The Age Friendly Communities project is transformative since it creates lasting impact for businesses, particularly SMEs and their employees; using innovative VET work-based learning methods to enhance critical digital and entrepreneurial skills that help companies respond to the increasing demand for new products and services within the Silver Economy. Rapid demographic ageing is not only a major societal challenge but also a major opportunity for new jobs and growth. However, the silver segment remains underserved despite being the biggest opportunity in the market. Products and services are not designed to meet older people’s needs and despite being worth half of the market, only 10% of marketing spend is aimed at this group. Thus the aim of our Age Friendly Communities project is clear; to support individuals working in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to develop entrepreneurial, innovation and digital skills through innovative WBL that support their professional development but also innovate the products and services demanded by older people. As result, older people will benefit from improved and more appropriate products and services, and regions will benefit from increased economic activity and development. The Objectives for the Age Friendly Communities project are as follows: 1, Develop and implement a Work Based Learning Toolkit for each Region 2, Develop a set of Open Education Resources Digital Skills Training on Digital Technology Skills for SMEs, and train 60 SMEs in its usage. 3, Develop am Innovating New Products for Seniors: 2-day Bootcamp, and test it with 60 SMEs. 4, Create an Open Online Collaborative Knowledge Exchange Platform and engage 250 users in its implementation. Impact As stated previously, this project is transformative in three main ways, directly tackling key challenges associated with growing the Silver Economy and deficits within the VET industry. First, it updates the skills of businesses’ staff; ensuring companies have capacity to adapt to changing consumer demand and behaviour. Second, it improves competitiveness through innovative work-based and lifelong learning programmes. Third, it promotes the commercialisation of innovative products and services to meet growing demand. Our Age Friendly Communities project delivers tangible impacts that directly tackle the key issues. It seeks to create deep and sustainable impact at different geographical levels, having a transformative impact on VET, (regional) economic development and innovation policy and practice. Age Friendly Communities will influence the key organizations and institutions that shape the VET ecosystem, finding innovative ways of drawing them together through establishing enduring local learning and employer networks and through Strategic Road Maps for Regional WBL and promoting wider impacts across the EU and beyond. On a local and regional level, the project will have a very tangible and immediate impact on the acquisition of new skills of SME staff through their participation in WBL which our partners will develop, including: open education WBL modules, Innovation Boot Camps, and collaborative platforms. Increased numbers of participants will enhance their potential through the acquisition of new knowledge, digital skills and understanding of key trends within the Silver Economy, unleashing their creative potential to innovate. This will lead to improved productivity and increased commercialisation by SMEs.
The Age Friendly Communities project is transformative since it creates lasting impact for businesses, particularly SMEs and their employees; using innovative VET work-based learning methods to enhance critical digital and entrepreneurial skills that help companies respond to the increasing demand for new products and services within the Silver Economy. Rapid demographic ageing is not only a major societal challenge but also a major opportunity for new jobs and growth. However, the silver segment remains underserved despite being the biggest opportunity in the market. Products and services are not designed to meet older people’s needs and despite being worth half of the market, only 10% of marketing spend is aimed at this group. Thus the aim of our Age Friendly Communities project is clear; to support individuals working in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to develop entrepreneurial, innovation and digital skills through innovative WBL that support their professional development but also innovate the products and services demanded by older people. As result, older people are being offered improved and more appropriate products and services, and regions will benefit from increased economic activity and development. In order to achieve this we set out the following project methodology. The main activities undertaken include: A work based learning toolkit was developed to guide VET providers, business support organisations and wider stakeholders to effectively guide work based learning for SME’s in their region. See appendix 1. Four regional stakeholder partnerships were established as part of this process bringing together 58 stakeholders. They were consulted for needs analysis, mapping of existing supports, the development of regional action plans and dissemination activities. A set of open education resources on Digital Technology Skills was developed comprising a wealth of information in over 250 slides. A summary is included as appendix 2. 60 SME’s/16 trainers were trained in its usage. A 2-day Age Friendly Product/service innovation bootcamp was developed. 67 SME’s took part in these bootcamps across the four regions and each received a bespoke commercialisation action plan. Our joint syllabus and bootcamp overview are included as Appendix 3 and 3b respectively. An online collaborative exchange platform was developed and over 250 users engaged in its implementation. The work based learning toolkit, the full suite of IO2 materials, information relating to IO3, summaries of our regional plans and much more are available on the collaborative platform www.agefriendlyeconomy.eu Impact As stated previously, this project is transformative in three main ways, directly tackling key challenges associated with growing the Silver Economy and deficits within the industry. First, it updates the skills of businesses’ staff; ensuring companies have capacity to adapt to changing consumer demand and behaviour. Second, it improves competitiveness through innovative work-based and lifelong learning programmes. Third, it promotes the commercialisation of innovative products and services to meet growing demand. Age Friendly Economy has drawn together organisations through establishing enduring local learning and employer networks and through Strategic Road Maps for Regional WBL and promoting wider impacts across the EU and beyond. Increased numbers of participants will enhance their potential through the acquisition of new skills and training. This will lead to improved productivity and increased commercialisation by SMEs. The project has been successful in responding to a genuine need experienced by partner organisations in the education, entrepreneurship support, voluntary and economic development sectors who will benefit from using the outputs and sustaining the impacts of the project in the long term. Our independent post project evaluation report is included at appendix 4.