunities for action and the courage to move forward. They have to stand out and not just be another application in the stack. But this also requires that they participate actively and are motivated”, says Hanne Skjoldborg, who is a career advisor in FTFa.
The course, which seeks to give the participants a shorter path to a job, still has some vacancies. If you are interested, hurry and send an email to: udsynambition@ftfa.dk.