German experience in dealing with the process of demographic change -some results from several projects

Today science, enterprises and society have to realize the fact that the demographic change will affect the whole working society. In the future, high requirements are to be expected and met. The consequences ofdemographic changes and their influence onto the labour market are obvious: An accelerated ageing workforce is to be projected, and enterprises will have to deal with an aged workforce by 2010 at the latest. The target group for the tools and the knowledge generated from several projects in Germany are these in the process ofageing involved companies. Employers and responsible managers ofenterprises are an important group for forging future policies. As other advocates of the aged and ageing workers in public we could identify trade unions, govemmental actors and the federal work agency. But the key players remain enterprises, who should create new jobs, adapt their recruitment policies and increase the work ability oftheir ageing manpower by installing specific measures. They have to be well-infonned about the subject of ageing workforce and societ