Faculty of Economics and Business Zagreb joined the Kick-Off Meeting of BOOMER

On September 29th, 2022, the Faculty of Economics and Business Zagreb joined the Kick-Off Meeting of BOOMER, a Project co-funded by the Erasmus Plus Program of the European Commission, which brings together 8 Partners from 5 countries (Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Italy, and Spain), led by the University of Dubrovnik (Nebojša Stojčić, Ph.D.). The meeting was held in hybrid mode in Bruxelles, Belgium.
Over recent years social inclusion of seniors emerged as one of the most pressing priorities for EU policymakers. Negative demographic trends along with rapidly increasing penetration of digital technologies in virtually every aspect of human living have promoted the elderly population (seniors) into one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged societal groups. The recent COVID emergency made this even clearer. In conditions of lockdown, the sad reality of the generational digital divide has become clearly exposed. Adults in general, and among them particularly seniors, are more than ever exposed to digital isolation. This is even more worrisome as it happens in an emergency when the use of digital technologies is a must for even the most essential activities such as online shopping, banking, and access to information (including crucial and reliable health information). Low levels of digital literacy make seniors more vulnerable to cyber threats ranging from fake news to cyber-financial crimes than the rest of the population. Therefore, digital literacy can no longer be considered an advantage but a necessity for the elderly population.
In this context, BOOMER addresses the evident and urgent pan-European need for rapid and concrete upskilling of seniors in digital competencies. The BOOMER consortium will contribute to the prevention of the digital isolation of seniors in the digital age by developing the targeted training materials and making them available via the BOOMER virtual corner, an open educational resource (OER) platform.
Faculty of Economics and Business project team members include Mihovil Anđelinović, Ph.D. and Ana Pavković, Ph.D. As the partner in the Project, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) will contribute with its research experience in pension economics and teaching experience and will coordinate the tasks that include performing in-depth analyses of required skills and competencies, review of relevant literature and EU-wide and national strategic documents, as well as training the target group using the developed BOOMER materials.
FEB project team with the coordinator of the project Nebojša Stojčić, Ph.D. (University of Dubrovnik and FEB)
For further information on BOOMER contact:
Nebojša Stojčić, Ph.D. at nstojcic@unidu.hr,
Mihovil Anđelinović, Ph.D. at mandelinovic@efzg.hr , and
Ana Pavković, Ph.D. at ana.pavkovic@efzg.hr
 
Websites: https://www.digital-boomer.eu/ and https://www.efzg.unizg.hr/en

 
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