The County Council of Thessaloniki ratified on 2 March 2010 an agreement for the deployment of the Programme 'From the grandfather to the grandson', the purpose of which is to familiarise the elderly people of the prefecture of Thessaloniki with new technologies.

The programme is intended to assist senior citizens of the prefecture in dealing with various electronic transactions as well as to promote the communication between the elderly and youth.

According to the agreement, the Centre for Vocational Training of Thessaloniki will have first to conduct a study investigating the needs of elderly people regarding their ability to use computers and everyday technology applications in eight Open Care Centres for the Elderly (Κέντρα Ανοιχτής Προστασίας Ηλικιωμένων, KAPI, in Greek) of the conurbation and the prefecture of Thessaloniki.

On a second note, four seminars about how the programme works will take place, followed by a 100-hour series of training courses for 320 people (40 elderly from each KAPI) in order for the senior citizens to:

• acquire basic computer skills;
• learn how to use their electronic cards in withdrawing money from a bank or how to use the credit cards;
• be able to read books and fairy tales online.

Programmes of this kind have been implemented in other European cities too.

Further information:

• Original News Article - Local Government Authorities (in Greek)