Volume 2 (2019): Edition 1 (November 2019)

The ageing of the population is beginning to be an economic, social and health matter even for countries that do not belong to the advanced developed economies, but where the phenomenon can take on an impressive size that risks affecting the entire globe.

It is clear that intervening downstream of the problem with forms of economic subsidy and health aid is not a winning strategy.

It is necessary to work on prevention by limiting, as much as possible, the periods of non-self-sufficiency of older people that represent high health and social costs. Active ageing seems to be particularly useful in accompanying people towards a long, mostly self-sufficient and value-added old age, whereby older people can continue to be active members of the society in which they live.

The system of higher education is able to perform a function of extreme importance with respect to the possibility, for the elderly population of a country, to actively live their old age: developing the activities of Life Long Learning, encouraging the birth of universities of the third age, intervene in the design, implementation and management of permanent training centres for the elderly are activities in which the university institutions can and must engage.

Given the growth in the number of senior universities in Portugal and Brazil, we think it is important to know the audience which frequents these institutions, their motivations, the health impact and whether there are significant differences between the two countries. The authors have created a survey that was applied in person in Portugal and the State of Goiás in Brazil. With this study, it was possible to trace the profile of the students who attend the Senior Universities (US or U3A) in Portugal and universities open to Seniors (UNATI) in Brazil. We also added a study on volunteer teachers in the Portuguese US.

We now know that are essentially women, aged 60-75 years and of all social and educational levels. As for the motives are essentially the conviviality, get active and learn. No significant differences were found between the two countries, in groups and in the motivations, with exception to the marital status and the number of courses attended.

This paper discusses the importance of foreign language learning as a means of maintaining healthy cognitive, psychological and social functioning in elderly people. It argues that a complex cognitive activity involving multiple skills and stimulating extensive neural networks can greatly contribute to contrast the inception of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. Because of age-related physical and mental limitations, and because old learners find it hard to abandon tried-and-tested methodologies and attitudes, it is, however, crucial that teachers and educators try to meet the older adult’s needs by customising teaching procedures and learning environment to their requirements and expectations. Rather than introducing a great amount of new information and learning techniques, it may be much more fruitful to encourage the older adult to retrieve and rely on previously acquired knowledge and consolidated learning strategies. The adoption of computer-assisted language learning, however, may be helpful and motivating for older learners, provided technological demands are kept to a minimum.

The Senior Universities (US) in Portugal are socio-educational organisations, of non-formal education, officially recognised by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers nº 76/2016. According to the National Network of Senior Universities (RUTIS), there were 330 US in Portugal with a total of 45,000 senior students in 2019.

Since the beginning of the US, computer education has been one of the most sought after topics for seniors. In 2018, 62% of students attended a course related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This teaching has gone through three phases in the US that we will present.

In the study carried out by the author to 1,016 senior students from all over the country, it was possible to conclude that the frequency of the US contributed a great deal to diminish digital illiteracy and that it is in the older and less literate public that these contributors are more visible. It was also possible to realise that most US students have smartphones and laptops and understand the evolution that the use of computers has had in the US.

As in other countries, Ukraine has persistent ageing stereotypes, with old age associated with wealth reduction, financial instability and social exclusion. Shifting these negative attitudes to active-ageing and seniors’ inclusion requires a systematic challenge. Not so long times ago the majority of people in their third age were unaware of active-ageing or expressed scepticism about the feasibility of creating an age-friendly community in Ukraine. Since the large-scale integration of Ukrainian UTAs into the EU agenda for intellectual, economic and social progress of society and individuals regardless of age, the changes in lifelong activities and participation in personally and socially meaningful ways for seniors caused a new outlook for them involving active vitality and optimism, confidence in intelligence, personal and social inclusion.

This publication is devoted to the analysis of possible road ahead for the age-friendly community in Ukraine, negative stereotyping towards senior people from the side of business and individuals. The main goal is introducing methodology, practices and tools for the successful performance of initiative for age-friendly compass in Ukraine aimed to measure ageism in society.

The relevance of the research topic is due to the following circumstances: firstly, repeating the European trend, the labor supply in the Russian labor market is characterized by increase in the cohort of people aged 60 years and older, which negatively affects the indicators of economic growth and, in the context of the transformation of labor legislation, strengthens the scientific interest in the problem of aging employees and prolonging their working capacity;

secondly, in modern foreign and Russian studies there is no uniform idea of the signs of classifying workers as older working age, which makes it difficult to conduct a comparative analysis and disseminate effective international experience to solve the employment problem, taking into account demographic realities;

thirdly, in the theory and practice of labor economics there is no well-formed idea of a system of factors that influence the success of older working age workers, which affects the quality of the development of promising areas and methods of their use;

fourthly, when the risk factor in the work with personnel is indicated in the profile economic literature, its assessment regarding employees of older able-bodied growth has not been developed;

fifthly, in modern studies there is no effective mechanism to increase the success of older working age workers, taking into account the specifics of achieving the effectiveness of their work, taking into account competence, involvement and possible risks.

The purpose of the study is to develop theoretical concepts and methodological provisions on the professional success of older workers and the mechanism for its increase in the Russian labour market, taking into account risk factors.

The subject of the study is the social and labor relations evolving over the implementation of a mechanism to increase the success of older working age workers.

In the research process, general scientific methods of cognition were used, as well as methods of economic-statistical, systemic correlation analysis, expert estimation, the results of opinion polls, tabular and graphical interpretation of empirical and factual information.

In a series of studies on the adaptation processes of the main body systems of highly skilled male and female athletes in the range of 16-46 years old using immunological biochemical, hematological, eographical, spirometric, gasometric, anthropometric and ergometric methods and load testing established the physiological patterns of formation of involutive-age-related changes in the functional state of athletes of the second adult age. In the age range of 37-46 years old relative to the range of 16-36 years old: changes in the morphometric parameters of the physical status are determined, causing a decrease in the integrated bioenergy indicators; the intensive formation of metabolic factors of fatigue was established at a low-intensity threshold mode of work – aerobic-anaerobic; high intensity of non-specific adaptation processes is shown; revealed features of urgent responses of the main adaptation systems (hormone-metabolic, autonomic nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory) at the level of threshold operation modes. Highly qualified female athletes of 37-45 years old have an anovulatory character of the menstrual cycle, during which chronobiological mechanisms of adaptation processes are studied and systematized, consisting in the features of regulatory nervous effects on heart rate, hemodynamic and ventilatory functions. The revealed changes in adaptation processes in athletes of the second adult age can be used as the basis of the analytical base for predicting the functionality of elite and professional athletes of late periods of ontogenesis.

Aim: This article reports upon a research study whose aim was to evaluate the running of an active ageing programme for older persons residing in a care home for older persons in Malta.

Method: The research study opted for a multi-method research design. The first phase consisted of carrying out observation of the active ageing programme over a two-month period. The second phase was conducting semi-structured interviews with participants and facilitators.

Results: First, that for active ageing programme in care homes to be successful the activities must be meaningful to residents. Second, that active ageing programme in care homes has the potential to improve the levels of social and emotional wellbeing, whilst also having benefits for facilitators. Finally, that active ageing programmes include a number of challenges - namely, further training for all staff in gerontological and geragogical principles, overlooking family relatives, and enabling even frail residents to join in the activities.

Conclusion. Active ageing policies should go beyond a ‘third age’ lens in their endeavour to improve the quality of life of incoming and current older persons and focus more assiduously on frail and vulnerable elders. The key factor in organising active ageing programmes in a care home that are successful in enabling good quality interaction is the ability of planners to have insight on the subjective world of residents so that they gain the sensitivity and skills to coordinate activities that are meaningful to residents.

The society is becoming increasingly cosmopolitan as a consequence of driving wave of globalisation. Today we are living in a society with rapid dynamic changes and technologic it can be called the IT era. The one most used paradigm is “knowledge society”. The academic world uses this term for analysing the socio-economic transformation toward so-called post-industrial society. It is also used by politics world when the discourses are about the normative vision that the state, governs should aspire to fulfil or when the economic situation and the link with Universities take into consideration. Often the knowledge society is used in relationship with the economy of innovation or information society or technologic society metaphors that are used for to indicate that the labour market is in rapid change and technological competences are required.

The demographic situation is also in rapid evolution: according to UNFPA data in 2019 we are around 7,715 million habitants with 26% of the population aged 0-14, 65% of people aged 15-65 and 9% of people aged more than 65 years. The demographic trends are to have more aged people and less young people. This trend is a new and powerful challenge for society. If we consider that adult percentage of the population is the biggest one and that LLL is seen as a concept that complete the gaps of the formal learning, we can confirm that LLL is a new reply to dynamic exchanges in the society and in the globalised economy.

The article purpose is to analyse the different concepts of LLL and its link with ageing. The main focus will be on how LLL can improve the quality of ageing. The used methodology is a review of relevant intervention studies and Political Documents for examining the effectiveness of interventions and how the elder's literacy can be a value for society.

The social attention of today's world, in continuous transformation, is focused above all on the education and education of the elderly. Taking into account the fact that the lifestyles of elders around the world are tuned to European ones, this article aims to shed light on the life of the elderly in Russia, their education and education. Nowadays, having an active lifestyle means - for the elderly - to be strengthened by sport, by the possession of digital skills, by socializing with relatives, friends and peer groups, as well as by travel and work. Creating oneself through curious thought towards all that is information about the world increases one's knowledge and contributes to the maintenance of physical and mental form. The awareness of living life by forming and educating oneself dynamically favours, in the elderly, a constant search for the self and a desire to experience oneself by adhering ever more to new initiatives. Unfortunately, in Russia, there are still many older people whose existential situation could be characterized by the concept of “social closure”. This situation is due, for the most part, to the unfavourable climatic conditions, poor health and severe economic conditions. Becoming active pensioners, however, is possible, “bypassing” the obstacles aimed at the destruction of the “critical self”. It would, therefore, be necessary to begin to consider themselves as a great Russian “old heritage” so that, soon, the trained eyes of “lovers” can establish their priceless value.