Work longer

In a press release the Dutch ministry of social affairs and work stated that they initiated a subsidie program for the comming years to stimulate "experimenting with stimulating older people to work longer." The official info is found here.

In short, 4.4mil euro next year in goverment grants for projects to experiment stimulation of making older people work longer. 21.mil euro untill the next elections. Minimum age for the employees is 55, but could be lowered. Maximum fee is 40.000 per project. You need at least 30 people working in the organisation, or a branche organisation needs to apply on behalf of more companies.

Since I personally think we throw away a lot of knowledge when older people quit, and specially if they do so prematurely, I think it's a good project. I specially like the text: "projects experimenting with stimulating". This means you should be able to actually try stuff out without having to pay everything yourself. That's what subsidies should do, stimulate experimenting.

Innovation is usually brought to us by young minds, but utilizing innovation is often done by older people. They are great advisors and generally have great networks. Use it to utilize your ideas and stimulate innovation.