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EPALE focus: Social inclusion of the ageing population and intergenerational learning
In the context of demographic change throughout Europe, older people are a large and growing part of the European Union’s population. It is therefore crucial to provide high quality learning opportunities for older people, and to include them in strategies of lifelong learning and active participation in society.
According to the WHO’s Active Ageing: a Policy Framework, population ageing is one of humanity’s greatest triumphs, as well as one of its greatest challenges. Global ageing will put increasing social and economic demands on all countries. Countries can afford to have ageing populations if governments, international organisations and civil society enact active ageing policies and programmes that enhance the health, participation and security of older citizens – states the World Health Organization.
To facilitate the integration of older people in society we need to pursue opportunities which fully develop their potential. Senior citizens should have access to the educational, cultural, and civic resources of society. They need to be able to fully participate in societal life and be active, autonomous, and healthy as they age.
Therefore, the lifelong learning needs of older learners should be a priority for education providers who need to develop high quality and specific training programmes.
Intergenerational learning can contribute to social cohesion by promoting cooperation between different generations. Many intergenerational initiatives and practices have been seen in recent years, and the opportunity for cooperation between generations is increasingly acknowledged as a way of pursuing an inclusive, dynamic and fully democratic society.
It is in this context that we present the fourth thematic focus of 2020:
Social inclusion of the ageing population and intergenerational learning.
- Do you work with older learners?
- What target groups do you work with?
- Do you know of policies, strategies and initiatives that target older learners in your country, region or city?
- Who do they focus on?
- What do you think needs to happen to make sure that adults remain active members of society as they age?
Share your experience with our community! You can do that by publishing content on our blog, newsroom, event calendar and resource centre!
On 28 October 2020 we have also run our Online discussion.
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ZDUS – Slovene Federation of Pensioners Associations, as a representative NGO of older people, they are our sole target group. All our activities in various fields are directed towards engaging older people to live an active, healthy, independent life as long as possible. We believe this process should start even before a person gets retired. A few years before retirement starts, older workers should be equipped with knowledge about what old age brings, how to continue life after they officially retire, what are their options and how to stay included in those activities which suit them to most and which bring them a happy and fulfilling third life period. In Slovenia we have such examples of pre-retirement seminars, but for now they only exist for specific profession (like the military, police or teachers). By engaging in organised activities in their local environment (for example in amateur culture, recreational activities, active citizenship, volunteering, life-long learning etc.), they stay actively involved and can contribute to society.
At ZDUS – Slovene Federation of Pensioners Associations we believe that in the times of social isolation due to COVID-19 the importance of learning in older age and for old age has on the one had become more visible and on the other it revealed where the gaps in learning are. For example as most services, events and other daily life responsibilities moved to only being available online, the vast majority of older people who are not e-literate, were excluded from participating and exercising their rights. In this situation we believe intergenerational learning could be beneficial, but since older people are a vulnerable group and younger people were advised to take care of their seniors and not expose them to the risk of Covid-19, physical intergenerational learning could not happen. Certainly COVID-19 exposed that older people will have to be engaged in e-learning in the foreseeable future.
At ZDUS – Slovene Federation of Pensioners Associations we believe social inclusion of older learners is very important. Based on our experience in the MATURE project - Making Adult Teaching Useful, Relevant and Engaging (LLP 2012-2014), we found out that adult educators need to recognize and work closely with the so called “intermediaries”. These are agencies and community organisations that have the trust and confidence of older people and they need to be recognized in playing a vital role in engaging older learners to participate in adult education and life-long learning. It’s their responsibility to reach out to those older people who experience barriers to participation in learning, especially if the reason is social exclusion. Reaching out in such cases means going to environments common to older people and reaching out to them in places where “traditional” learning normally does not occur, outside education facilities. We believe adult educations policies and initiatives should be directed towards minimising or removing barriers that may exclude older people from any part of the learning process.
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