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Silver

The main objective of the SILVER project is to create and implement a distance training which would help to improve skills and employability of people over 50 years old. Project´s mission is to support the discussion with all the relevant stakeholders (employers, training institutions, career advisors), to identify the constraints of seniors in access to qualification and employment and expand the lifelong learning and “silver economy” concepts in companies and training organizations.

The primary objective of the project is to improve qualifications and competences of 50+ people by creating and implementing an innovative training. To create a training which will match the requirements of this target group, they conducted a research and discussed it with relevant stakeholders and seniors.
The training should help people over 50 years old to become more confident when looking for a job or when trying to (re)integrate on the labour market.

Source: https://silver-skills.eu

Access date: 04.12.2020

EFOS

EFOS was founded in 1990 at Bressanone (Italy) by Mr. Leopold Auinger from Innsbruck (Austria) with its Headquarters at Brussels and its General Office in Austria. The aim of EFOS is the protection of the interests of older students in universities in Europe. Since its foundation EFOS has had international meetings twice a year in various European countries. EFOS is in contact with the UN in Vienna (a representative of EFOS is a member of the “Committee on Ageing”) and with AIUTA (International Association of the Universities of the Third Age).

Aims of EFOS:

– Promoting high level education of older people alongside younger students or at special academies/universities for older people

– Fostering of joint projects for older students throughout Europe

– Fostering and securing the access of older people, including those without formal qualifications, to education at the highest level

– Representing the interests of academic education for older people in politics and society

– Fostering of autonomous national organizations with similar goals

– Identifying possibilities of using the skills and expertise of older students for the benefit of science and society

– Cooperating with other international organizations that support lifelong learning (LLL).

Members:  Institutions and individual senior students in the following countries: Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden, Switzerland. At this moment (2020) EFOS has 19 institutional and 19 individual members.

Source: https://www.efos-europa.eu/

Access date: 04.12.2020

SeLiD – Senior’s Learning in the Digital Society

The project Senior´s Learning in the Digital Society (SeLiD) has been approved as an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership for the period 1 September 2019 – 31 August 2021. The project is carried out by 8 partners from European universities. Comenius University Centre for Continuing Education Bratislava is the coordinator.

The main objectives are open education and innovative practices in a digital era, focusing on improving and extending high quality learning opportunities for digital technologies and ICT, tailored to the needs of individual low-skilled or low-qualified adults.

The project concentrates on learning and training of basic ICT skills and key digital competences of the elderly. Methods that will be applied are: classical teaching, group learning and training, peer learning, work with manuals, excursions to the shops with electronics, collection of good practices to develop digital literacy and skills of the elderly.

Source: https://selid.efos-europa.eu

Access date: 04.12.2020

Association of Universities of the Third Age in Slovakia

The Association of Universities of the Third Age (ASUTV) of Slovakia was established as an initiative of Slovak universities and other institution of high education at a founding conference held at the Košice Technical University on 1st December 1994. Representatives of individual Slovak UTAs meet regularly, exchange information and consult organizational, financing and educational – methodical matters involving UTAs. Common professional sittings indicate the presence of rich activities of UTAs in the whole country. Today, apart from UTA at Comenius University and the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava. UTAs exist in Nitra, Martin, Banská Bystrica, Zvolen, Košice, Trenčín, Trnava, Žilina, Liptovský Mikuláš, Prešov, Dubnica nad Váhom and Ružomberok.

ASUTV is a member of the International Association of Universities of the Third Age (AIUTA), which has the seat at University in Toulouse: www.aiu3a.com

The UTAs offer a three-year program. The study system of the UTAs is adjusted both to the capabilities of the aged and to the possibilities of their main universities. The study plan of each year usually provides 14 three-hour lectures to be presented each fortnight. During their first year, the students are offered basic lectures in each of the offered discipline. The second and third year is devoted to the study of optional disciplines and students enrol in the study of specialised branches.

Source: https://asutv.sk/

Access date: 11.09.2020

Memtrain

MemTrain – Memory Training for Older Adults (55+) Linking Physical Exercise and Brain Training to Promote Healthy Ageing. MemTrain is an Erasmus+ Project Strategic Partnership in the field of Adult Education.

Project Memtrain is intended for professional sports trainers, brain trainers, lecturers, community workers and other adult education professionals who want to provide a professional training course for older people aged 55+ to improve memory and to help prevent brain deterioration. It is aimed at equipping trainers with scientific knowledge and important background information, but mainly with a step-by-step guide to conducting a sport and memory training course.

During the MemTrain project, seven partners from six European countries created a set of activities, which includes physical activities (adapted physical activity, Zumba, Nordic Walking and athletics) and brain training activities (brain training using both hemispheres of the brain and memory games).

Main outputs:

The project was funded by the European Union within Erasmus+ Programme.

Source: https://memtrain.eu/

Access date: 11.09.2020

SPERO – Social Communication Platform for Seniors

Seniors living in their home face a great risk of loneliness. The risk is much higher when the extended family is not living in the same house. Usually they are linked to the local environment through church visits, doctor visits, grocery shop, newspapers and television. The project develops an innovative social communication platform and end-user device designed for seniors who can easily communicate to everybody who joins the platform. They are able to read news; they can be immediately informed on the local events, sport activities, clubs’ activities. It can be used also as a reminder. The end-user device is designed to have only five buttons. It is connected to TV since it is senior’s prime display in the house. By implementing new communication channel to seniors, and sourcing multiple digital communication channels of senior’s friends, family, local community and care organization, we can tackle the social isolation problem raised by the introduction of the digital communication in the society.

Source: Development Centre oft he Heart of Slovenia

Access date: 12.12.2021

 

Slow Learning – Making Digital World Easy for Seniors

Learning & education can play a very important role in reducing age segregation, as it regulates imbalance between generations and opens up new opportunities for social inclusion to seniors. The training of seniors requires andragogically well-trained providers, who are familiar with the theory and practice of adult education. The main problem that IT educators are facing is that they don’t have the needed skills and competences to educate seniors in new technology. Educators of elderly, and specifically IT educators, need knowledge of seniors and contemporary image of old age in society. On one hand they are aware that older people are not all the same, that they are very different, that they are more different from each other than different members of the younger generations, but on the other hand they also know, they lack knowledge both in theory and practice on better working methods with this target group. Lot of teachers are more pedagogues (school system of teaching) than andragogists with merely basic knowledge on working methods for seniors. Main objectives of the project are:

  • Better understanding of senior expectations & needs in learning environments, focusing on IT
    training;
  • Improved knowledge & use of pedagogical tools, new technology in educating seniors;
  • Exchange of good practice among partners;
  • Create the basic theoretical foundations for the implementation of education of IT to seniors;

Primary target groups of the project are adult educators, teachers, mentors, trainers, professionals in IT. Secondary target group are seniors who are impacted with an increased accessibility to nonformal IT learning activities, especially adapted to their needs & expectations.

Project offers compendium with best practices: https://slowlearning.eu/compendium-2/

Source: People’s University Ptuj

Access date: 01.03.2022

PHARAON – Pilots for Healthy and Active Ageing

The overall objective of the PHArA-ON project is to provide support for Europe’s ageing population by integrating digital services, devices, and tools into open platforms that can be readily deployed while maintaining the dignity of older adults and enhancing their independence, safety, and capabilities. The project will utilise a range of digital tools including connected devices (e.g., the Internet of Things, IoT), artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud and edge computing, smart wearables, big data, and intelligent analytics that will be integrated to provide personalised and optimised health care delivery.

The Slovenian pilot aims at improving well-being through passive monitoring using a variety of sensing devices like wearables, sensors embedded in furniture, and environmental sensors.

During the pre-validation phase, a number of Pharaon technologies were used to monitor physiological indicators of residents directly (wearables, imbedded sensors), as well as to monitor their environment (environmental sensors, embedded sensors):  SmartHabits (ENT), InvisibleCare, IoChat, IoTool (Senlab),  Amicare (CETEM), MOX wearable (MAIN), Wearables (CORO), Discovery (Ascora). Furthermore, a system was tested to easily browse events, register, and potentially arrange transit using a familiar system, like a television with remote control using the following Pharaon technologies:  IoChat, IoTool, SeniorsPhone, InvisibleCare (Senlab), Sentab system (SenTab).  The communication support tools are centered on an easy to use, television-based communication tool (Daisy, SenLab) and a smartphone interface designed specifically with older adults in mind, with chat and other communication tools supported as well.

Source: National Institute of Public Health of Republic of Slovenia

Access date: 01.03.2022

HoCare

Innovative solutions for Home Care by strengthening quadruple-helix cooperation in regional innovation chains. Ageing of the population is challenge for all EU regions. But it means at the same time also  an opportunity for growh and jobs as there is created great potentila to dleiver innovative solution for home care. Objective of HoCare project is to boost delivery of home careinnovative solutions by strengthening of cooperation of actors in regional innovation system using Qudruple-helix approach, which is an innovation cooperation model where users, business, research actors/universities and public authorities cooperate in order to produce innovation. Government, industry, academia and civil participants work together to co-create structural changes far beyond the scope of what any organization or person could do alone.

Link to the video – thematic workshop Slovenia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B8VKXRMNFI&t=5s

Source: Interreg Europe HoCare Project

Access date: 14.10.2021

Digitized society and the elderly

For 20 years, there have been discussions and a multitude of different projects and programs (many of which have never been implemented) on the need to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the daily lives of the elderly population, as well as other vulnerable groups. Extremely rapid development of technologies and services that dictated by capital has intervened in all pores of our lives, which we are suddenly faced with the fact that mastering e-skills has a huge impact on quality of our lives. But today we are no longer talking about the information society, but about digitalisation, which is supposed to change the whole society.

Technological development has greatly changed our way of life. Among other things, it is everything

several things can be done “remotely”, using different electronic devices connected to the Internet. It seems that more and more often this will be the only one how to exercise rights and access services in a digital society. Therefore decision-makers, competent institutions and civil society must pay special attention attention to ensuring equal opportunities for older and vulnerable groups in

integration into the digital world. Last year’s festival for the third period of life, for the 20th time in a row, dedicated a special festival, open to the public, professional discussion to the digitization of the elderly, as this is the very important basis for the inclusion of the elderly in all social pores. The annual festival is therefore in itself a well-established good practice of pressing issues of society in the integration of the elderly.

The participants of the round table highlighted the following measures of equal integration of older and vulnerable groups into the digital society:

  1. Integrate the inclusion of older adults and vulnerable groups (systematic planning and implementation of digitization measures) together with support activities such as they are information, counseling, motivation, analysis and evaluation.
  2. Improving cross-sectoral cooperation between public and private providers in the field of acquiring knowledge, skills and competencies, and implementation of permanent (adapted) support programs for the elderly and vulnerable groups for quality of life in the digital society.
  3. Providing accessible internet infrastructure and connectivity (be able to use a smart device)

and appropriate communication on how to use these services.

  1. Establishment of mobile centers for the elderly, which will be placed in public accessible locations e.g. shops, health centers, banks, where can help the elderly through the first steps in using digital services (eg obtaining a digital certificate, downloading applications to a mobile phone,

user help, etc.).

  1. Empowering seniors to be as independent as possible tackling digital transformation such as education of the elderly educators to help older people with digital inclusion and

acquisition of skills / competences (intergenerational assistance);

  1. Systematic provision and protection of the right to disconnect from digital devices and screens even during the digital transformation. That right that is tight related to privacy is the foundation of democracy.

Speakers drew special attention to the user-friendliness and adaptability of digital services and applications to the elderly. For older adults, any digitized service can be a whole new experience that needs to be carefully approached by the provider.

(see the brochure of the Festival for the Third Age 2021)

Source: Festival for the third period of life

Access date: 01.04.2022