PASCAL has heard that the project, Tertiary Higher Education for People in Mid-life, has been recommended for funding by the European Commission. It is a proposal within Key Activity 1 Selected Studies and Comparative Research within the Transversal programme of the Lifelong Learning Programme.

The project is led by the Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo in Barcelona and also involves alongside Pascal as partners:

University Rovira i Virgili of Tarragona, Spain Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands Universita degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy Navreme Boheme, s. r. o., Czech Republic Institute of Sociology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Institut Arbeit und Technik, University of Applied Sciences (FH) Gelsenkirchen, Germany

Within PASCAL at the University of Glasgow the project will be represented Mike Osborne, Robert Hamilton and Keith Hammond. The total value of the project, which will run from 2010 to 2013 is €737,850 with the EU contributing €553,387

The project is concerned with one of the main challenges of an ageing knowledge economy, namely the constant upgrading skills of the working population, and mitigating new and old social risks. People in mid-life are increasingly exposed to risks of exclusion from the labour market and lifelong learning. The inclusion of this age group in HE is one of the main challenges of education and training systems.

Tertiary Lifelong Learning (TLL) is considered a key to developing more inclusive and responsive universities. Opening HE for mid-life learners, designing flexible pathways from VET and professional experience to higher education, flexible learning arrangements conciliating family-work life and learning and the adaptation of didactical methods in HE are challenges to confronting problems of the aging knowledge society.

The project aims to study the TLL of HE institutes in several countries with respect to inclusion of mid-life learners. At the core stands a comparative study with concrete examples, analysing statistically available data, undertaking a series of interviews with decision makers, stakeholders, lecturers and mid-life learners. The study will analyse the efficiency of TLL programs to achieve the inclusion of mid-life learners.

The project will use a innovative combination of the Transitional Labour Market approach to define and measure social risks; and the capability and capital approach to operationalize employability and well-being; to develop innovative tools and instruments measuring social quality.

Besides evidence on the social performance of European TLL, the project will facilitate mutual learning between HE-decision-makers, stakeholders, practitioners and learners. Their involvement in the project from the outset will allow provision not only of reports, but also practically-oriented recommendations, tested tools and instruments for their integration in management routines. It assures that the outcomes will be widely known beyond the project boundaries increasing their influence in institutions, systems and policies.