Computer lessons for seniors in a historical area in Athens, Greece

A new action has begun in a neighbourhood of the City of Athens, in Greece, which aims to lay the foundations for the digital upgrading of citizens, especially elderly people. The home of national resistance fighter Lela Karagianni has been transformed from the beginning of the year into a hub of familiarizing citizens with the Internet and the new technologies. This initiative is the product of a collaboration between the Municipality of Athens and Microsoft Company.

Lessons.

More than 300 students have stated and started lessons for the dense scheduled seminars held in the historical house. Very interesting is that the stakeholders are not only citizens of Athens, but they also people who come from other municipalities near Athens too, which do not offer that kind of services to their citizens.

The development of digital skills is particularly important, according to the planning of the municipality, which can lead to the expansion and understanding of Athens as a “smart digitalized city“. By offering these seminars, many people, especially those over 50, can become familiar with computers and the internet.

A very important observation since the seminars have started is that the age group that is most interested in the seminars, is precisely that of people over 50-55. Older people, trying to keep up with the demands and facilities of the New – Digital Age, try to understand why their children and grandchildren are on a screen and shop online, without putting up long queues trying to make a deposit.

They are also trying to become a member of this world!

A similar action with the one of Municipality of Athens in Greece, is the TechSenior’s action. The project is aimed at learning new technologies for people over 55, by participating in workshops and live classes, and by using an e-learning platform. The training program in Greece is going to be implemented in Patras by the IT consulting company, p-consulting  (www.p-consulting.gr ) and the Social Enterprise “Faros” (koispe-faros.gr/ ).

This article was originally published by p-consulting