Seminars, speakers and committees

Competence 50+ 2007 deals with three subject areas

Workplaces in change
Opportunities for making the most of the full competence of older employees are affected by the physical work environment as well as the way the work is organised. Mentoring is one model that has been tried out in several countries.

Transfer of skills and lifelong learning
The ability to disseminate the competence of older workers is an important part of skills development in companies and organisations. Skills transfer is also important for new starters. Older people also have to supplement their competence with new skills.

Altered conditions and attitudes on the labour market
Different types of insurance system affect older people’s desires and opportunities to stay on in the labour market, or to return after illness and unemployment. Attitudes to older people comprise another major obstacle that exists on the labour market, both among older people themselves and the world surrounding them.

Collaboration – practitioners, researchers and decision-makers

A lot of varied input is required to create lasting change. Our ambition with Competence 50+ 2007 is to allow practitioners, researchers and decision-makers to meet, share experiences and, together, create the conditions for future development work.

A wide range

The conference will hold different types of seminars.

Dialogue seminars
The objective of each dialogue seminar is for the participants to gain a broad overview of the subject. To each seminar we have invited a few people from different backgrounds, each with interesting knowledge of the subject. Each speaker will give an introductory address of around ten minutes. After that there will be dialogue led by a mentor.

More detailed seminars
Certain subject areas will be presented in greater detail. A lecturer will be given the opportunity to talk about his or her subject area in a traditional seminar.

Workshops
Different workshops will give the opportunity, on a smaller scale, to listen to practical experiences gained in different projects. Of course, there will also be the opportunity to ask questions.

Contact seminar
One of the main tasks of Competence 50+ 2007 is to create opportunities for making new contacts. During the contact seminar, delegates to the conference will be given the opportunity to present project ideas, meet people with similar interests and discuss future collaboration – if possible with EU support.

Speakers

The list of speakers will be updated continuously. The following people have agreed to participate at the conference.

Lenia Samuel, EU Commission
Sven Otto Littorin, Minister for Employment, Sweden
Matthias Thorns, Business Europe, Germany
Juhani Ilmarinen, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland
Anne-Marie Guillemard, Faculté des Sciences Humaines et Sociales, Sorbonne, Paris, France
Roland Gauthy, Etui-rehs, European Trade Union Institute, Belgum
Nils Friberg, Human Resources, Vattenfall, Sweden
Naj Ghosheh, International Labour Organization, Switzerland.
Robert Anderson, Research Coordinator, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
Judith Sluiter, AMC, Netherlands
Robert Höghjälm, The Stockholm Institute of Education, Sweden
Tara Fenwick, University of Alberta, Canada
Claes Malmqvist, Sweden
Stylianos Mavromoustakos, EFVET, Cyprus
Claes Håkan Nygård, Tampere School of Public Health, Finland
Per Erik Solem, NOVA, Norway

Organisational committee

The committee for the conference consists of representatives from Life Competence 50+, the national Swedish ESF council, Sweden’s Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications, Ministry of Education, Research and Culture, Ministry of Justice (the delegation for human rights in Sweden) and National Institute for Working Life.

Call for presentations

• All abstracts must be submitted via the registration links on www.livskompetens.com/competence50+/ no later than 15 March 2007
• Please follow the guidelines for abstract preparation which can be found on the Congress website.
• Accepted abstracts will be printed in the Congress Abstract Book.
• An individual may present more than one abstract, but selection will be at the discretion of the SPC. Confirmation of receipt of your abstract will be sent to you immediately via Congress email.
• Applicants will be notified by 15 April 2007
• EQUAL projects are also invited to arrange workshops to present their work.
• Accepted workshops will be printed in the Congress Abstract Book.

Please forward any queries regarding abstract submission via email to competence2007@congrex.com

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