Fit for the future: the Vital Craftmanship Action Program
This project evaluates an action program for practically trained technical staff to move towards long-term sustainability of their health and employability. Thereby, it aims to support organizations to reverse mental retirement and to restore the fit between employees and work.
Research shows that practically trained staff participates less in activities aimed at making employability more sustainable than theoretically trained staff. Participation in health programs, training and mobility structurally lags behind. An undesirable situation, because everyone in the Netherlands needs to work longer. This requires appropriate investments in employability for practically trained staff, in particular workers in physically demanding jobs, such as construction and industry.
In this project, together with several companies (SMEs) and training agency Building Human Talent, a program was developed aimed at getting practically trained technical staff to make their own employability and health more sustainable in the long term. The Action Program Vital Craftmanship for theoretically trained personnel in administrative positions was used as a starting point.
The Action Program Vital Craftmanship was adapted, implemented and evaluated in cooperation with training agency Building Human Talent at two construction and logistics SMEs (Bouwbedrijf Van der Hulst and Mainfreight Crossdock). In cooperation with a project group from the two companies, the program was adapted for practically trained technical staff. To this end, the underlying theoretical model and supporting (digital) materials (questionnaires and portal) were adapted. The effectiveness of the approach was tested by investigating the extent to which participation in the action program contributes to sustaining employability and health of practically trained staff.
The program was found to be suitable for increasing long-term employability and health of practically trained technicians, provided a few preconditions are met: active involvement of employees in the program, offering low-threshold support and quick follow-up between program steps.
