WHAT IS ACTIVE AGEING
- Preparation for active ageing must start before retirement; it should be part of education and training provided by the employer.
- To age actively means to keep learning and to be able to change together with the changing world.
- Active ageing is more than just continuing to work in one’s profession or providing care for the helpless elderly peers. It means being independent, stable and capable of giving and advising.
- The three priority occupations of the participants in the meeting are active care for their families ( parents, partners, children, grandchildren), spiritual growth, learning/education.
- Can efforts for spiritual growth (search for the meaning of life, contemplation of nature, contemplative meditation etc.) be regarded as active ageing? Is work the only positive value of the man in the European culture?
LEARNING AND EDUCATION IN THE THIRD AGE
- The basic characteristic of learning/education in the third age should be joy. It is not only an intellectual activity, it stimulates building of social networks, friendships and solidarity.
- Study circles organized for the elderly should take into account the wealth of their knowledge and experience. There should be more debates and discussions than proper lectures. The senior participants’ initiatives should be followed.
- The Ministry of Education should be formally approached with the request to enable senior citizens to pursue higher education courses on a regular basis free of charge.
- In the third age women tend to be involved much more often than men in educational activities. Men experience a shock when they retire and tend to retreat into passivity. More effort should be made to attract them to join study circles, perhaps by offering some more »male interest« oriented subjects.
- Discussions about active ageing, the possibilities of voluntary work, involvement in civil society should be held within the Third Age University study circles on a regular basis.
INTERGENERATIONAL COOPERATION
- Intergenerational cooperation creates new knowledge and new activities. It should not be equated with solidarity, which means giving.
- The younger generations can learn from the older the importance of having time for things outside work – building of relationships, following traditions, learning and passing on knowledge.
- Younger generations can learn from the old how to live in a community.
PAID AND NON-PAID VOLUNTARY WORK
- Older people possess a great deal of knowledge and experience. The society should implement the necessary infrastructure to enable them to make use of their competences.
- Older people know what a local community needs and can take on a number of activities/services without waiting for local authorities to organize everything.
- At present, older people can provide help to younger generations in inter-generationally organized clubs, through school coaching and similar private initiatives. Older people could help young parents with babysitting and picking up from school in housing community based programmes (»rent-a grandma«).
- The Third Age University could organize »knowledge-exchange”, preparing a list of older people willing to provide help (a service) based on their skills and knowledge on the one hand and a list of people who need help of a certain type on the other.
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