POWERYOU - the tool that take people over 50 on an exciting adventure in the digital world
A special project, co-funded by the EU funds on the Danube transnational programme, gathers together partners from 8 countries on digital competencies for people over 50 years. “Building of digital entrepreneurial capacities of the elderly through the innovative training system”, or eDigiStars project aims to develop sustainable ecosystems which successfully turn older workers to digital self-employed entrepreneurs, helping both people to get desired skills as well as companies to remain competitive.
The project encompases 19 partners in 8 Danube countries - Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Ukraine. An important part of the project is the development of three tools, which will play a crucial role in the process.
eDigiStars is based on real professional cooperation: vocational training and adult training organisations, labour offices, NGOs, local governments, chambers of commerce, industry and economic development organisations and disadvantaged target groups are working together to ensure success.
The three tools are - POWERYOU will empower elderly for digital self-employment, CAMPUS will adjust relevant courses for older workforce to their specific needs, and LABEL will certify those, who demonstrate enough digital skills.
During special meetings and workshops, which took place on virtual meetings, due to corona crises, project partners discussed the creation of the tools, using different methods for interactive group work. The participants were separated in groups in breakout rooms on internet based platform MIRO.
In developing the POWERYOU tool, we first tried to frame the characteristics of the workforce over the age of 50 - they usually find it difficult to cope with new technologies and therefore often remain disadvantaged by the possibilities of the digital world. They started working in pre-digital times and have different needs in terms of technology adoption, making them more difficult for technology developers to address. The employment rate of older workers (55-64 years) in the EU-27 is currently 60%. Therefore, better and longer working careers for people over 50 are urgently needed.
With POWERYOU we defined where they could most easily get involved - online marketing, online content creation, e-commerce, analysis and research, web and graphic design, 3D printing, computer support specialist, database administrator, computer technicians, system administrator, IT security specialist and many others.
The tool also contains developed educational programs for the 50+ group. We spoke with representatives of the age group and presented their success stories from different partner countries, we identified ways to motivate people over 50 to join the project, as well as tools and approaches for procedures for selection and building a digital career. POWERYOU also includes the Ikigai approach to helping these people understand their own needs, potential and motivation for personal and professional change, interviews, collecting recommendations, a digital literacy self-assessment questionnaire, assessing the learning speed of older people, and testing what has been learned.
The project team is convinced: To support people over 50 to remain active and to ensure that the society of the Danube macro-region benefits from their strengths and talents.
