3rd e-age: Digital Empowerment of the Elderly
The initiative of National Academy for Digital Skills in Greece “Third e-age: Digital Empowerment of the Elderly", aims to tailor individual training and customized support to the elderly provided by Digital Assistants-Trainers, in order to perform basic digital tasks. The elderly get the opportunity to habituate to the use of their personal ICT equipment, to create and exchange information and data, to build capability to request and receive digital services and to enjoy communication and sharing with their loved ones at a basic level of security and a fair amount of digital citizenship. This action is aligned with national strategy of digital transformation of the country (Digital Transformation Bible 2020-2025) and EU policy (Digital Decade 2030 for reducing the digital divide in digital basic skill of citizens. This good practice tackles also the pillar Digital skills for all: developing digital skills to enable all citizens to be active in our digital society, of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition.
The initiative is inspired by the social ambition to reach out, motivate and provide digital literacy services to elderly citizens deploying the local government network and the benefits of the principle of subsidiarity. Therefore, the sessions are held in wisely selected civic amenity sites, quasi- seniors’ comfort zones, the “Digital Corners”, which produce the fabric of habits that fosters social membership. In this context, the integration of ICT equipment to the daily activities with the guidance of the “Digital Assistants-Trainers”, transforms the upskilling sessions to a vibrant experience of developing habits. The “Digital Assistants-Trainers” play an important role for the success of the initiative with respects to the customized learning or support provided to the specific age and the wide variety of backgrounds of the group. Therefore, the sessions consist of interactive learning to meet participants’ needs and expectations, while the “Digital Assistants-Trainers” are a) trained to perform under the principles of adult education and b) prompted to genuinely encourage older people to use technology with confidence, responsibility and safety.
Key results
As regards to participation and inclusion, the initiative has been welcomed by the elderly in rural areas without any gender, education & occupation disparities. More than 1400 beneficiaries with an average age of 71,5 years, have engaged to more than 7.000 digital skills development sessions. The demographics showcased that the majority of the beneficiaries were women -71,6% of total participants- , retired -88,7%of total participants- and between 55-80 years of age -91% of total participants.
Why is this a good practice?
A customer satisfaction survey has been conducted, indicating high adoption level to individual needs, while delivering thriving results in terms of digital services use and program reuse. More than 94% of the participants have rated the overall satisfaction at a high and very high level -15,2% (4/5), 78,9% (5/5)-, while a significant amount of participants, that exceeds 89%, have increased digital applications use and confidence. Furthermore, more than 90 % of the participants would use the program frequently if permanent, of which more than 80% would return to it very often. Finally, the digital communities which were set up by the participants and the “Digital Assistants-Trainers” indicate the positive acceptance of the program along with the continuous engagement to digital skills’ improvement.
The initiative is rolled out in 6 municipalities in cooperation with local government authorities by now. Moreover, the initiative is drafted under RRF provisions and consists of geographical, educational and social expansion. The wider geography in scope, will be reached through the national network of the local development institutions, providing scale and engaging beneficiaries across the country.
