The basis for writing this project is the aging of the population in Great Britain and in Europe. Evidence shows that in mid-2014, the average age exceeded 40 for the first time. By 2040, nearly one in seven people is projected to be aged over 75. As the population ages, so will the UK workforce. Learning and training will become even more important as the population ages as evidence shows that life-long participation in learning can improve people’s health, cognition, wellbeing and resilience. Lifelong learning will help us participate in the labor market longer, build personal and mental resilience, and bring health and well-being. Lifelong learning benefits individuals, employers and society, which will be increasingly valuable in an aging society. In our project we focused on technological skills as older age groups generally experience greater barriers to developing and retaining digital and technological skills, that are highly important. Their lack is one of the main factors that prevent people from using and reaping technology, especially later in life. Technology can improve connectivity, address health, work and care challenges, and help people unlock the potential benefits of living longer.The future importance of technology creates even greater impetus to address any skills gap in people of all ages. Courses related to Robotics or modern technologies have so far been rather reserved for a narrow group of specialized people, young people or as activieties for children, leaving behind people with low qualifications and adults, especially seniors. That's why we want to take the initiative to create a course for seniors. The goal of the project is to create a tool that will help mobilize seniors to action, to mental and physical activity. We want to achieve this by arousing their interest in robots, bringing them closer to modern technologies. We want to do this by creating a modern course based on the blended learning method using interesting technological and digital solutions. To this end we have established a partnership consisting of 9 organizations from 7 countries, United Kingdom, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia and Portugal. In the first phase of the project, we will focus on developing a National Report of educational offer and good practices in Robotics in each partner country - IO1. We will collect good practices and analyze the non formal educational offer in robotics and modern technologies in partner countries to then adapt it to our target group of seniors. Reports from individual countries will contribute to the creation of one joint European report of the best practices used in teaching robotics among adults that will be available on partners websites. The next phase of the project is to create a blended learning course for seniors - IO2. To this end, based on the results of the National Report on the available educational offer and on the knowledge and experience of each organization, a team of experts of partner organizations will develop training and workshop modules for the blended course. To confirm the effectiveness of the course for seniors and to correct it accordingly, participation of a senior test group is planned in the main event in UK entitled: "Test of the Course by Seniors and Online platform training for staff. Discovering Robot Football". In addition, we plan to organize a promotional events (E 1-8) in partner organizations to promote the course and disseminate robotics among seniors and the general audience. We expect that: -at least 16 seniors of the test group will participate in the main learning event in Bristol to test the course -at least 15 participants will take part in the Promotional Event in 8 partner organisations -at least 7 participants will take part in the Course of Robotics in 8 partner organisations The results of the project are intellectual outputs ( IO1, IO2 and E 1-8) that we produce as well as improvement in key competences and skills of seniors, such as: numerical, scientific and engineering skills and digital and technology-based competences. Participants who will be able to participate in the practical part of the course further develop such skills as: problem solving, analytical skills, creativity and innovation or the ability to cooperate in a group. Participants will also increase their digital skills through distance learning. The blended learning method used will allow all participants to take part in the theoretical part of the course, regardless of distance and time. Participants who complete the entire course will receive certificates issued by ICEP of Bratislava, which will develop an appropriate validation system. The project will contribute to greater social inclusion of seniors, their better well-being and development as well as to reducing the barrier separating the from modern technologies. It will also increase the range of the offer for seniors and improve access of seniors to the modern training offer.
Our project was targeted first at seniors, retired or pre-retirement, 60+ people who wanted to broaden their knowledge of modern technologies or developed new interest. The second group were seniors with professional career as engineers, technicians or IT specialists that were supposed to help us to test the course. They had to be actively involved in the process of improving the course and its testing in the final phase. Through the implementation of this project, we aimed to improve the key competences and skills of senior citizens, such as numerical, scientific and engineering skills, as well as digital and technological competences. In addition, for participants who would take part in the practical part of the course and workshops, they would have the opportunity to further improve skills such as problem-solving, analytical skills, creativity and innovation or teamwork and digital skills) and would contribute to their greater integration into society and the reduction of the generation gap. Participants would also increase their digital skills through distance learning. The blended learning method used should enable all participants to attend the theoretical part of the course, regardless of distance and time. Participants who would have completed the entire course would have received a certificate issued by ICEP in Bratislava, which is developing an appropriate validation system. The objective of the Partnership was to: - Increase Key competences and skills of seniors - Increasing the social inclusion of seniors by participating in a robotics course using the blended learning method - Sharing knowledge of robotics and promoting better access to training for seniors This was to be accomplished by: - developing blended Course on Robotics and modern technologies for Seniors - preparing a dissemination campaign tergeted at Seniors (partners were publishing an article on robotics every 3 months) - organising a promotional event "Let's meet with Robotics" It was expect that: -at least 16 seniors of the test group will participate in the main learning event in Bristol to test the course -at least 15 participants will take part in the Promotional Event in 8 partner organisations -at least 7 participants will take part in the Course of Robotics in 8 partner organisation.
The basis for writing this project was the aging of the population in Great Britain and in Europe.The phenomenon of population aging is a modern demographic process of unprecedented scale and intensity, covering the societies of Europe and other highly developed countries of the world. Evidence shows that in mid-2014, the average age exceeded 40 for the first time. By 2040, nearly one in seven people is projected to be aged over 75. As the population ages, so will the UK workforce. Learning and training will become even more important as the population ages as evidence shows that life-long participation in learning can improve people’s health, cognition, wellbeing and resilience. Lifelong learning will help us participate in the labor market longer, build personal and mental resilience, and bring health and well-being. Lifelong learning benefits individuals, employers and society, which will be increasingly valuable in an aging society. In our project we focused on technological skills as older age groups generally experience greater barriers to developing and retaining digital and technological skills, that are highly important. Their lack is one of the main factors that prevent people from using and reaping technology, especially later in life. Technology can improve connectivity, address health, work and care challenges, and help people unlock the potential benefits of living longer.The future importance of technology creates even greater impetus to address any skills gap in people of all ages. Another motive for writing this project was the situation caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus. Although the disease affected all social and age groups, the elderly suffered the most. We aimed to meet the situation of the elderly, who were particularly sensitive both for health reasons and due to weakened morale. Many of these people had previously suffered from isolation, and the galloping epidemic in most countries meant that they had to completely abandon social life to protect themselves against possible infection.Therefore, we wanted to contribute to their return and successful social inclusion by improving access to modern training offer and developing a robotics-related educational offer included in the blended course. Also, the world is growing rapidly and long-term challenges are intensifying. Ordinary people find it difficult to keep up with it, often they are not even fully aware of the scale of progress and therefore cannot take advantage of it. Seniors usually see robotics as something very distance from them, often not realising how close this field of science may be useful and how much benefit it can bring in their lives. So that we wanted to promote robotics among seniors so that they became more aware of the technological progress implemented in front of our eyes, and they could become its conscious users and fans.