Society is ageing rapidly: across OECD countries the ratio of elderly people (65 and over) to people of working age (15-64) is projected to rise from 1 in 4 in 2015 to 1 in 2 in 2050. Within all 5 of the countries participating in this cooperation, the aging of society comes with the not so distant future of 55 plus employees growing meaningfully in numbers when compared to the younger employees. Governments and stakeholders urge for measures to keep people professionally active for longer. The statutory retirement age is rising. But the employment rate for workers aged 55-64 is low, so a lot of work is still ahead of us. The accessibility rate of learning opportunities for older employees is of the lowest– specific measures are needed to enhance learning opportunities. Adding to this, with age comes physical vulnerability, which can play a role in various jobs. The workplace and job content should at least not amount to aggravation. Workability is decreasing instead of increasing, which is alarming when considering that we are actually expected to continue our working careers longer while mental fatigue amongst employees is rising, well-being at work is declining, learning opportunities are not equally accessible and work-life balance is hard to manage.Apart from being challenged, employees aged 55 and over come with specific strengths – often linked to their age. Examples of skills linked specifically with age, are: accuracy, communication skills, critical thinking & judgment, independence, awareness of responsibility.The challenges and opportunities for employees aged 55 and over, are themselves embedded in a global society that is dealing with an increasing degree of digitization. A substantial percentage of European citizens are at risk of being digitally excluded. In the digitizing society, this means that they are also socially excluded, thereby compromising access to social rights.Taking the challenges and opportunities of older employees into account and considering the overall digitization of society and the fact that we are supposed to keep on working longer and want to do so in as much as possible a ‘workable’ way, the 21st century skills are an adequate frame for addressing durable employability of employees aged 55 and over.Within ‘21st Century Skills: Keeping employees on board’ we therefore break the collection of 21st century skills down into 3 low threshold clusters so as to formulate an answer to the central question ‘how to merge the working environment of employees aged 55 and over into a learning environment’?We want to answer our central question by addressing digital literacy (computational thinking skills, basic ICT skills, media literacy, information skills); workplace culture (communication, collaboration, self-regulation, social and cultural skills) and innovation and adaptation (problem solving, creativity, critical thinking). In doing so we aim at(1) instigating a dynamic in the workplace: a shift of view that puts the workplace forward as the micro-society that it is(2) making learning opportunities more accessible for employees aged 55 and above (3) giving employers and employees tools and methods to ‘keep employees aged 55 and above on board’, meaning: keeping the same job with the same employer; or job-creating a new job with the same employer; or making a meaningful transition into a new employerThis projects entails following methodologies: service design, co-creation, skills’ web, learning from the emerging future, learning by doing, blended learning, peer learning, story-telling, theory of change, jobcrafting. With the input of 5 partners (Future Learn, U.K. - Blenders, Belgium, Topcoach, Slovakia - ASEP, Austria - ExpertPlus, the Netherlands) we develop train the trainer trajectories that reach 120 direct learners, and 4 online courses that multiply the learners reached. We develop intensive courses in the form of webinars, we organize introductions to jobcrafting in at least 12 companies, we organize workshops and discussion panels. All results and progress will be freely accessible in the inspiration toolbox: an online toolbox in multiple languages, that comes with a newsletter that you can register for in order to keep up to date with all progress and insights. All objectives, aims and impact are embedded in the Europe 2020 Agenda; the realisation of SDG 4.7; the realisation of the goals and objectives on lifelong learning as stated in the Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning; the realisation and objectives on lifelong learning as stated in the Council Resolution on a Renewed European Agenda for Adult Learning; the implementation of the European policy agenda for growth, jobs, equity and social inclusion; making EU businesses more competitive through talent and innovation; and building more inclusive and cohesive societies which allow citizens to play an active role in democratic life.

MOOCs and digital continuous education/training are a flexible and scalable solution for a transnational, truly European response to the needs of the economy across Europe. They can keep innovative knowledge and skills of the workforce up to date and anticipate on careers of tomorrow. MOOC platforms in the European MOOCs Consortium (EMC) look for solutions to reach better the labour market. In this knowledge alliance, they opt for a structural collaboration with public employment services (PES) active on the national labour markets, with companies and with a sectoral industrial organisation. The alliance is anchored both in the world of work (PES, companies, sectoral organisation) and in the world of education and training (universities, platforms). It shows which role MOOC platforms, universities, PES and companies jointly play on the labour market. PES and companies are not only mediators between MOOC platforms and individual learners, but also as allies in the (co-)development and (co-)delivery of MOOCs and digital continuous education and training (CE, CT)The main purpose of the alliance is to strengthen the partners by sharing experience and expertise on MOOCs and digital CE and CT; to create a framework for structural collaboration on the development, delivery and use of MOOCs for the EU labour market; to empower all partners on MOOCs for the labour market, and to implement a responsive and large-scale outreach to the EU labour market. This will facilitate the exchange and flow of knowledge, strengthening Europe's innovation capacity. The visibility and accessibilty of MOOCs for CE/CT will be increased by a joint portal for the EU labour market, surveys and a marketing plan. Last, but not least, EMC-LM will contribute to regional, national and European policies for continuous education and training, employment and growth, proposing strategies for change and action plans. By doing this, it contributes to the Modernisation Agenda and Digital Education Plan.

Energy services are essential for the development of any society. Sri Lanka has an energy growth of 6-8% every year, starting at a more than 60% fossil-fuel dependency. To fulfill its commitment towards the Intergovermental Panel och Climate Change to decarbonize the country it needs to rapidly transform the sector towards renewable energy sources of a varity of kind, using the abundant in-country energy resources.One of the essential steps in this process is to develop a high-level, efficient higher education, with a perspective of increased collaboration between academia and industry. This education must reach out to the different parts of the country. The Sri Lanka universities have also a need to modernize the higher education in so that students will be more prone to create new companies in the renewable sector, with a societal perspective. The education should thus become more student-centered, allowing for the students to explore new avenues through global learning options.The EUSL-ENERGY project takes these perspectives into account and creates a high-level, so far not yet existing joint MSc program in the energy sector between four universities. The project take a full circular economy, as well as ecological, perspective with raw materials and considerations of how the waste from this, and other, sector(s) can be re-utilized towards a more energy-efficient society in a financial sustainable way. The EUSL-ENERGY Master program uses the latest pedagogical developments towards “flipped classrooms”, case- and challenge-based digital education, shareable learning units and MOOCs. All the education is performed within the framework of the EIT-label perspective innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as ensuring that the graduates possess the “21st century soft skills” that employers ask for. The program is as such at the forefront of contemporary educational methodology, and introduces a new educational dimension in the energy sector in Sri Lanka.