An interregional project, co-funded by Danube transnational programme, gathers together partners from 8 countries to get solutions how to change the career perspectives of 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. Here we call ecosystem the community of all entities and institutions engaged in supporting seniors in their professional development in every country.

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 project encompasses 19 partners in 8 Danube countries - Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Ukraine. The core of the project is developing of three innovative tools, which will play a crucial role in the process of changing elderly people chances for a new career.

 The first tool is called POWERYOU and will empower elderly for digital self-employment, the second one - CAMPUS, will adjust relevant courses for elderly to their specific needs, and LABEL tool will certify those elderly, who demonstrate enough digital skills. According to the activities planned, all partners across Danube region, are designing these tools together. A series of workshops are scheduled per each tool, first round of which already took place.

Project partners discussed the topics on virtual meetings, due to the pandemic, using different methods for interactive group work.

The goal of the first workshop was to give an overview about the basis on which the working groups are going to build up the POWERYOU tool. It will develop a new approach to motivate elderly and institutions to change their mind towards acquiring digital skills. The project partners focused on federating expertise across countries and sectors. The working group gathered expertise across Danube region in the field of training, human resource development and management, psychology, career development and project management and marketing. The most important issues were to address and to define the change statement, the added value of the tool, also the main steps to achieve this added value.

Who are the direct targeting groups of the tool, how will they be found, which institutions will help, and how - these were some of the many questions that need answers. The participants were focused on discussing how to address the main fears and uncertainties of seniors related to digitalisation.

Another workshop was held on developing CAMPUS tool, which will develop a tailor-made approach for educating elderly in digital competences. The idea targets providers of education and requalification courses. The tool will guide them how to efficiently and effectively adapt their courses to the specific needs of the elderly target group. CAMPUS will be tested at one course per territory during the project lifetime. The online workshop discussed specific aspects of how elderly process the information related to digital skills courses and some effective training strategies.

Main difficulties in the learning abilities of seniors were at the focus of the workshop. Decline in sensations, attention, memory and interpretation of the elderly - all these issues need specific innovative suggestions for handing over digital information to the elderly population. The participants decided to organize CAMPUS in five big chapters: statistic – the actual situation of trainings and courses in the different countries, their content, main topics to be covered, number of hours and general description of the types of information transmitted in a digital skills training.

Next step will be mentoring – a working alliance between trainers and elderly trainees, taking a general picture of the entrepreneurial skills – how digital skills can help elderly develop and use entrepreneurial skills. Information will be gathered about processing in elderly – sensation, attention, memory and interpretation.

The third workshop was related to LABEL tool, which is expected to work as the mechanism to build trust and prove elderlies ‘competences to employers. This tool develops the quality assurance system of the elderly workforce by awarding those who meet quality criteria with eDigiStars LABEL. It also will provide comprehensive guidance in the creation of awareness and building trust among employers from different industrial segments.

On another virtual meeting partners from eight European countries with extensive competences and experiences in the field of the certification process gathered to start designing LABEL tool.

Experts from different backgrounds participated in this special working group  - bringing expertise in training, human resource development and management, psychology, education, career development, as well as in project management and marketing. Based on the study “The Digital Competence Framework of EU” they discussed the competence areas and levels of digital skills aiming to give an overview about the basis on which the working group is going to build up the LABEL tool.

Accent was put on the self-assessment process about job-related digital skills and the real level or existing competences of seniors. Competence levels and competence areas were discussed.

These workshops and the collection of expertise from across Danube region and across sectors are offering a stable base for deploying further the core of the innovative training system for supporting digital entrepreneurship of people from the silver age.