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MAWB shortlisted for award
The Malta Association of Women in Business initiative has been shortlisted for the Entrepreneurial Trailblazer Award, part of the European Enterprise Awards.

A certificate of achievement was presented to Rosanne Galea, honorary life president of the association, at the recent conference held in the Congress Centre of Porto, Portugal.

The European Enterprise Awards showcase the most innovative initiatives taken by regions to promote growth and jobs at regional and local level. There are six categories of awards.

The Malta Association of Women in Business helps, on a voluntary basis, women interested in starting up in business and women in business who want to internationalise, by providing information, creating a forum for networking and creating business to business contacts.

Its project Spirit of Enterprise came in the top 13 positions in its category out of 325 total entries.

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Research on older workers
There are a number of factors that influence an individual's decision to leave work before they reach the normal retirement age of 61, according to the results of qualitative research carried out by the Employment and Training Corporation. These factors can be classified into "push" and "pull" scenarios. The push factors included redundancy, poor health or disability, poor working conditions, business difficulties and marital separations, while the pull factors included early retirement schemes, financial stability and the fact that one's family members were no longer dependent on the breadwinner.

The ETC recently presented the findings of its study on the early exit from employment of older workers.

The qualitative research was carried out by Antonella Ellul from the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at ETC. The study was conducted with 30 males aged 55 to 60, who were neither working nor registering for work at the time when the study was carried out. The selected respondents were chosen according to particular characteristics and all come from different sectors and backgrounds.

Ms Ellul noted that many respondents were ambivalent about retiring from work. Those who were prepared for the change and had full control over the situation tended to adapt better to their situation while others considered the loss of a job as a trauma and missed the work routine. Again, retirement had a mixed impact with some respondents feeling positive about the free time they had available while others felt isolated and wished to feel more useful.

ETC chief executive officer Sue Vella put the issue into the perspective of the Lisbon Strategy and the EU employment guidelines, noting the EU 2010 target of having half of the persons aged 55 to 64 in employment.

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NGO roundtable
The National Federation of NGOs of Malta will be holding a roundtable on January 26, aimed at NGOs working in the various sectors including social, environment, health, heritage, culture, art and other fields.

The seminar will be held at St James Cavalier in Valletta from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Philippa Arrigo will present findings on research on the consultative role of Maltese NGOs in policy and planning, and there will be a panel discussion on the role of NGOs in decision-making, locally and in the EU, as well as on the key challenges for NGOs, such as sustainability and independence.

Registration forms may be downloaded from http://mrc.org.mt/page.asp?p=17221&l=1 and sent by e-mail to nfnm@mrc.org.mt or by mail to NFNM, 9, Camilleri Court,Testaferrata Street, Ta' Xbiex XBX 1407.

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