Intergenerational Learning in Organisations - IGLOO

Intergenerational Learning in Organisations - IGLOO Progress/Final Report Public Part

Project information Project acronym: Project title: Project number: Sub-programme or KA: Project website: IGLOO Intergenerational Learning in Organisations 134587-LLP-1-2007-1-AT-GRUNDTVIG-GMP Grundtvig Multilateral Project www.iglooproject.eu Reporting period: From 01/10/2007 To 31/08/2008 Report version: 1 Date of preparation: 10/10/2008 Beneficiary organisation: BFI Tirol Bildungs GmbH Project coordinator: MMag. Martina Rupprechter Project coordinator organisation: BFI Tirol Bildungs GmbH Project coordinator telephone number: +43 512 58 05 06-222 Project coordinator email address: martina.rupprechter@bfi-tirol.at This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 2 / 13

Executive Summary This report is mainly aimed at employers and human resource managers respectively, but it also addresses employees who work in companies and/or organisations. The information included in this report might also be interesting for other projects dealing with intergenerational learning strategies. IGLOO which stands for Intergenerational Learning in Organisations - is an innovative multilateral project within the European Program for Lifelong Learning. The aim is to raise the awareness of the importance of continuous knowledge exchange between younger and older workers and to point out the (economic) value of this exchange for companies and society by focusing on the future scarcity of skilled and experienced employees due to the changing population all over Europe. Planned outcome of this project is an innovative teaching and learning model that can be easily implemented in organisations and help keeping precious knowledge in the company as well as enhancing knowledge exchange between younger and older employees. The partner consortium consists of 6 organisations from 5 different European countries (Austria, Germany, Italy, Latvia and Spain). All partners are equally involved and contribute actively to the working packages. The Austrian vocational training institute BFI Tirol is in charge of the general coordination and overall project management. The two Universities (University of Innsbruck Faculty of Educational Sciences (AT) and University of Molise Faculty of Sociology (IT)) are the leading partners for the research work packages. Due to its experience in market research activities and business consultancy, our Latvian partner Eurofortis was responsible for the best-practice-collection. EuroFortis is also dealing with the coordination of all dissemination and exploitation activities. The Spanish training consultancy FEMXA Formación is the leading partner for the development of the teaching-learningmodel. The company will bring in its broad knowledge in this field. LiNK e.v. from Germany acts as a project accompanying evaluator. LiNK was chosen for this task because of its high experience in the evaluation field. We started up the project by doing a scientific literature research as well as a best-practicecollection. The aim was to get an overview of already existing activities and results concerning intergenerational learning. Parallel we created dissemination material like a website, brochures, posters and questionnaires in all partner languages. To gain some primary data, we agreed on carrying out personal interviews with human resource managers and executives in all partner countries. To draw the situation of the employees, focus group discussions have been organised by each partner. All results have been summed up in national reports and will then be collected to one overall partnership report. Our next steps: The data of the national reports will be analyzed by the University of Molise and put together to a general report. Our Spanish partner, Femxa Formación, is already working on ideas for the teaching/learning model integrating the results of the general report. The project partners will provide the results of the national reports to the companies that participated in the survey to keep the contact alive. They will be the first offered the piloting of our model. This is also a very important step towards sustainable dissemination and exploitation of the project s outcomes. After the evaluation of the piloting phase, adaptations can be made and the model is ready to be offered companies and organisations all over Europe. The highlight marking the finalisation of the project will be a public conference in Innsbruck with all partners next autumn. Our project website www.iglooproject.eu is available in English, German, Latvian, Spanish and Italian. The website provides general information concerning IGLOO, detailed descriptions of all partner organizations, presentation of the team members, all public results, interesting and important links, news and an internal section which is used by all project members as a forum where we discuss important topics and upload relevant material. 3 / 13

Table of Contents 1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES... 5 2. PROJECT APPROACH... 6 3. PROJECT OUTCOMES & RESULTS... 8 4. PARTNERSHIPS... 9 5. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE... 11 6. CONTRIBUTION TO EU POLICIES... 12 4 / 13

1. Project Objectives Our project refers to the changing demographic situation in Europe. The population is ageing, the number of births decreasing. The economy can t afford any longer to dismiss employees older than 45/50 years or send them into early retirement, can t afford to loose the knowledge those experienced employees have gathered over years. An increasing number of older people need to be held in the workforce. Both to provide a chance to earn an adequate individual pension and to bridge the lack of workers the European economy is facing within the next years. In former times, usually older employees taught the younger ones how to do the work. Nowadays, for instance technical knowledge changes very quickly younger workers enter the company with latest know-how and it often happens that older employees need to get taught by younger colleagues. This may cause problems. It can be difficult for older experienced workers to be managed by a young boss. And on the other hand it can be as difficult for a young boss to lead older employees. But it is a fact that people will have to learn how to deal with these new developments. We want to raise the awareness and to point out the importance of the concept of intergenerational learning. Every person no matter of what age has its own strengths and know-how. If young and old share their experiences and their knowledge, a win-win - situation can be created. Until now, the concept of intergenerational learning was mainly regarded in a private and social context like for example knowledge-transfer within families from grandparents to children and the other way round, etc. But as we spend a lot of our lifetime in work environments and as companies and organisations are highly affected by the demographical change, it is necessary to extend the focus to the working environment and to find out about suitable strategies to enhance intergenerational learning and knowledgeexchange in companies and organisations. Therefore it is our aim to bring up this topic on the daily agenda of human resource managers and employers, but also to raise the sensitivity of workers concerning the issue of intergenerational learning in general (in the whole European Union). As long as the people in companies are not convinced that intergenerational learning is not only a good thing to do from a personal point of view but is a crucial factor for each person and the company as a whole, no changes will happen. Furthermore, we will develop an innovative teaching and learning model which can be used in companies and organisations and which helps to facilitate and enhance intergenerational learning and exchange. The model will include latest scientific results on learning abilities and on workplace learning. The Igloo project consortium is working on a complex mix of new learning strategies, settings and techniques which aim at finding new ways of liberating the potential of employees of all ages, increasing the employability and learning competence (and the motivation) of young and old people, helping companies to optimize their knowledge-management and to stay competitive. 5 / 13

2. Project Approach The project Intergenerational Learning in Organisations approaches our objective in several ways. We do not only create a very innovative pedagogic way of learning in one of the main topics in the area of lifelong learning Intergenerational Learning we do also support with our pedagogic model companies to facilitate and enhance intergenerational learning and exchange in their organisations. Our model will include innovative ICT-based contents. With the result of the project we can optimise the knowledge-management of companies and organisations by transferring know how, skills and tacit knowledge from older to younger employees and the way round. To include the existing knowledge and build our model upon this base the researchers at the Institute for Educational Sciences in Innsbruck with support of the other project partners - carried out a literature search and produced a report on the state of the art with respect to empirical studies on intergenerational work-based learning and pedagogical models of intergenerational learning in Europe. Finding adequate literature and scientific research results concerning intergenerational learning in organisations and companies turned out to be rather difficult, as the topic is very innovative and scientific research is at the very beginning. Each partner made contributions and searched for literature in his/her specific country so that we finally managed to create a very informative and interesting literature report which provides a good overview about the topic. In addition to the literature report each partner searched for best-practice-examples concerning intergenerational learning in the specific countries. Again, it was pretty difficult to find suitable examples which deal with intergenerational learning in the working environment. We therefore also included examples of projects and initiatives which aimed at enhancing intergenerational learning and exchange in other settings. We attached the best-practiceexamples as annex to our literature report. The examples give a good overview and practical insight of how intergenerational learning can work in reality. To ensure that we really address the needs of our target groups, we additionally made a requirement analysis in different companies and organisations. All partners carried out personal interviews with human resource managers, executives and focus group discussions with employees of different ages. The interview questions referred to workplace learning in general, to knowledge management and knowledge transfer in companies, to strategies towards intergenerational learning, etc. The reactions of the companies addressed and the results of the interviews varied widely in the different countries. While in some countries the researchers found it very easy to make an appointment for an interview and the focus groups as the companies were very interested and open, in some other countries it was a rather challenging mission to convince employers of the relevance of the topic and to get the originally number of interviews. Nevertheless, we managed to get interesting information about daily practices which will help us to crystallize the key factors which enhance intergenerational learning. The results of the interviews and focus group discussions were summed up in a general report and will be available for the interested public especially for companies and organisations. The results of the literature report and best practice research as well as the results of the interviews will be put together and used as a basis for developing the core of our project: the innovative teaching/learning model. We want to create a model which supports companies and organisations in their knowledge management and which helps them to enhance intergenerational learning and knowledge transfer. One added value from a pedagogical point of view is that we can combine different approaches and experiences from 5 different European countries. As we will refer to our results of the primary and secondary research activities, we can directly address the needs and desires of employers and 6 / 13

employees and therefore create the basis for exploitation and valorisation beyond the project lifetime. Our way of work can be described as cooperative and collaborative but with personal responsibility of each partner organisation. This is important in order to ensure that each member of the consortium can identify itself with the project aims and results and contributes actively to a successful and sustainable outcome. As partners of 6 different countries are involved, it is very important to find good communication tools and strategies. In addition to communication via e-mail and telephone, personal meetings play a very important role as they provide the possibility to have face-to-face discussions and to clarify open questions. Another very important communication tool is our internal webspace on www.iglooproject.eu. Here we upload all relevant documents and we use the forum for discussion and exchange. In order to be able to measure the progress of our project regularly and to react immediately on potential problems or changes, continuous evaluation is crucial. To guarantee a constant evaluation, we are using different tools and methods. Our German partner LiNK MV e.v. is the main responsible for our internal evaluation. Each partner has to deliver quarterly evaluation reports which include information about the project progress, the project management as well as about the partnership as a whole whereas the main focus is put on the project management and the partnership. The contributions of the partner are summed up by LiNK MV e.v. and put together to a general evaluation report which is forwarded to the project coordinator. It s then the coordinator s task to react on the evaluation results and to find possible solutions or adjustments. This procedure turned out to be very efficient. Additionally, the project progress and the outcomes are evaluated quarterly by the coordinator with the contribution of all partners. The creation of a Dissemination and Exploitation Plan was an important step during the first stage of our project. Our plan is structured accordingly to the IGLOO results by specifying how the project results can be exploited in the best way within each partner organization. Dissemination has a high priority during all project activities. In order to maximize the impact of the results, dissemination activities cover several target groups and include the preparation of a dissemination plan for the project focusing on a National and European level. The Dissemination and Exploitation plan will be updated each 3 months in order to support an effective exploitation of the project results towards the target group. However, IGLOO project will disseminate its results and activities not only to its potential users, but also to other interested parties in the field of intergenerational learning. Although the Latvian partner EuroFortis SIA is the main responsible for coordinating and evaluating all dissemination activities, all project partners are responsible for an effective and sustainable dissemination throughout the project period. We created different dissemination materials, such as the project website www.iglooproject.eu, brochures/flyers and posters. All those materials are available in English, German, Latvian, Spanish and Italian. Furthermore, we will present regularly a project newsletter (in English) on our webpage. At the end of our project period, we will organise a public conference in order to present our results and provide room for expert discussions concerning intergenerational learning. This is also an important step towards exploitation of the project results beyond the project s lifetime. 7 / 13

3. Project Outcomes & Results During the reporting period we created a literature report which delivers some basic information about intergenerational learning. It includes reasons for intergenerational learning in society and organisations, concepts for intergenerational learning and basic theories, like for example life cycle theories and human growth theories and it presents the concept of workplace learning in general. One chapter addresses the question how to foster intergenerational learning. Based on scientific literature and on best-practice-examples, we present different methods and tools which can be used to enhance intergenerational learning in organisations and companies. The literature report is available in English. For distribution in the different partner countries, we created a shorter version of the report and translated it into German, Italian, Latvian and Spanish. These summaries were distributed to companies and will also in future be used for dissemination purposes. They include the main points and findings and address the interested public. By spreading them, we can raise the awareness of intergenerational learning. Additionally, we did a requirement analysis in all countries, in order to get information about the needs, experiences and desires of employees and employers concerning intergenerational learning. We therefore prepared questionnaires and adapted them to the specific needs of each partner country. Companies and organisations of different branches have been contacted in each country and personal interviews with employers and human resource managers have been carried out. To draw the situation of employees we organised focus group discussions. Each interview and focus group was transcribed, analysed and integrated in a national report of the respective country. The University of Molise - the leading partner of the requirement analysis put all national reports together and creates a general report on the international survey. This report is providing interesting data about further education and knowledge exchange between younger and older employees and it addresses the differences which can be faced in the countries. The literature report and the national reports of the requirement analysis are the main results of our project so far. The next step will be the finishing of the general report and the development of the innovative teaching and learning model based on the outcomes of the research activities. The model will enable companies to improve and enhance intergenerational learning in their organisation by using new and especially in companies hardly known learning techniques and approaches. An important factor will be the integration of ICT-components like online training sessions, etc. A first draft of the contents has already been worked-out by the project consortium. After finishing the model, it will be piloted in organisations in the different partner countries. The evaluation will help us to find out whether our model is suitable for practical use or if we have to make some adaptations before we can start the exploitation of this product. All public results and outcomes can be found on our website www.iglooproject.eu, under the section results. 8 / 13

4. Partnerships The problem of people getting older and the declining number of young people has a European dimension. It has consequences on the labour markets and on the societies of all European countries. Since it is not a regional or national problem we have to find solutions on a European level. The present collaboration shows, that the basic parameters in the participating countries are very different from each other. The level of implementation of intergenerational learning and exchange differs from very common in some countries to barely existing in others. Carrying out the survey and comparing the results allows us to draw a picture of IGL in the specific countries and enables us to develop a model based on best practice examples, the needs of the companies and employees and innovative ideas. Working together in a partnership enabled us to collect a multiple of relevant data than possible for a single partner. We will as well benefit from different experiences, different perspectives and ideas. Working on a European level enables us to broaden the horizon and the usability of the outcomes. On a long-term view, our model should be adaptable to all European countries. Project partners BFI Tirol Bildungs GmbH, Innsbruck, Austria Institute of Educational Sciences, Leopold Franzens University, Innsbruck, Austria University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy (LiNK MV) Landesinitiative Neue Kommunikationswege Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e.v., Rostock, Germany EuroFortis SIA, Riga, Latvia Femxa Formación S.L., Vigo, Spain Applicant and coordinating organisation is the BFI Tirol Bildungs GmbH, Innsbruck, Austria. It is a private vocational training institute with more than 90 employees. Project manager is Mrs. Martina Rupprechter. The Institute of Educational Sciences at the Leopold Franzens University Innsbruck, Austria carried out a literature search and produced a literature report. The University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy was responsible for developing questionnaires for employees and employers and for coordinating the conduction of surveys in the partner countries. On basis of the collected information a general report on the survey will be created. LiNK MV (Landesinitiative Neue Kommunikationswege Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e.v.) in Rostock, Germany. Special focus of LiNK s contribution is put on the aspect of involvement of innovative ICT tools suitable for learning and knowledge management in general but for differently aged target groups in particular. LiNK will also act as project accompanying evaluator to serve the quality management of the project. Special focus within the evaluation is given to the evaluation of the learning model and its piloting. EuroFortis SIA, Riga, Latvia is responsible for coordinating the dissemination and exploitation strategy of the project. 9 / 13

Femxa Formación S.L., located in Vigo, Spain, is developing and piloting the innovative teaching and learning model of the IGLOO project. Femxa will coordinate the activities of the other partners and will be responsible for the creation of an innovative dissemination strategy to make sure that our learning model will be used by companies. The partnership turned out to be very fruitful and complementary. Each partner organisation proofed to be a team player with a focus on the common results and outcomes. Partnerships with groups outside the project Contacting, informing and interviewing employers and employees for our survey was definitely a good possibility to raise awareness for the topic. The project partners will stay in contact with the participating companies and we will pilot our model in some of them. This will enhance these partnerships even more. Furthermore we used existing national contacts for dissemination and collecting information. There was a chance to cooperate with other projects and universities dealing with the IGL topic. A source for information and exchange were also working groups on a national level. 10 / 13

5. Plans for the Future In order to achieve our project activities, we will carry out the remaining work as follows. Now, that the survey in companies and organisations is completed in each country, the partners will send their national results to the University of Molise which will create a general report based on the collected data. Together with the literature report and the best practice collection, this builds the basis for the development of the core of our project: the teaching learning model. The results of the research activities and interviews will be analysed in detail and will be integrated in the development process. Furthermore the results of the national reports will be provided to the companies that participated in the survey in order to build up ties and to keep the contact alive. Those companies will be the first offered the piloting of the model at a later stage of the project. The leading partner for the development of the teaching/learning model, Femxa Formación, already presented some basic ideas concerning the teaching/learning model during our last project meeting. The consortium agreed on the main content of the model based on the results of the scientific literature report and on the experiences gained during the personal interviews and focus group discussions. Working out the detailed contents will be our main task during the next months. Additionally, a dissemination strategy relating to the teaching/learning model will be created. This strategy will differ from the generational dissemination plan. The aim is to provide specific help to the companies to introduce our model and our tools respectively. Femxa will provide some general considerations and all partners will contribute to the realisation of such a strategy. It will be the link to exploitation and sustainable dissemination of our project results beyond the project s life time. As already mentioned, Femxa will be the main responsible partner for the development of the model, but again all members of the consortium will give their contributions. We will do a lot of brainstorming and development work by using our internal webspace but also during our next project meetings. Together we will create a first version of the model, which will be piloted in each partner country. Our aim is to find at least 6 companies or organisations which are interested in testing it. Each company/organisation will be accompanied by the project partner in the specific country and guided throughout the whole piloting process. The piloting phase will be evaluated and adaptations will be made if necessary. The endversion of the teaching/learning model will be presented during our final conference, which will also mark the end of our project. The conference will address especially all our partners and companies involved in the survey as well as experts in the fields of intergenerational learning. But it will be also open to the public. 11 / 13

6. Contribution to EU policies Opening Learning Environment Further education and learning throughout the active working life seems to be crucial for both sides, employers and employees, to stay competitive and flexible in a changing economic surrounding - and not to forget in a changing demographic surrounding. New technologies that younger ones seem to use in a sort of natural way can be a threat to older employees, but they don t have to be. Exchange of knowledge and experience in companies, which often means an exchange between older and younger workers, can be the key to keep knowledge in the company instead of sending it in early retirement. On the other hand it values an intergenerational way of working instead of eternal youthfulness in a time of decreasing birth rates. Our Training model is developed to invent new ways of liberating the potential of young people and older citizens. Enterpreneurship We want to increase the employability, the learning competence and motivation of older (and younger) workers, to optimise the knowledge-resources of companies and organisations by transferring know-how, skills and tacit knowledge from older to younger employees and the other way round. This will raise the competitiveness of European companies which is an advantage for entrepreneurship. Age People are getting older and need to stay longer in their working lives. Our project tries to show the value of experienced older workers for the economy and is developing a model that enhances the transfer of know-how, skills and tacit knowledge from older to younger employees and the other way round. With our activities and with our aims we try to contribute to the reducing of future (intergenerational) problems. The survey showed in many examples that lifelong learning is much more a matter of personal interest than of a certain age. Employment With the development of our teaching/learning model in the proposal we want to reach the following objectives: Inventing new ways of liberating the potential of young people and older citizens and sustainable increase of employability and learning competence and motivation of older (and younger) workers. Enterprise Optimising the knowledge-resources of companies and organisations by transferring knowhow, skills and tacit knowledge from older to younger employees and the other way round by using the innovative methods and tools integrated in our teaching/learning model which will be created by us will lead to a rising competitiveness of European companies and of European employees and to a reduction of economical problems. 12 / 13