Activity 1
Project management
Models for Advancing the
Digital Inclusion of Seniors
Erasmus+ KA220-Adult
Small-scale partnerships in adult education
MADIS Erasmus+ project:
2022-1-DE02-KA210-ADU-000081744
Many of today’s senior citizens lack adequate levels of digital literacy. This, however, would be necessary to allow them to participate in social and cultural life; keep up-to-date on current developments; take care of their health; undertake daily tasks such as making online purchases or reservations autonomously; and combatting loneliness and alleviating isolation. Training courses to help senior citizens acquire the necessary digital skills exist. Yet often, senior citizens do not wish to participate in these courses.
To address this, the project’s aim is two-fold:
To find out what is keeping senior citizens from
participating in such training courses, that is, identifying so-called “barriers” while also collecting
information from them on what they would like to learn and why;
To collect transferable best practice models of
training providers and training courses that were able to overcome these barriers and successfully engage
senior citizens in acquiring or expanding their digital skills.
MADIS connects adult education organisations from Greece, Italy and Germany – all countries with an increasing elderly population - in order to promote a culturally diverse and innovative training approach to advancing the digital inclusion of senior citizens!
RESULTS
A survey was carried out among senior citizens aged 65 and over in Greece, Italy, and
Germany respectively in order to identify barriers that kept seniors from participating in digital skills
training courses. The survey also collected valuable information
on what seniors would have liked to learn in terms of digital skills. A qualitative and quantitative
evaluation of the survey was made available.
A Digital Handbook was developed as a reference tool for adult training providers who
sought to work with senior citizens on advancing their digital inclusion. It showcased the survey evaluation and the underlying methodology and presented a carefully curated
selection of best practice examples from around the world where the previously identified barriers to
training senior citizens in digital skills had been successfully overcome.
