The Silver Learners project was a strategic partnership for exchanging good practice between ten partners from Germany, Great Britain (3), Hungary, Luxembourg, The Netherlands (2) and Poland (2). The project took take place between 1 September 2016 and 30 September 2018 and was aimed at representatives of local education centres, i.e. at the directors of these institutions and the teaching staff who give lessons to groups of learners aged 60+. The consortium was structured to ensure that various local education facilities with a range of main strengths and focuses were involved as well as transregionally active associations. The aim of Silver Learners was to improve the programme offered by education centres, taking account of the challenges of demographic change as well as the associated altered circumstances and education practices of senior citizens: The older generation needs to be provided with educational support to enable them to remain active members of society and face the challenges of growing old independently for as long as possible. In this context, the fields of media competence (using ICT and new technical resources) and health were regarded as being particularly significant. In addition, it is essential to reach poorly educated target groups. There was for instance an exchange of tried-and-tested education models from the various countries for improving the learning situation of the elderly and also to jointly develop and implement ideas and concepts. New, innovative educational concepts for the older generation were developed on the basis of the different experiences. Since, at present, the adult education centres are primarily attended by the so-called middle classes, the objective was and is to focus on persons who have had fewer educational opportunities. This entailed analysing the motivation for learning as well as the options and the existing barriers to education. The project encompassed seven meetings of the project partners. The time between the meetings was used for processing the results and disseminating and applying them locally as well as for preparing the next convention and planning additional cooperation between individual partners. The meetings of the partners were organised as workshops made up of presentations, dialogues in varying work groups, and excursions. The following issues were regarded as particularly crucial:-Competencies and learning abilities of the elderly and the consequent requirements on educational programmes;-Communication for and with senior citizens - How to reach the target groups, in particular those that are not so well educated? How can the communication skills of elderly people be intensified (use of ICT, social networks, language, etc.)?-Further education for everyday life – How can the older generation be supported in their ICT-influenced daily lives (using a PC, online banking/shopping/booking, voluntary work)? How can new tools be made appropriate for elderly people?-Further education on health – Besides keeping healthy (sport, prevention) and new technical aids, this focused mainly on dealing with age-related diseases such as dementia. The venues and thematic focuses of the meetings were selected so as to ensure that the partners could best introduce their strengths into the discussion. The first event was an introductory kick-off meeting held in Iserlohn. After five content-related workshops in Nyíregyháza, Luxembourg, Middelburg, Stockport and Cambridge, a final summarising wrap-up meeting was held in Olszyn at which further projects of individual partners were mentioned, including some within the scope of Erasmus+. Besides the specified aims, teaching staff benefited from the project because their skills were upgraded, especially regarding the interests of the elderly during lessons, the effective use of ICT, and the inclusion of health aspects. This enabled education centres to improve and expand what they had on offer and thus for attendees to commit to the institution. As a result of working together with familiar partners (town twinning, successful partnerships in other EU projects), the networks were reinforced and redefined with the help of new partners, also on a local level. The project partners got to know other countries, embarked on intercultural dialogues and expanded their knowledge, including their linguistic skills. The project was also beneficial to society in Europe as well: well-educated, committed and health-conscious senior citizens face the effects accompanying age with greater confidence. In consequence, the growing generation of elderly people was encouraged to play an active role in society. Thanks to the joint work of ten partners, the results of the project were disseminated in numerous different regions and countries of Europe, thus making a major contribution towards added value in Europe. Detailed information is available at our website: www.project-silver-learners.eu.

The transnational project CROSS focusing on the changed basic conditions in adult education is carried out within the scope of ERASMUS+ as a Strategic Partnership for exchanging good practice, presents and interchanges examples of “best practice” as implemented by various providers of adult education. New concepts for cooperation between public libraries and facilities offering adult education are also presented, in which case the main focus is on the “Third Place” (Ray Oldenburg) approach. This approach is chosen to reach people which never use public libraries and/or facilities offering adult education to improve their knowledge or skills. Content and Objective:The following altered social framework conditions constitute the content of the project: - Demographic change and the shift in the circumstances of senior citizens are presenting a new challenge throughout Europe. This includes increasing educational activities for elderly persons in a life-long learning perspective (formal and informal learning) into old age. - Individualisation processes allow people to learn very individually, not only in social groups and not only at one place (also people with low education background).- Digitalisation, generally speaking, promotes co-existence as well as the combination of analogue and digital adult education opportunities. There are, for example, great differences in the digital equipment of both libraries and further education facilities. - Migration: To enhance the integration of migrants, they should be introduced to extracurricular educational and learning options.The direct target group consists of employees, managerial staff, decision makers responsible in libraries and facilities offering adult education. The indirect target group includes all customers of libraries and facilities offering adult education, especially seniors, people with educationally disadvantaged backgrounds and migrants. Corresponding with the target groups, the chosen programme priorities are “Supporting educators” and “Social inclusion”.“Third Place”:The concept of a third place emphasises a distinction to the first location (at home) and the second location (at work). In our case, the third place is a third option for learning settings and/or communication as informal as possible. This encompasses, e.g., cafés, restaurants, pubs, bars, book-shops, sports clubs, neighbourhood centres and similar facilities from the private sector and/or from the world of clubs, associations or public social culture. Duration and Structure of Project:The project runs from September 2019 until September 2021 (24 months). Local conferences are held at the project partners’ venues. The conferences are prepared by transnational project teams. Each conference has a different main focus, each of which is defined by all the project partners at a “kick-off meeting” in September 2019. After the individual conferences have been held, the project will be concluded in a final conference in September 2021. A steering committee is appointed for control and management purposes. Results of Project and Communication:Results are local/regional-Third Place”-adult education-concepts (best/good practice) and a tool-box how to develop, establish and run such locations and/or concepts. These results are easily adaptable by other organisations. Therefore, the results and conference reports are provided on a website where they will be at least 5 years available to other national and international adult education facilities as well as to other interested parties. Further, results are promoted via the EPALE-website, by press releases and a summing-up brochure (when the project ends). Project communication sees externally a communication strategy and internally, e.g. exchanging documents as well as using Meistertask, a browser-based project and task management tool on the web.Sustainability throughout the duration of the project is ensured by the participation of project partners from the European countries involved who are utilising the project results for long-term concepts in their local public libraries and training facilities for adult education e.g. by offering seminars to their own staff.

European faces severe population ageing in the future. Right now mostly youth and people over the age of 45 are on social welfare. Retirement age has been increased yearly since 2006. Solutions to this problem, amongst others, is an increased retirement age. However many older job seekers find that the older you are, the more difficult it is to get a job. A lack of technology aptitude is a common worry for employers. Promotion of positive possibilities in older age is needed. Furthermore, academic research convincingly shows that most jobs come through a network.The Mij-groep in the Netherlands is starting a new European partnership in adult education and ICT. The duration of the program is two years. The target group consists of elderly people who are unemployed. For this target group there exist a number of barriers which make their coming back to a learning environment difficult.The project responds to the need of:- education based on realistic problems- acquiring new knowledge and skills- understanding of obstacles - guidance and motivationThe main objective of the program is to study and follow 4 target groups (each country) to research the effect of on- and offline networking, more so the effectiveness of added support.