There must be reforms at every level to achieve the multitude of benefits gained from active ageing in the workplace. This is the key element debated in the final report of the European Policy Centre (EPC)-Bertelsmann Stiftung project entitled “Creating Second Career Labour Markets - Towards more Employment Opportunities for Older Workers.”

Carried out in the framework of the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012, the research project aims to stimulate debate on active ageing at work by identifying, analysing and comparing good practices among actors responsible at EU member-state level for creating job opportunities for older workers, including governments, social partners and companies.

By giving a detailed analysis of the many barriers that already exist to employment for older citizens, the authors of the final report give policy recommendations to advice on a positive transition forward. Their main arguments are based around the concentrated efforts required by all relevant stakeholders and the dismissal of the popular notion that it is a positive policy to push older workers out of labour to free up jobs for a younger generation.

The project includes a series of interviews with elderly people who enjoy personally satisfying employment at older age.  Older workers experience various barriers when striving for a longer working career, nevertheless there are good practice examples in the EU Member States that show older can and want to have a successful “Second Career”, in the sense that they enjoy - as employees or as self-employed – a personally satisfying employment in age.

 Click here to see a Bertelsmann Stiftung short film about the project.