The world's top innovations to support an ageing workforce have been recognised at a Newcastle awards ceremony this week.
The Work for tomorrow event saw 11 teams, from start-ups to established businesses, recognised for their ideas to influence the future of work at an event in The National Innovation Centre for Ageing at the city's Helix site.
Brazilian company Labora Tech was crowned the overall winner for its data-driven job-matching and reskilling platform while London-based community interest company Brave Starts scooped the Community Award for its programme that helps adults unsure about starting a new career to understand what they want, and how to get there.
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Coun Karen Robinson, deputy Lord Mayor and Sheriff for Newcastle, presented the awards.
The programme is run by the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC), which chose Newcastle as the location due to The National Innovation Centre for Ageing's role in helping employers turn ageing workforces into an opportunity.
Statistics cited by the ILC show show that across the G20, one in three workers is aged 50 and over, and this is set to increase to four in 10 by 2040. The ILC says too often, barriers such as poor health, caring responsibility or ageism in the workplace shut out older workers from the jobs market.
Lily Parsey, global policy and influencing manager at the ILC, said: “Newcastle was an ideal location to host the awards ceremony for Work for tomorrow. The National Innovation Centre for Ageing, based at the Catalyst, is a thought-leader in breaking the misconception that ageing is a problem for our economy and helping businesses and employers turn this into an opportunity.
"The Centre and Newcastle University are close partners of ours and we hope to continue the conversation with Newcastle and international employers – big and small - to shake up the narrative and transform the future of work in response to longer and changing working lives."
Nic Palmarini, director of the National Centre for Ageing, was on the judging panel for the awards, which are supported by the Innovation Resource Center for Human Resources.
He said: ‘“From supporting health in the workplace to innovative programmes developing workforce skills and policies that address discrimination at work, the Future of Work competition received more than 60 submissions from organisations and individuals across 17 countries.
"At the UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing we’ve been part of the whole process partnering with the International Longevity Centre and hosting - in Newcastle - the award ceremony that have seen Brazilian Company Labora Tech winning the main prize and UK based Brave Start winning of the NICA Community Award.
"This event further demonstrates NICA's commitment not only to developing innovation in crucial areas of ageing and longevity such as work, but also to using its role of national excellence as a lever to promote Newcastle and its unique qualities internationally.”
Sérgio Serapiao, co-founder and CEO of winners Labora Tech, said: “I am delighted and honoured to win this competition. The competition has shown the quality and power of initiatives all over the world. I am sure we can contribute a lot to co-design the future of work.”
Other shortlisted organisations included Australian mental wellbeing specialists Ageing Workforce Ready; American podcast 'Please Ignore Us' which tells the story of ageing workers, and Layertech Labs, a Philippine programme that helps women in rural settings to learn digital skills.
