A series of six one-hour seminars running in the morning and afternoon of the event will allow delegates to understand complex areas of specific interest. The sessions will then open up into an interactive discussion on the key issues raised, giving you the chance to contribute to the debate as well as be updated on hot topics of the day. Some of the seminar areas that will be covered are as follows:
To promote awareness of the issues facing older workers in the labour market and show how ESF is responding to these issues. Two presentations to be delivered by The Age and Employment Network and the ESF ‘FLOW’ project (Age Concern, Milton Keynes) covering age issues in the labour market, ESF’s response and good practice.
Chair:
Chris Ball, Chief Executive, TAEN – The Age and Employment Network
Speakers:
Peter Clarke, FLOW Project Manager, Age Concern Milton Keynes
Lisa O'Shea, FLOW Project Co-ordinator, Age Concern Milton Keynes
Speakers:
Chair – Dr Bill McConnell, Consultant in Public Health, Northern Ireland
Speaker – Dr Maggie Rae, Joint Director Public Health, NHS Wiltshire & Wiltshire Council
Post-school learning in England makes very clear distinctions between 'formal' learning (which leads to a qualification) and 'informal' learning (which does not). This divide is not necessarily helpful to older learners. Nor is it helpful for a society in which the divisions between personal and work-based skills (particularly in the use of technologies) is becoming blurred, and in which increasing numbers of adults combine work-based, home-based and community-based learning. The seminar will identify ways in which the new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) can help to overcome these divisions, and suggest ways in which older learners can be supported to make best use of the potential flexibility of the QCF to recognise an increasingly diverse range of learner achievements.
Speakers:
Peter Wilson, Senior Adviser on QCF Implementation at QCDA
Stephen McNair, Director of the Centre for Research on the Older Workforce
In 2009 the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the charity Age Concern and Help the Aged jointly established a programme of research and policy seminars called ‘Just Ageing? Fairness, equality and the life course’. New findings from the organisations’ 'Just Ageing?' research indicate that inequality in old age is the result of disadvantages that have accumulated during people’s lifetimes. These inequalities have an impact on people’s health, income, social support and employment throughout their lives. Inequalities add up to create huge gaps in ‘life outcomes’ in later life. This presentation will discuss the key findings from the research and present eight key insights for tackling inequalities over people’s life-course, including: calling for policy makers to better consider the impact of increasing longevity on increasing inequality in society; moving away from policies that set different generations against each other; and long-term planning rather than playing to a short term agenda.
© GovNet Events 2009
