Cornwall Works

Cornwall Works 50+ and 50+ Cares

Cornwall Works is the ‘Ready for Work’ strategy for Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, raising employment rates, reducing worklessness, and enabling inclusion and opportunity for all.  A number of delivery programmes have been developed as a direct result of the strategy, including Cornwall Works 50+ and Cornwall Works 50+ Cares.  The former is targeted at overcoming barriers to work and the latter for improving skills in the workforce, for example by developing route ways into new career opportunities such as working in the care sector.  Both programmes are funded through investment from the European Social Fund (ESF) Innovation, Transnational and Mainstreaming Programme (click for more information).

People aged 50+ are an important part of the total workforce and as it is clear that many of us will have to work well into our 60’s before a state pension and/or retirement from work is an option. Therefore it will be increasingly important to provide help in overcoming barriers, maintaining and developing skills and so opening up new work opportunities.

Please click the links below to find out more about:  

• Our Innovation Projects
• Our work with our Transnational Partners
• Sarah's Page, featuring reports by Sarah Yeoman, our roving reporter
• David's Page, featuring reports by Dave Meneer, our 50+ reporter

Did you know that in the UK:

• The 50 – 64 age group represents over 11 million people, of which less than two thirds are in employment. This employment rate is much lower than for people aged 25 – 49
• The 50 – 64 age group have been adversely affected by the current downturn and tend to be out of work longer than other age groups
• The 50 – 64 age group has a high number of people with no qualifications
• Older newly redundant claimants have a number of key barriers to work that stem from having long work histories e.g. the lack of a CV, lack of job application experience and lack of familiarity with the modern labour market and with online job application procedures http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2011-2012/rrep766.pdf

And in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly: 

• ‘The number of older people in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly is projected to increase by a quarter between 2007 and 2017; this will raise the share of the labour force over 50 to 34.4%’
• ‘The population dependency ratio i.e. how many people (over 65) are dependent on people of working age is projected to increase to 11.6% by 2031, from 43 to 48 (click here for more information). This is significantly higher than the South West (predicted to increase from 38 to 44) or nationally (from 31 to 36).

The Cornwall Works 50+ programmes are involving other European countries such as the Finistere council in Northern France and partners in Sweden and Poland.  This transnational cooperation will enable innovations to be tested, shared and spread across the transnational participants.

Cornwall Works 50+ and 50+ Cares are two very active programmes and progress will be updated here on a regular basis.  For more information on the projects contact the Project Manager at bwilson@cornwall.gov.uk, email bwilson@cornwall.gov.uk or call the Cornwall Works Hub on 01872 355015.

Interim Evaluations of Cornwall Works 50+ and 50+ Cares