Back to Key Areas and Session Proposals

Tourism and Culture

This area covers all services and facilities of a recreational, sporting or cultural nature, such as healthy tourism, social tourism, intergenerational exchanges, sports suitable for elder persons, training, voluntary action and leisure and cultural activities. It is intended to promote products, programs, infrastructure and services that are available at a regional, national and international level.

Workshop proposal No. 3 (NRW):
Education, Culture and Ageing

Background

Education and learning. There is a growing demand for education and qualification emanating from the senior population. Such activities mainly include learning not for qualification, but for fun.
However, it can be assumed that there exists, besides educational offers already in place, an unsaturated and expandable market for systematic scientific continued education within the target group of people beyond fifty, sixty years of age and older after they have finished their working life.

In the area of education and learning for seniors, numerous examples already exist and include for instance university of the Third Age in several European (SEN@ER) regions and cities like Posznan in Poland or Bielefeld in Germany.

Especially in the English-speaking world, there is a long tradition of universities of the Third Age and institutes for learning in retirement. The concept is very popular in countries like the USA and Australia with such universities operating in cities like Canberra, Brisbane, Hobart etc., also even including a virtual University of the Third Age in Australia at Griffith University.

I n countries like the UK an association of universities of the Third Age, the Third Age Trust, exists. Universities for the Third Age are mostly self-help, self-managed lifelong learning co-operatives for older people no longer in full time work, providing opportunities for their members to share learning experiences in a wide range of interest groups and to pursue learning not for qualification, but for fun.

A recent development includes the development of the European Centre of University Studies for Seniors (ECUS) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ECUS was founded as an innovative institution of education by regional partners. If is financed by work contributed by the partners and by fees paid by the students. The decentralised organisational structure of ECUS is based on cooperation agreements between municipalities, companies, and registered associations.

Culture and Ageing. There has always been a high demand for cultural activities among the older population and it is seen as a strong contributor to the quality of life for many individuals from this target group. A positive culture of “ageing” touches all spheres of life. It offers the possibility of developing new cultural opportunities for older people, thereby making an impact in both inter-cultural and cross-border terms. Culture also is an important regional economic factor. Taking the region of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) as an example, it becomes apparent that ‘culture’ constitutes an important branch of the economy, which is even growing at an above-average rate and generating many jobs. Similar developments can be seen in many European regions.

Many seniors are likely to not only act as costumers of cultural products but also want to become active in their development, i.e. take a more active role in the area of culture. Both, the more active participation and role in culture, on the one hand, and the consumption of cultural products and participation in events, on the other, requires that producers, creators and providers of culture, especially those dealing with senior citizens’ interests need to become more active in the development and promotion of good-quality, interesting and “intelligent” culture products for elderly customers.

All the above activities do not only support an increase in the quality of life of the older population and population in general but also enable the creation of new economic markets for which a demand already exists or will/can be created. Finally they also provide economic stimuli for new services and businesses thereby supporting the creation of jobs.

Objectives and results

The workshop could present a series of good practice examples from different European regions from which to learn how best to establish such schemes and run them successfully not only in terms of supply provision (e.g. educational and cultural offers) but also demand creation (e.g. creation of a (new) demand among the target groups). A special focus may be put on financing and funding issues since these are of crucial importance for those regions and actors interested in establishing similar schemes in their regions.

Possible VIP Session Output

The workshop may lead to an agreement signed, in a corresponding VIP Session, by (several) SEN@ER regions and other key players in the European education and culture domain on:

• The establishment of joint European research activities in the areas and a study on the economic and fiscal effects of promoting education and culture for seniors which can act as an eye-opener to policy makers at European, national, regional and local level for the importance of this sector for jobs and business creation and the improvement of the quality of live of citizens.

• The intention of setting up a European Good-practice Online Knowledge Base and Exchange mechanism on education and culture for seniors.

• Further cross-country/region cooperation in the area of education, culture and ageing

Ideally and in parallel, there would be a European Commission declaration of intent on the opening of existing funding programmes (or the establishment of a new funding scheme) to support such coordinated cooperative activities.