SENIORS GO DIGITAL: PROMOTING INCLUSIVE STRATEGIES FOR DISADVANTAGED SENIORS

The aim of this project was to offer disadvantaged seniors opportunities to acquire, re-skill or up-skill their digital competences in order to be able to become active citizens and socially included in the digital world. They aimed to support in a systemic way active ageing, access, social inclusion, participation and personal development through the use of the digitalized learning eco-system, as well as through the e-services, e-governance, e-participation and e-communication provided in each partner country.
A tool kit was designed to re-skill or up-skill seniors’ digital competences to guarantee their activeness, social presence, e-governance, e-access, e-participation and personal development.
‘One stop support centres’ were piloted in partner countries, both online and in-house, offering various innovative, targeted and high quality lifelong learning opportunities for the acquisition of digital skills and competences.
The direct target group was adults 60+ (seniors) who were retired, unemployed, marginalised, in rural areas, with few opportunities, low-skilled etc. The indirect target group were adult educators and related organisations in the field of adult education such as NGOs, VET centres etc.

Context: The 2016 Council Resolution on A New Skills Agenda for an Inclusive and Competitive Europe reflects a common vision about the role of skills. Skills are a pathway to employability and prosperity. With the right skills, people are better equipped to find good-quality jobs and can fulfil their potential as confident, active citizens. They are the key to social cohesion. People need a broad set of skills to fulfil their potential both at work and in society.
Acquiring skills is a lifelong process and starts very young, and continues to be strengthened throughout life. The EU 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth acknowledges LLL and skills development as key elements in response to the current economic crisis, to demographic ageing and to the broader economic and social strategy of the EU.
The economic crisis has highlighted the major role which adult learning can play in achieving the EU 2020 targets, by enabling adults to improve their ability to adapt to changes in the labour market, the family and the society.
Adult learning provides a means of up skilling or re-skilling those affected by unemployment and age, as well as makes an important contribution to social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development.

Stakeholders involved: Halsingland Education Association Sweden
Emphasys Centre Cyprus
The National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos” Greece
Euni Partners Bulgaria
Provincial Acli Rimini Italy

Key learning points: NEI.

Evaluation: No

Information sources: None.

Read the full analysis: http://seniorsgodigital.eu/