This national consortium originates from an initiative based on the Asociación Estatal de Programas Universitarios para Mayores (AEPUM, National Association for University Programmes for Elderly People), and consists of the programmes aimed at elderly people at the Universities of Alicante, A Coruña, Jaume I in Castellón, Salamanca and Málaga, being the University of Málaga the coordinating institution. The digital gap within the population segment of elderly people provides the general context for the project, since the aforementioned institutions work together via a formative programme in ICTs that follows four main objectives: to improve learning techniques, to improve programme contents, to foster basic competences (digital, social, creativity, foreign language and so on) and to improve the international outreach of the participating institutions.

One of the main aims of this project is to participate and collaborate regarding these principles, being of vital importance aspects such as initiatives to improve living conditions, becoming responsible citizens towards an ageing population, and fighting the digital gap.

Within this general context, our project will focus on the university programmes for elderly people as agents that are able not only to perform training skills that are essential, but also to train and raise awareness among teachers in the field of digital competences, which may help to facilitate learning with and for ICTs that, additionally, should be more effective and more context-specific regarding the day-to-day and social realities of this propulation segment. Therefore, this project will also focus on the field of training of trainers and management staff, who, under a variety of different points of view (learning techniques, contents, competence improvement), would encourage and empower their elderly students as much as possible so that they can address the challenges of ICTs, which aims to foster their use by taking a critical attitude to them, but, at the same time, by taking into account their realities and needs.

In order to achieve these objectives, some mobility actions to a number of countries within the EU (Finland, Holland, Slovak Republic, Hungary, the UK and Estonia) have been planned. The topics to be dealt in the framework of ICT and Seniors are the following: Devices for Everyday Life Skills, Teaching ICT: a new approach, technological tools for improving learning outcomes, ICT supported innovation and creativity training; Community Reporting and Implementation of web-based applications to enhance language courses.

Informative and training workshops will be organised after each mobility action in each venue from the national consortium for all those social and institutional agents, as well as for the public at large who might be interested. Additionally, a concluding conference will be held within a nationwide AEPUM Conference including the most relevant resulting results. Finally, a handbook as a main result at the end of the project will be written by all partners in a collaborative way.

Following the aforesaid, the outcomes and their overall impact would in general terms comprise the next aspects:

- Most effective utilisation of national synergies thanks to a joint work among various University Programmes for the Elderly within a nationwide Association such as AEPUM.
- Most effective utilisation of international synergies, since the consortium participates in a European network, created jointly, which, in their role of reception and training centres, will be valuable for the exchange of good practices and for the reflection upon the main issue of this project.
- Improvement of the competencies of the staff in charge of training programmes and activities in the field of adult and senior education, always regarding the idea of fighting the digital gap, and both from a curriculum perspective, as from the teaching techniques and the organization and management of teaching, all of them oriented towards the development of competencies in the context of everyday life.
- Improvement of competencies in learners (as a secondary beneficiary), whose motivation to learn may increase at the realization of their ability to apply what they have learnt in class and because of the connection with their likes, previous knowledge and professional and vital experience in an enriching and conscious immersion context within the information society.
- Improvement in the involvement of the participating institutions within their social and territorial context, together with an improved visibility, which is targeted to such an essential issue as the digital inclusion of the elderly population segments.

All these aspects offer not only immediate benefits, but also on a long-term basis, due to the desired snowball effect as regards other nearby institutions, both at a local level, and also national (AEPUM) or international (reception institutions, AIUTA).