Senior Plus Erasmus Project

Project Title

Senior Plus

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 : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

Senior Plus is a 2 year strategic partnership project involving 6 organisations from 5 different European countries: Cemea del Mezzogiorno (ITALY) as applicant and coordinator, Pistes Solidaires (FRANCE), Associaçao Mais Cidadania (PORTUGAL), Community Action Dacorum (UNITED KINGDOM), Gulbene Municipality (LATVIA), View from Here (UNITED KINGDOM) as knowledge partner. Senior Plus deals with adults aged more than 50 years, unemployed or inactive, in the need to enhance their employability.
Active ageing means helping people stay in charge of their own lives for as long as possible as they age and, where possible, to contribute to the economy and society. Nowadays this concept has to be extended to people aged 50+, particularly exposed to long-term unemployment and poverty once they dropped out from labour market. The setbacks brought by the economic crisis made evident all the limits of social security cushion; the new context claims for new tools enabling seniors to assess and re-design their medium-term perspective. A combination of training support and learning mobility in adult education for 50+, developed in the last years by the Senior Plus partners under Grundtvig programme, revealed all its potential to foster seniors’ self-esteem, motivation, personal branding and spirit of initiative. Essential elements and needed conditions for a regained employability.
The project involved 148 direct beneficiaries among the 5 international partners (excluding the knowledge partner View from Here), reaching more than 80.000 people through its results.
Senior Plus was implemented through the following steps:
• EUROPEAN RESEARCH on the competences of people over 50, with a specific focus on which new competences they need to acquire, which ones to strengthen/update or better communicate and the educative policy adopted in each partner country
• INTERNATIONAL TRAINING OF TRAINERS for staff, aimed to create a common methodological and educative ground and prepare the European trainers to implement the training for seniors over 50 in each local reality
• STAFF EXCHANGE to visit partners’ local reality and work within Senior Plus, to share good practices and learning by doing
• CREATION OF COMP-PASS E-PORTFOLIO studied for the specific target group of people 50+
• IMPLEMENTATION OF “SENIOR PLUS” PATHWAY for seniors, composed by a training course to assess and develop their skills while accompanying them to realize the e-Portfolio to communicate and present themselves
• GUIDE TO SUPPORT SENIOR VOLUNTEERING in international and/or local voluntary activities
• VOLUNTEERING EXPERIENCE for seniors at local and/or international level, to foster their self-esteem and self-awareness, to test their competences and feed their motivation to actively participate to their own life and the one of the whole community
• EUROPEAN PATHFINDERS PLATFORM to create links between organisations and seniors over 50, to match volunteers and voluntary opportunities in Europe and in each partner country. The platform is a follow up tool of Senior Plus
• MONITORING AND COORDINATION MEETINGS – 4 transnational consortium meetings with the participation of coordinators and managers for each partner in 2 years
• ONGOING EVALUATION AND DISSEMINATION
Senior Plus aimed therefore to design, test and evaluate an innovative and combined pathway for the employability of people over 50 years old. Its action will continue to be sustainable and achievable thanks to the strong cooperation that was established with local bodies, who work to support employment of adults, and the synergies that were built between public and private sectors.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 237391 Eur

Project Coordinator

Cemea del Mezzogiorno & Country: IT

Project Partners

• View From Here Ltd
• Gulbenes novada dome
• Dacorum Council for Voluntary Service
• Associação Mais Cidadania
• PISTES SOLIDAIRES