healthy and active ageing - EuroHealthNet's Healthy Ageing Website

C. Life-long learning and e-inclusion
An additional important way to stimulate social inclusion and healthy ageing is through the promotion of
life-long learning. According to the EU mental health conference (See box 9), lifelong learning initiatives
are effective means to increase activity, responsibility and to reduce dependency. It is the responsibility of
communities, through local and national policies, to create institutional framework conditions and learning
environments in which older individuals feel welcome and motivated to develop their own knowledge and
skills in order to continue to be able to keep active.
Amongst the approaches considered effective for learning in later life are those that take into account the
knowledge of older people, those that entail learning in groups or networks and learning through electronic
platforms. In addition, projects and programmes show the best results when older people are involved in
the project design and implementation, through peer to peer learning, when older people contribute to the
project as networkers and trainers and when the action responds to older people’s feedback. Organisations
focusing on learning activities should also provide initiatives to increase participation of excluded older
people, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds. Moreover, opportunities to take part in social groups
and community led networks should be pursued as they have been deemed effective at reaching hard to
reach groups, but there should also be an increasing focus on utilising e-inclusion methods, through ICT
technologies and online tools, to reach vulnerable groups. 35
There is a huge array of life-long learning programmes for older people all over Europe for every type of
interest: from the university of the third age to local education in community centres. Courses cover many
subjects and may be taken for pleasure or practical interest. Such courses are accessible in many different
ways, from the more traditional local community centres to online programmes.
Many older people, particularly those in deprived and/or minority groups, do not have basic internet skills.
Developing such skills is an important form of lifelong learning that can also stimulate their social inclusion
and integration. The 2006 Riga Declaration on e-Inclusion identified the promotion of cultural diversity in
Europe as one of its six priorities by improving the possibilities for economic and social participation and
integration, creativity and entrepreneurship of immigrants and minorities by stimulating their participation in
the information society. 36 Basic internet skills can, for example, be useful to reach and support women from
ethnic minorities, who at present have a much lower uptake of internet use compared to males.
Box 17
Key resource
Overview of Digital Support Initiatives for/by Immigrants and Ethnic
Minorities (IEM) in the EU27
This report from 2008 provides an overview of the range of resources for migrants and people from ethnic
minorities, deriving from EC supported projects and ethnic community websites.
The report observes that many immigrant and ethnic minorities seem to have similar ICT adoption rates to
the EU population, despite lower socio-economic status. Nevertheless, lack of digital literacy and access
to ICT are still critical for many immigrants and ethnic minorities and 30% of the 119 initiatives presented in
this overview address these barriers. Most such initiatives are led by migrants and associations of migrants
themselves, as a ‘voice’ or a dialogue with their host society. Adaptation/development of public e-services
occurs on a limited scale. Most initiatives are highly fragmented and face sustainability problems, but some
are well established.
See: Overview of Digital Support Initiatives for/by Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities (IEM) in the EU27 S.
Kluzer, A. Hache, and C. Codagnone: ftp://ftp.jrc.es/pub/EURdoc/JRC48588.pdf
35 EU Thematic conference on mental health of older people, Madrid.
36 ICT for an Inclusive Society Conference, Riga 2006: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/ict_riga_2006/doc/declaration_riga.pdf
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