The Skills to Connect project equipped future professionals (students) or professionals working with the elderly with the digital skills they need to do their jobs and support seniors in certain areas. The objective was double : to increase seniors' independence and improve the quality of services offered to them, while promoting their social and civic inclusion. To achieve this, we relied on the European DigComp 2.2 framework, which defines the essential digital skills for citizens. Our ambition was to contextualise these skills to the realities of professions working with the elderly by creating appropriate, accessible and sustainable educational tools. The project produced three deliverables: An online course for (future) professionals to acquire and pass on digital skills. A toolkit to support seniors in their digital learning, responding to their specific needs. A white paper offering recommendations to decision-makers, professionals and citizens for a more inclusive and digitally sustainable society. These deliverables were co-developed with the target audiences, thus ensuring their relevance and usefulness.
Skills to Connect aimed to address the growing digital exclusion of older people and the professionals who support them. Despite technological advances, older people and workers in this sector remain on the margins of the digital revolution. This exclusion, often exacerbated by precarious socio-economic conditions, limits their access to essential services, social relationships and full participation in civic life. We identified a need to act on two fronts: on the one hand, to strengthen the digital skills of (future) professionals and, on the other hand, to provide them with the tools to support seniors in their digital adoption. This dual objective is part of a broader desire to promote inclusive digital citizenship that respects the principles of sobriety and accessibility. The available data confirm the scale of the challenge: 44% of European adults lack basic digital skills, a figure that is even more worrying among senior citizens and low-skilled workers. All of these factors highlight the urgent need for action to prevent the digital divide from further widening social gaps.