Intergenerational groups collaborate in UoL project

Intergenerational guidance acts as a tool for intergenerational learning, which involves the exchange and acquisition of skills, values, and knowledge among people of different age groups and generations. Meanwhile, an important outcome of intergenerational guidance is the creation and/or strengthening of relationships between individuals.

The project titled “InterGenic – Supporting the European Union’s twin transition through intergenerational learning, knowledge exchange and joint actions”, co-funded by the European Union and the ERASMUS+ programme in the field of adult education, undertakes to strengthen this effort via the development of an educational package in relation to intergenerational guidance, in order to support EU efforts towards its digital and green transition; an objective resulting from the bloc’s development strategy and the European Green Deal.

The objectives of the project include:

• the enhancement and transfer of digital skills from young people to those aged 55+
• the reintroduction of sustainable green practices taught by those aged 55+ to young people
• the suggestion of local solutions for the twin transition (green and digital)
• the awareness raising, while bridging the socio-scientific generation gap

The InterGenic consortium consists of eight partners: the Jaume I University in Spain, InterAktion organisation in Austria, ODISEE in Belgium, the Entrepreneurship and Social Economy Support Network – DYEKO in Greece, the professional organisation EuroSpeak Limited in Ireland and the Innovation Education Lab in Romania. In Cyprus, the project is being implemented by the University of Limassol (UoL) and Materia Group in Nicosia.

The project has a duration of two years (December 2023 – November 2025). In January 2024, UoL hosted the InterGenic project team in Cyprus, holding the first face-to-face meeting where work officially began, and targets set for the first deliverables of the project.

The project’s next actions will cover workshops targeted to 18- to 25-year-olds, and those aged 55+. Through such workshops, each generation’s knowledge and practices in terms of tech tools and traditional ecological practices, will be explored and recorded. Thereafter, based on the collected information, an educational package will be developed, later to be available online. Furthermore, the groups will then be trained as mentors, in order to share and transfer the findings, and work together on a joint intergenerational action to solve a local problem in their community.

In Cyprus, the above will be implemented by UoL and the Materia Group, in collaboration with the Community Council of Lympia and United Youth of Lympia.

Having begun in March 2024, the workshops have seen a range of ecological practices and technological tools proposed by the target groups, which have been recorded to support the development of the educational package. Using intergenerational collaboration, the residents of Lympia will work together to promote and put into practice the community’s green and digital transition, as well as to strengthen the relationships between their community’s different generations.

Follow the UoL’s Research Center on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, or by visiting the InterGenic project website, to stay updated on the project.