Forage for later-life learning: Building on European experience

 

518459-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-Grundtvig-GNW

 

 

ForAge is a European multi-lateral network with the central aim of communicating and promoting experiences of learning for older people. The goal is to help raise standards of practice throughout Europe and beyond.

 

Since the first European Year of Older People and Intergenerational Solidarity in 1993 there have been many exchanges, projects, training events, seminars, programmes and networks concerned with learning in later life. The numbers increased significantly with the Grundtvig programme that provided impetus and funding for imaginative and innovative work across all of Europe. In 2012, 11 of the 61 multilateral projects funded benefited older learners.

 

However, it is difficult to access information about these initiatives once their initial funding has ceased, or to find any comprehensive list of them, suggesting that we have not made the best use of all these rich experiences. Recent research into the benefits of later-life learning does not draw sufficiently on pan-European experience as evidence.

 

The ForAge project aims to make best use of these rich experiences by building upon them, sharing information, creating networks, relating them to research evidence and analysing and assessing their value and impact.