ForAge is a European multi-lateral network with the central aim of communicating and promoting experience of learning for older people. The goal is to help raise standards of practice throughout Europe and beyond. Since the first European Year of Older People and Intergenerational Solidarity in 1993 there have been many exchanges, projects, training events, seminars, programmes and networks concerned with learning in later life. The numbers increased significantly with the Grundtvig programme that provided imputs and funding for imaginative and innovative work across Europe. The ForAge project aims to make best use of these rich experiences by building upon them, sharing information, creating networks, relating them to research evidence and analysing and assessing their value and impact.

Activities / Methods / Results

Active ageing is a proactive approach to enhancing the quality of life of older people. All European societies are ageing and it is important to support the greater involvement of older people in all aspects of life: social, political, economic, spiritual, cultural and communal. Major keys to achieving active ageing and solidarity between generations are education and later-life learning. Older people have the right to access and enjoy all types of later-life learning. It is also true that they have a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience to contribute to their communities, groups and families and in intergenerational activities. It is vital that suitable resources and investment are made available, and good practice promoted, in the field of later-life learning to maximise opportunities for active ageing and a happy, healthy, inclusive and productive life for older people.

However, it is clear that in European countries we have not yet made best use of these activities by evaluating and building on them, sharing information, analysing researching and disseminating, taking further action and ensuring their future impact. The ForAge project was designed to promote best practice in the fields of education and learning for older people; the ForAge database was developed to broaden knowledge of policy, research, practice and experience of later-life learning; and the ForAge network has emerged to promote the importance of later-life learning, to encourage an evidence-based approach to policy and practice and to sustain key outcomes of the ForAge Project.