We All are Europe - AESAEC

The conceptual framework
I. The conceptual framework of the AESAEC educational programme
(Dušana Findeisen, Slovenian 3 rd Age University, Ljubljana/SI)
I.1. Introduction
The AESAEC project focuses on older people being full and active members of local, national and
European communities, despite the fact that people in later life are burdened by social stereotypes
about them and they tend to think that it is not up to them to intervene in community life. We
firmly believe that senior citizens should and will be involved in important decision making processes
that concern themselves and other generations in the community; we further believe that
lifelong learning is important in later life, having a strong impact on both the learner and the community.
Moreover, when learning, education and training take place within European projects devised
by senior citizens themselves the transformational impact becomes even stronger.
The AESAEC project includes the development of an educational and training programme for older
citizens enabling them:
to change their own, and to some extent also the social, outdated image of them being
not very active and not participating in the community in old age, freeing themselves from
their own stereotypes
to better understand their own needs and issues and the need for intergenerational bonds
(solidarity, co-existence and cooperation among generations)
to become familiar with European institutions and European policies related to older people’s
needs and issues
as a result of education and training senior citizens should be able to devise a European project
and apply for funding, and hopefully implement.
Any type and format of education for older people has its topic, of course. But any type and format
of education in later life is also, simultaneously, education for empowerment. Therefore trainers,
mentors and students engaged in educational programmes are concerned with achieving a better
understanding of what old age in contemporary European society can and should be.
There are different ways of how to increase awareness about major social changes and what impact
they have on the intergenerational relationship; awareness about older workers and their position,
flexibility and security, combating age barriers at work, the right to work and the right to receive a
pension, active ageing in the broader sense of the word, mandatory or compulsive retirement,
structured free time in later life, opportunities to cooperate with other generations, voluntary activities,
policies about old age and people in later life, style(s) of life in retirement and old age
etc.
13