Work Ability Management Project
The Erasmus+ strategic partnership project “Work Ability Management” (WAM) focuses on solving the issue of supporting the employment of (not only) aging workers through the concept of work ability.
The main aspect of the project is social inclusion, the activities are aimed at supporting the working capacity of employees and currently unemployed people, eliminating age discrimination among aging employees, supporting gender equality and looking for new innovative approaches to maintaining one’s own employability through educational and consulting activities.
A team of specialist workplaces participating in the implementation of the project
- Age Management z.s.from Czech Republic
- Blik Op Werk from the Netherlands
- Arbeit und Zukunft (Work and Future Association) from Germany
- National Public Health Center (NKK – National Center of Public Health) from Hungary
- Slovenská asociace age managementu, o.z.from the Slovak Republic
Main goal
The main goal of the proposed project is to connect professional European workplaces that deal with the issue of work ability and age management, to share their used methods and to jointly develop new products focusing on the individual needs of employed and unemployed people, including support through digital technologies.
Target group
The main target group of the project is therefore lecturers/counselors/facilitators and other experts working in the field of adult education and career counseling.
Project outputs
This publication collects a description of methods, tools, examples of good practice, teaching methods, training programs and analytical tools of partner organizations in the field of support for work ability, including the field of counseling in all participating countries
Electronic publication
a methodology for managing work ability for the target group of people employed or considering a change of profession
Read here
Methodology for managing work ability for the target group of people employed or considering a change of profession
Electronic publication
Methodology for managing work ability support for the target group of unemployed people.
Read here
Methodology for managing work ability support for the target group of unemployed people.
Web application
Mapping human potential, supporting learning and planning and learning to manage change of position
The goal of the web application you are currently on is to map a person's potential, support learning and planning, and teach them how to manage a career change.
All project outputs will be translated into all languages of the participating partner countries as well as into English and will be freely available to all interested parties. They are available for download above in English.
In the area of long-term impact, the aim of the project is to create conditions for the expansion of the concept of working ability and age management as a possible tool for dealing with the aging population in working life, as it was done in Finland. In the countries of Central Europe, this concept is still little used, while its effectiveness has already been confirmed by many scientific studies.
Age Management z.s.
The non-profit organization Age Management z.s. was established in 2013 in connection with the implementation of the international Czech-Finnish project “Age Management Strategy in the Czech Republic”, carried out by the Association of Adult Education Institutions of the Czech Republic and whose foreign partner was the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. This project brought the concept of work ability and age management to the Czech Republic, and the project’s professionals decided to continue this work and further develop, promote and use these methods. The main goal of the organization is to support the development of the concept of working ability on a scientific basis, its promotion and the transfer of good practice from abroad.
Age Management z.s. is predominantly engaged in the implementation of educational activities, publishing activities and activities in the field of age management. In 2016, they implemented the international project Platform Age Management within V4 Countries (no. 21520128) with the support of the Visegrad Fund, in cooperation with partner organizations in Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. Since its inception, the organization has worked closely with FIOH, especially in the implementation of measuring work ability using the work ability index method. In 2016, we managed to adopt the method of the „Towards Successful Seniority“ program from FIOH in the Czech Republic and train the lecturers of this program in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. For the needs of the initial audit of age management, the company’s employees subsequently developed a scan of individual pillars, which numerically evaluates the level of fulfillment in individual areas. In 2019, the company’s employees underwent training in the use of Personal & Company Radar.
Work team
Ilona Štorová
Graduated from the field of Andragogy at the Palacký University in Olomouc. He has been working in the field of adult education for a long time, focusing on andragogy and project management with a focus on the development of human resources. In the years 2010-2012, she worked as the head of the international project "Age Management Strategy in the Czech Republic" in cooperation with the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, based in Helsinki. The project's activities brought age management methods and the concept of work ability to the Czech Republic. The project was awarded the National Quality Award of the Czech Republic for the support of age management in the Czech Republic. In 2013-2015, she led the international project "Implementation of Age Management in the Czech Republic", which was implemented by the Association of Adult Education Institutions of the Czech Republic, o. s. in cooperation with Blik op Werk in the Netherlands. She is currently the chairwoman of Age Management z.s., the president of the Czech Association of Age Management z.s.
Jan Dobeš
He graduated from the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Charles University, majoring in psychology and special education. His work has been focused on several areas for a long time. The first is the helping sector, primarily the social area and work in social services in the positions of advisor, coordinator and lecturer of education for social workers and workers in social services. He is a private counselor and psychotherapist in the field of child and family psychotherapy and counseling. Since 2012, he has been working in the area of demographic change in connection with the principles of age management for professional development and sustainability, both at the level of employees and at the level of the management system and management of people in companies. He cooperates with the company Age management, z.s. and is a founding and statutory member of the National Association of Age Management in the Czech Republic. In the Work Ability Management (WAM) project, he is primarily responsible for the creation and development of the Internet platform Digital Coach, which is one of the main outputs of the entire project, financed by the European Erasmus plus project.
NEMZETI NÉPEGÉSZSÉGÜGYI KÖZPONT (NNK)
National Public Health Center and its Occupational Health Department
The Center (NNK) is a state budgetary professional background institute to the Ministry of Human Capacities (EMMI), which is responsible for health. The Center’s task extends to a broad range of public health issues: occupational, environmental, radiation, nutrition and cosmetics, children health, chemical safety, health promotion, epidemiology and health care administration.
The predecessors of the Occupational Health Department (NNK-MFF) were founded in 1933 and 1949. The National Occupational Health Institute played crucial role in establishing European level occupational health for Hungary. In its current form NNK-MFF performs scientific research-, health service-, educational-, organizational-, and professional supervision duties and provides expertise for national and European policy making. The Department’s most important tasks are within the following specialty areas: identification of occupational sources of diseases, early detection of these diseases, health surveillance, biological monitoring and working environment exposure monitoring, and evaluation of fitness to work. The employees of the Department cover a wide range of expertise and are active contributors in numerous international expert organizations. They take part in the work of several national- and international working groups and projects.
Work team
Ferenc Kudász
is an occupational medicine specialist, working in the Occupational Health Department of the National Public Health Center (NNK). He started to work with the Work Ability Index in 2008 and is promoting the methodology ever since. He is active in various national and international networks for occupational health, occupational safety and health, and ergonomics.
Edina Gábor
is a free-lancer coach and trainer, health promotion psychologist. She was general director of the National Institute of Health Promotion (OEFI) for seven years. She provides individual and group trainings, coaching, workplace health promotion and psychosocial risk management programmes for clients coming from various backgrounds. She is board member of the professional NGO „Association for Healthier Workplaces” (EMEGY).
Arbeit und Zukunft e.V.
Arbeit und Zukunft e.V. [Work and Future] is a registered non-profit association, founded in 2001. With about 20 members from Austria and Germany, the organisation is a network of scientists, consultants and professionals from the disciplines of ergonomics, occupational health, work design, labour research, health science and more. According to its statutes, the organisation carries out national and international publicly funded R&D projects. On the basis of the Work Ability Concept, a transdisciplinary and participatory approach is pursued. Most members are experienced in advising businesses. The most frequently used advisory tools are Arbeitsbewältigungs-Coaching (ab-c®) [Work Ability Coaching] including the work ability index, Personal and Company Radar (with work ability index 2.0), and Age and Ageing appropriate and life-phase-oriented professional development.
Work team
Alexander Frevel
The person in charge Alexander Frevel studied sociology and economics. He is deputy CEO of AuZ. Since 1980 he carried out about 80 research and more than hundred consulting projects. In addition to research activities, he advises companies and organisations on strategic personnel policy and preventive work design. Instruments such as "work ability coaching" (using work ability index; in about 50 companies), “personal and company radar" (using work ability index 2.0; 11 processes in 6 companies), and “age-appropriate and life-course oriented career paths" (in about 30 businesses) are used. He carries out training activities on these consulting instruments.
Slovenská asociácia age managementu o.z. (SAAM)
The Slovak Association of Age Management (SAAM) was established between 2016 and 2017, by joining forces of experts in the field of adult education, with previous experience in the area of age management from various smaller national and international projects.
The mission of the association is to connect organizations (legal and natural persons) aiding and engaging in age management issues within the scope of their operations, on a voluntary and professional basis.
The aim of the association is to actively engage in the field of human resources, help organizations and their employees prepare for the changes related to shifting demographics, and support the competitiveness and sustainability of the Slovak economy.
The purpose of SAAM is primarily:
- to promote a change of attitudes towards ageing, and the fight against age stereotypes and age discrimination,
- to increase the prestige and authority of the concept of age management,
- to develop cooperation with relevant entities at the national and international level in the area of sharing experience and adopting good practice,
- to organize and facilitate conferences, training, and discussion forums aimed at promoting awareness – mutually sharing information and experiences, maintaining professional and personal contacts between the association and other organizations, and media cooperation.
Work team
Ilona Hegerová
She graduated from the Faculty of Education in Nitra, and worked as a primary school teacher for 15 years. By changing her residence, she took advantage of the offer to start working in the field of vocational education and later in personnel departments in the field of adult education. She completed the Open University - People Management and Effective Manager courses. After losing her job, she finally decided to found the company Vzdelávacie a conferencené centrum INTENZÍVA, s.r.o. in 2000. In addition to adult education, it also organizes conferences for HR managers and specialists. Because she only started doing business at an older age, she became interested in the issue of aging, the possibility of working until an older age and related activities. She was looking for inspiration and a topic for the conference, which she found with Czech partners. In 2013, the topic of age management was included in the program of the HR Salon conference for the first time. Subsequently, in 2014, she founded the association Age management o.z. and in 2016 she became a co-founder of the Slovak Association of Age Management o.z., where she works as a volunteer as director. In cooperation with partners from the Czech Republic, she involved the association in the Erasmus+ project. He continues to organize the Age Management SALON conference, various discussion forums, trainings with the intention of promoting awareness of the concept of age management in Slovakia. It helps to involve the association in the National Program of Active Aging 2022-2030.
Blik op Werk (BoW)
Blik op Werk (BoW, Dutch for View on Work) is an independent organisation working on sustainable employment and quality of work. BoW supports professionals and organisations to improve the quality of work and working as professionals. For the Netherlands BoW is the exclusive national keeper of the license of the work ability index and administer the WAI-database since 2008.
In the Netherlands, specialised private companies to improve working conditions (the so called arbo-diensten) can get a sub-license from BoW to improve their services for employers and employees. They use the WAI and shares the results with BoW. As a result, BoW has a database containing of more than 400.000 questionnaires since 2008. For a study of the development of workability in the Netherlands this database is an important source of information. Every year BoW makes an analysis of the developments and changes of/in the workability in the Netherlands.
The aim of the paper is to present an overview on the challenge of ageing of the working population in the Netherlands and the way the concept of work ability is used to tackle this challenge. We shall use the WAI database, but we also present a survey of recent research on the work ability of workers in the Netherlands. Because we have a centralised database there is a fair amount of research on the WAI.
Work team
Robertjan Uijl
Blik op Werk is the licensee of the Work Ability Index (WAI) in the Netherlands and passes on the license to occupational health and safety services and other companies aimed at guiding and supporting employers and employees. BoW also manages a database of the WAI and publishes an annual report on work capacity in the Netherlands. Robertjan Uijl is director of Blik op Werk and generally involved in the WAI and in further development of the Work Abilty Index in the Netherlands in particular.
Peter Langedijk
Peter Langedijk is Blik op Werk's projectleader and specialist in the field of work capacity, administrator of the database and is also involved in the analyses of the WAI data in the Netherlands and in the development of new questionnaires.