Older adult entrepreneurs as mentors of young people neither in employment nor education and training (NEETs). Evidences from multi-country intergenerational learning program

ABSTRACT

Population aging is exacerbating the loss of competences in the workforce and simultaneously young people neither in employment nor in education and training (NEETs) are struggling to be reengaged in employment. These issues, which are deemed priorities for the European policy agenda, could be addressed by triggering active aging dimensions, valuing and exploiting older adult entrepreneurs’ knowledge for enhancing youngsters’ entrepreneurial attitudes, through mentoring. This paper reports the results of a study based on an intergenerational learning program, carried out in 2018 in Germany, Italy and Slovenia. The study was aimed at developing and testing one training on mentoring addressing 41 older adult entrepreneurs (55 and over), and two intergenerational learning trainings aiming at boosting entrepreneurial competences of 33 NEETs (aged 18–29). The impact of the program on older adult entrepreneurs and NEETs was assessed through a pre and post-evaluation using qualitative and quantitative tools. Findings at country level were treated as national case-studies and then the latter were compared by considering them as a multiple embedded case-study. Results indicated that, to different extent in the study countries, mentors learned and enhanced mentoring competences, e.g. active listening and the capability of orienting, improved well-being and self-esteem, social inclusion and active aging attitude. Moreover, NEETs acquired entrepreneurial and socio-relational competences by benefiting from the full exploitation of mentors’ know-how and the trust relationship with them. Companies, trade unions, educational and voluntary organizations should cooperate to adopt intergenerational learning programs as good practices for older adults and NEETs’ lifelong learning promotion.

Acknowledgments

This paper was prepared within the “Be The Change” project. The project team included: Elisabetta Abbondanza and Benjamin Eberle (AWO, Germany); Andrea Ferenczi, Katalin Hajós, Modláné Görgényi Ildikó and Pàl Zuti (MNKSZ, Hungary); Barbara Baschiera and Fiorino Tessaro (Ca’ Foscari University, Italy); Giovanni Lamura, Sara Santini and Marco Socci (IRCCS INRCA, Italy, Coordinator); Colin Calleja, Elena Tanti Burlò and Russell Smith (Malta University, Malta); Biserka Neuholt Hlastec, Franja Centric and Marjana Rogel Persic (UPI- Žalec, Slovenia).

The “Be The Change” project was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program, Key Action 2: Cooperation for Innovation and The Exchange of Good Practices. Strategic Partnership for Adult Education of the European Union (Contract no. 2016-1-IT02-KA204-024326). This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. This study was partially supported by Ricerca Corrente funding from Italian Ministry of Health to IRCCS INRCA.

Authors’ contribution

The authors carried out the research and drafted the article in a coordinated way. Sara Santini and Marco Socci wrote the Introduction, the Methods and the Results on mentors and finalised the paper. Barbara Baschiera wrote the Results on mentees, the Discussion and the Conclusions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was not mandatory for this kind of study according to national laws. Data were processed in full compliance with the national laws on data protection and with the GDPR 2018 (EC) in order to guarantee the respondents’ anonymity and privacy.