TeleGrow: “Enhancing the Teleworking Digital Skills for the Middle aged employees” Erasmus Project

Project Title

TeleGrow: “Enhancing the Teleworking Digital Skills for the Middle aged employees”

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Before COVID-19, teleworking was adopted by very few countries and in very few sectors and thus a great number of employees lacked experience in remote working. This fact can fuel even more hurdles when accompanied with lack of the necessary digital skills. As a result, teleworking becomes available only to particular groups while on the other hand becomes a major challenge to those not used to remote working and/or not possessing digital expertise.

Employees in the age group of 50+ seem to be a particularly vulnerable group to the overall situation as they are not only threatened by the virus itself but also by the rapidly changing working conditions. Older employees aged over 50+ tend to have fewer ICT and digital skills than younger employees and face more challenges in terms of acquiring new digital knowledge (“ICT for work-EC”, 2016). With an 30,4% of them starting working from home, as a result of the COVID-19 situation (“Working during COVID-19”, 2020), there is a crucial need for acquiring some basic digital knowledge. Teleworking requires a variety of different digital skills, and indeed, it is observed that the level of digital skills and the amount of provided opportunities regarding ICT training has a positive correlation with the quantity and quality of teleworking in each EU country. (“JRC:Telework in the EU”, 2020). Although remote working skills can be developed with frequent exposure to a proper training environment, it can be twice as hard for a middle-aged adult to enhance them and there seems to be a reluctance of older people to participate in upskilling training programs. (McIvor, 2020).

The design of senior employees’ training systems has to be more carefully planned and should address their individual needs and build on their strengths, experiences and interests. Thus, trainers should not only possess expertise regarding teleworking but also acquire methods, tools and ready made material with VET specific content to engage older workers into the learning process and make their training more effective.

Meanwhile, the rise in telework during the pandemic has highlighted the blurring of lines between work and private life. It will be critical for governments and social partners to introduce ‘right to disconnect’ initiatives in order to prevent large segments of workers becoming at risk of physical and emotional exhaustion.(Eurofound, October 2020)

For the above reasons we introduce the TeleGrow project. Designing suitable training materials, the project will equip VET Trainers and providers with necessary knowledge and tools in order to (re)train and upskill employees aged 50+ and help them work efficiently from home.

Results and Activities- The partnership will produce four innovative Intellectual Outputs answering to the abovementioned needs and based on actual witnesses of VET Trainers and VET learners over the age of 50:

-IO1TeleGrow Interactive Report
-IO2 How to stay gOLD Guide
-IO3 How to TeleGrow Training Modules
– IO4 TeleGrow Hub
-1 Learning and Teaching activity the TeleGrow LTTA that will take place in Greece (18 participants)
-5 Multiplier events in all partner countries (190 participants)
-4 Transnational project meetings (12 participants)

More specifically, the TeleGrow project will offer a powerful and need-based solution in those rapidly growing teleworking challenges with innovative and useful tools that aim to:

-Provide data on the current situation regarding teleworking and the issues that arise for employees of older age
– Pinpoint the national frameworks on teleworking and contribute to the overall EU effort on promoting telework
-Equip VET Trainers with knowledge and tools on digital and ICT training for older VET learners
-Offer educational tips and methods to VET Trainers in order to engage older employees into the learning process and (re-)train them efficiently
-Highlight the importance of balancing life and work and provide solutions to VET learners in order to maintain their well being, both physically and mentally
-Foster the exchange of needs and ideas and interpersonal relations between the two target groups by offering them a common spot for interacting and communicating on a regular basis on the themes of telework and digitalism

TeleGrow’s Target Groups:
TG1: VET trainers, VET institutes
TG2:VET learners belonging to the age group of 50+ years old

The TeleGrow expected impact is to contribute to the development of a ready-made digital training material for VET trainers in order to enhance and upcale the digital skills of the 50+ learners and engage them into new learning paths as well as innovative tools for VET learners/ employees in order to foster their self-management soft skills for maintaining the work-life balance and thus ensuring a successful transition into the teleworking demands of our era.

Project Website

https://telegrow.erasmus.site/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 230510 Eur

Project Coordinator

FLORIDA CENTRE DE FORMACIÓ, COOP. V & Country: ES

Project Partners

• KAINOTOMIA & SIA EE
• E-SENIORS: INITIATION DES SENIORS AUX NTIC ASSOCIATION
• STOWARZYSZENIE CENTRUM WSPIERANIA EDUKACJI I PRZEDSIEBIORCZOSCI
• EURO-NET
• MARKEUT SKILLS SOCIEDAD LIMITADA