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55.5 percent of men aged between 55 and 64 years in Greece are self-employed or pay the social insurances by themselves. This means that they are running from one job to another to survive and not that they are having their own business, said Liz Mestheneos of the Age Platform Europe NGO. Her presentation on the employment of people over the age of 50 is part of the congress on Entering and Re-entering the Labour Market, which was held at Park Hotel in Athens.

The European congress organized by European Profiles presented the results related to the development of new workflow methods for job market adaptation of young people and women entering or returning the labour market and experienced employees over the age of 55 to keep their jobs.  

Most affected by unemployment are the groups of young people, women and the elderly. The chances of people aged between 55 and 64 years to get a job are three times less than those of the people aged between 24 and 54 years. Women usually fall out of the labour market because of maternity – it raises questions like who will take care of the children, and of the sick parents later. Most of the women over the age of 50 leave the labour market to take care of their grandchildren or relatives.

It is most difficult when someone falls out of the labour market and the only solution then is to qualify. According to the data presented by Mrs. Mestheneos, Greece ranked next to the last (the last is Hungary) in the list of European countries having operating qualification programs. The country is experiencing difficulties with the training itself as it does not provide the necessary tools and knowledge to integrate young people into the labour market thereafter. This is due very often to the eager employers that have to train the young people at the new post, which takes about a year, said Mrs. Mestheneos.

"If you look at the job adds in a newspaper you will notice that many of them stipulate the age, while others contain words suggesting that young people are wanted for the job," stated the chairwoman of Age Platform Europe as an example of age discrimination on the labour market. "Discrimination does not start after the age of 50, but much earlier – still at the age of 40," she said.
 
It became clear that qualification programs are necessary. They, however, are misunderstood in Greece because diplomas mean that you have passed certain exams and they do not comply with qualifications and skills. Typical of the Greek labour market is that it is easier to get a job if you are unskilled and over the age of 50 than if you have some education. "It is difficult to motivate older people to qualify. They think like many other people that they can not learn! But they can learn and should do it! People have the capacity to learn at any age," said Mrs. Mestheneos, noting that the average life expectancy will rise, which labour laws will have to consider in the future.  

This means that the retirement age will increase too as people would actually be capable to work even over the age of 65. But the important thing is people to be offered new opportunities because they feel unappreciated, underpaid and exploited and their only thought is how to leave work and not to motivate to continue to develop, said Mrs. Mestheneos.  

"We developed a project together with older people for their incorporation into the labour market. We found that there is much of a forgotten knowledge that they remembered – for example, how to make a kite, or how to knit traditional Greek chairs, or how to play shadow theater. So, they made a workshop for young people that followed it with great interest,” noted Mr. Dimitris Bakolyas of European Profiles that organized the congress.

Young people who are new to a company need mentors, said Chiara Salatin from Italy. Learning is a mutual process, as sometimes the older and experienced people of the company do not possess the latest knowledge of the fresh university graduates. While young people need the experience of their mentors to introduce them to the work in the company and apply their knowledge in practice. It is always a challenge to the established status quo when new people become part of a company, but this can lead to many creative developments," said Mrs. Salatin.