In a world in constant technological development which is often under the assault of cyber attacks, a group of seven organisations from the EU have developed a training programme for those most vulnerable, the elder persons, to learn how to navigate the challenges and opportunities of online-based collaborative consumption platforms. 

Collaborative consumption platforms in the field of accommodation (ex. airbnb.com), mobility (ex. Blablacar), general goods (ex. freecycle.org) and many others represent a huge opportunity to increase the quality of life of elder persons, but it also puts serious challenges for them from the point of view of IT competences and the need mentoring, as well as financial security on the online environment.

Leading organisations from Spain, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania have implemented the project COL-SUMERS: Developing a Training Program for Enhancing Sustainable Collaborative Consumption in Elder Person,co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

Through this project, we have developed an innovative training programme that includes:

• Training Materials – addressed to Elder Persons in order for them to acquire all necessary tools and knowledge in regards to Collaborative Consumption, on topics like accommodation, recycling, mobility, general goods, wellbeing, water and energy, sustainability.
• Designed Experiential Training Activities – a group of training activities within the Training Program that are be based on practical and experiential training.
• e-Training Platform – An e-learning and e-training platform for the support of the Training Methodology implementation, available at: https://platform.col-sumers.eu

All the materials, e-Training platform and website are in six languages – Romanian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Greek so that they are easily available to interested persons in the five countries as well as in English for anyone that wants to make use of the resources.

COL-SUMERS Units

In order to make the Training Program constantly available to the elder persons, within organisations from each of the five countries, we have developed four COL-SUMERS Units – which, in the long term, during the next years will act as a Support Units in order to make all the materials available to the public, offer specialised support and multiply the impact the training program.

COL-SUMERS Units have been developed in:

• Romania – Asociația InfoCons, www.infocons.ro
• Slovenia – Slovene Consumers Association (ZPS), ww.zps.si
• Bulgaria – Bulgarian National Association Active Consumers, https://aktivnipotrebiteli.bg
• Greece – The Institute of Entrepreneurship Development, https://ied.eu
• Spain – Users Association Valencia (AVACU), https://www.avacu.es

Validation of COL-SUMERS e-Training Platform with users

More than 180 persons (>60 years old) have been trained and have been involved in the VALIDATION ACTIONS that have been organised in each country.

The training was based on the practical implementation of Training Materials, Designed Experiential Training Activities, and e-Training Platform, involving 40 elder person people in each participating country, including the implementation of the full training methodology.

The main input of the Validation activity was that the program is very interesting and is covering well the topics of interest among elder people, but there is a clear need for mentoring and constant support during the training, especially as regards the digital skills.

Multiplier Events

At the end of the project, a series of 5 Multiplier Events have been organised in all of the five countries. The events have been focused on promoting the training program to stakeholders in the field of Consumption and Elder persons.

The Workshops had been developed to introduce the main project concepts and results to Stakeholders from the five countries. Workshops were related to the adoption of Collaborative Consumption by Elder Persons and how to deal with the challenges of collaborative consumption platforms.

Participants have been representatives and members of entities related to Consumption, support to Elder Persons and Collaborative Consumption and those working in the public service areas so that they will be able to be engaged with the implementation of the training methodology after the project lifetime.

More than 150 relevant stakeholders have participated in the multiplier events, where they had the opportunity to learn about the CC concepts and platforms, about our training program and e-training platform, paving the way to further use the training methodology after the project lifetime.

The Partnership consists of: The Centre for Sustainable Policies Ecopolis (Ecopolis) – Romania, The Institute of Entrepreneurship Development – Greece, The Mediterranean Institute for Sustainable Development (Imedes) – Spain, ZPS – Slovene Consumers’ Association – Slovenia, Avacu – Consumers and Users Association Valencia – Spain, InfoCons – Asociație pentru Protecția Consumatorilor – Romania, Bulgarian National Association Active Consumers – Bulgaria

For more info, you can visit our website at: www.col-sumers.eu