The general aim of this conference was to talk about solutions for seniors (over 45) who have (already) to cope with unemployment problems or/and those who have the will to jump into the status of entrepreneurship but do not know how to do, not only because they have no personal funds, but also because they do not really know where to begin with, in order to valorize their personal competences .
As the conference took place in the quite prestigious frame of the Cité de la Villette, where was held –for 2 days- the seniors job fair, we had not far from one hundred participants.
Information had been spread quite widely through the website of the fair but also through all the sponsors of the event, which included Ministry of Labor.
We had some interesting questions from the public, which gave us to think over and deepen our projects. One of these question was to ask about the difference between eBay and eBazaar, to which we answered that our added value is the fact of motivating and teaching people. Another question was about how to continue the eBazaar platform after the end of the 2 years European funding, to which we answered that we could either find other funds or sponsors or try to ask users for financial participation.
Besides that, this event has been the occasion of a “come together” of our European partners (mostly dealing with seniors) from 10 different countries and a good promotion for both eCom45+ and eBazaar projects as well as creating synergy between their 2 quite near and linked themes around seniors unemployment, how to cope with it and practical solutions for new work opportunity in later (45+) life.

Program

E-SENIORS association ( http://www.e-seniors.asso.fr/) is organizing the 4th cycle of the conferences program of

the “Salon de l’Emploi des Seniors” (http://www.salon-emploiseniors.com/10confs.htm)

to be held on Wednesday morning (from 10am) April 14, 2010

at the Cité des Sciences de la Villette.

This cycle will cover 2 topics, thanks to interventions (in English with simultaneous translation to French - provided for free by students of the Interpretation Section of ESIT - École Supérieure d’Interprètes et de Traducteurs - Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle) of two groups of European partners from Grundtvig Life Long Learning programs :

a) Different ways to cope with unemployment of seniors in Europe : state of the art, agreements and action plans for employment of seniors

Improving their employability through acquisition of numeric skills: methods, contents, best practices in ICT training for 45 + e-excluded population (1)

with E-SENIORS partners of ECOM45+ European Grundtvig Learning Partnership project :

Coordinator : Spain - Aula de Mayores de la Universidad de Malaga - www.uma.es/ficha.php?id=555

Italy - Federazione Nazionale dei Pensionati (FNP – CISL) - Roma - www.pensionati.cisl.it/

Hungary – Net-Mex Innovacios es Oktato (KFT) - www.net-mex.hu/

Estonia – SA Noored Teaduses Ja Ettevotluses (YSBF) - Tallinn - www.ysbf.org/

Bulgaria - Intelekti Ltd - Veliko Tarnovo www.intelektibg.com

b) E-Bazaar : an online e-market place enabling seniors and/or unemployed people to become easily an entrepreneur and sell goods and services by enhancing their skills and experience (2)

Who are likely to be the future entrepreneurs in partner countries? Specific needs of this target groups, how to attract them (strategy, acquisition)

Feasibility analysis which services or goods are likely to be placed on the local or European market in order to be successful and earn money.

with E-Seniors partners of eBAZAAR Grundtvig multilateral project :

Coordinator : Germany - EBG Europäisches Bildungswerk für Beruf und Gesellschaft gGmbH www.ebg.de

Austria - Berufsfoerderungsinstitut www.bfi-ooe.at/

Italy - UniTS - Università del Terzo Settore www.uniterzosettore.it/english.asp

Turkey - Ministry of National Education directorat in Eskisehir

United Kingdom - Equinox Research & Development Unit - University of Wales www3.newport.ac.uk

NOTES :

(1) Summary of the ECOM45+ project

The first aim of this project is to explore a multidisciplinary approach to ICT (Information and Communication Technology) education for people from their mid-to-late forties and seniors. Issues such as: (a) How can these people integrate themselves in the current scenario performed by the application of ICT in new forms of work organisation and new niches of employment or civic engagement? (b) How can they be encouraged to have a longer working life as professionals or volunteers? Or, (c) Which pedagogical methods and practices can promote learning processes for that purpose?, they all are vital questions that underlie this project. The principal pillars of this research are three, namely:

(1) What does this population segment want to learn from ICT to improve their skills and enlarge and improve their working life?

(2) Which are the main pedagogical methods and practices that our partners use?, and

(3) How effective are the above mentioned pedagogical methods and practices with our students?

The participants of the 6 institutions from all over Europe are exploring subjects together and sharing ideas on teaching methods and techniques and on topics regarding what this population segment wants to learn and which the best practices carried out by this project partners are.

(2) Summary of E-BAZAAR project

The aim of the E-BAZAAR project is to develop and test innovative instruments, which facilitate employability of older workers by removing existing obstacles (awareness in the society, new skills, and creative solutions) and making working attractive for the target group. By enhancing the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship we will create a pool as an e-market by using internet to sell goods and services.

In order to support and organize these new entrepreneurs we establish in each partner country (DE,AT,FR,IT,TR and UK) an virtual bazaar (web space) which overtakes the overall tasks (training, marketing, administrative) for all entrepreneurs in collective, so they are embedded in a “collective entrepreneurship” instead of struggling individually with similar problems. We address unemployed and retired people 50+ and encourage and train them to provide service and/or goods either with their already existing skills and experience like teachers, web designer, accountants, hairdresser, tailor, masseur, cook, elderly care services, gardener, or with their creative hobbies; photographing, painting, writing, sewing, woodworking. Aims and impact: Guidance and encouragement to improve older people´s employability revalue and upgrade their competences and knowledge. Project will stimulate target group to learn a new qualification and/or to start their own e-business. Coaching and a training course as well a dialog platform to share good practice and advocate changes in attitudes of older people themselves and society are outputs of the project.

Site plan

Métro : line 7, stop Porte de la Villette.

Bus : 75, 139, 150, 152, 249, PC.