Navigate Your Work Future – Retraining and upskilling adults for the workplace.
These are difficult times if you have lost your job due to Covid, are living on reduced income or are facing an uncertain future.
This may be particularly the case if you are an older worker. The job hunting scene has changed greatly in the past few decades, and many in their 40s and 50s are discovering they need a new approach to promoting themselves in order to be seen and heard in a new and unfamiliar market.
Navigate Your Work Future is a programme tailored to your needs. It has been conceived and developed by Third Age, a charity that works with and for older people and social inclusion.
Originally available as a one day group workshop, since Covid-19, the programme has gone online, and supports workers through a series of webinars, lasting from one to three hours. The programme is completely free, and participants can sign on for as many topics as they wish. The original workshop aimed to help participants:
- Evaluate personal skills and strengths
- Learn how to apply these to best advantage
- Understand more fully the changing workplace and future trends
- Identify new opportunities for reskilling, upskilling and lifelong learning
- Access follow up resources
These aims have now been translated to the online programme, and webinars include job-related practical topics and tools offering more personal supports. Practical topics cover Life Lessons for Career and Work Success, The Future of Work; How to write a great CV and Excel at Job Interview, (including interviews on Zoom), The Changing Job Market, Flexible Working, and Finding the Job you Really Love. Personal life skill topics cover Self Confidence, Resilience, and Mindfulness, Creating your Personal Brand, Self-Compassion and Self-Care. A Resource Guide is available for each participant post-course. The programme has been supported by the Department of Employment and Social Protection, and promoted on the Department’s job seeker database.
Navigate Your Work Future has received positive feedback from participants. Aspects that participants found particularly beneficial included speaker input, an overview of how older workers fit into the workplace, sharing personal stories, the opportunity for a personal skills audit, practical advice on networking and LinkedIn, and putting a new plan in place. These are some typical comments:
- The course was very informative, the presenters were professional, engaging. Overall, a great experience’.
- ‘The aspects I found most beneficial were the variety of materials covered and its relevance to the audience. Speakers were brilliant’.
- ‘Course touched a lot of bases.’
- ‘I found it helpful to identify my skills and strengths’.
- ‘It was beneficial to get an overall review of how older people fit into workplace, and hearing that positivity and persistence is key’.
Aine Brady is CEO of Third Age: ‘Ideally we continue to learn as we go through life. Navigate Your Work Future gives people a chance to assess, take stock and then explore new opportunities for their working future’ she says.
The new series of Navigate Your Work Future begins in May 2021 and applications are now open. If you are interested in being involved, please email your contact details to lcarey@thirdageireland.ie www.thirdageireland.ie
