The educational opportunities for older adults in rural and urban municipalities

Abstract

The aim of our paper is to investigate what the differences between rural and urban municipalities are with regards to the educational opportunities for older people. With the method of multiple case studies, we have determined that in selected municipalities there are significant differences in educational possibilities for older adults in rural and urban local municipalities. The readiness of older adults to enrol in education not only depends on the extent of educational opportunities in a municipality, but also on the various measures for encouraging the participation of older people in education. On the basis of our findings, we suggest the following further steps to improve the educational opportunities for older people in both rural and urban municipalities: educational programs are free of charge and accessible; they have responsive content and organisation of education, based on older adults’ needs; that there is cooperation and networking of different providers of educational and spare-time activities for older people in the community etc.