"The European ""Innov'Age"" project is the result of a strategic partnership for training in diversity, age management and innovation, applied to the European postal sector. The project addresses the issue of Europe's ageing population and the need to attract new skills/talents among younger generations. In fact, management of intergenerational teams is becoming a criterion of competitiveness for European postal operators. The objective of the project is to improve age management in the postal sector by creating an innovative training prototype to enhance intergenerational teams. The issues related to this objective are: increase the employability of both seniors and younger people; enhance and make more efficient intergenerational teams to promote business innovation; facilitate and stimulate innovation in the postal sector.The project consortium brought together six European postal operators (France, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Greece, Cyprus), the PostEurop postal association (52 postal operators), the University of Bordeaux, the Greek Post Vocational Training Centre and InoSalus, a Portuguese SME specialising in innovative training. Project Structure: The project was divided into three main Intellectual Outputs (IO): IO1: Research, identification and mapping of training needs in the postal sector related to age management; IO2: Co-creation and development of an innovative training toolkit for age management in order to develop a dynamic approach focusing on cooperation between generations, the motivation and involvement of professional teams including young and old people, the valorisation and transmission of experience - which will be done first and foremost in the partner companies of the project; IO3: Design and test a prototype of training in some intergenerational teams. This allows managers to discover a new management an approach to diversity, taking into account the specific needs and expectations of new entrants and seniors, acquire and appropriate methods and tools for the cohesion, motivation and performance of an intergenerational team.All the results were shared during the monthly conference calls, the transnational meetings and the dissemination events. Activities implemented: Scientific study on the following variables: diversity practices by age, climate in work organisation, learning climate, acceptable distance (depending on corporate culture) between employees and management, strengthening leadership, innovative team behaviours and related performance;Analysis of training needs and psychosocial aspects to develop the sectoral training needs matrix (questionnaire, study, research) and mapping of the current situation in postal organizations;Development of a roadmap for the volunteer team to help co-build training programs and identify case studies;Selection and development of case studies and production of a pedagogical movie; Development of the training programme based on the macro-competences identified to be developed through this prototype;Development of a test prototype and design of the toolbox;Assessment of the impact of the training prototype on the teams;Communication and dissemination of project results via partner communication media;Dissemination meetings coordinated by a communication committee.Results: The Training Program was formalized as a prototype. A part of the prototype (test modules) was implemented by the six postal partners, adapted to the reality of each operator and tested by the volunteer teams. The evaluation of these tests has improved the training programme by identifying areas for improvement or consolidation. The evaluation confirmed the importance of this training to help managers improve the management of multi-generational teams and foster inclusion and innovation. Project Outreach: Partnership with OSHA and its “Healthy Workplaces for All Ages” campaign, EYDAP SA, Athens Water Company, “Intergenerational HR Club”, and the University of Aix-Marseille has also shown its interest.Visibility of results: Meetings with external stakeholders: kick-off, closing conference, Multiplier events in Athens, Rome and Strasbourg; Use of websites, social networks...Two initiatives, one national pilot implementation initiative in Greece and the final multiplier event of the project, put in place in the framework of the Innov’Age project have been approved and registered successfully as events of the European Vocational skills week organized by DG Employment on 14-18 October 2019. The approval of both submitted events confirms their relevance in terms of training and innovation. Registering to this European-wide initiate coordinated by DG Employment is a further way to raise awareness about our work in the field of vocational education especially towards other sectors and stakeholders. The next step of Innov’Age 1 would be the certification of this training. (Innov’Age 2 – awaiting for funding)."

"<< Background >>Significant international developments such as the adoption of the Paris Agreement and the rising prominence of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have signalled the need for more urgent sustainability action from the global business community.GreenPosts takes inspiration from existing initiatives, aiming to implement a general concept and approach to greening human capital and economy referred to the wider approach to sustainability introducing skills linked to the transition to a circular and greener economy. The project has the specific objective to enhance the required green skills for the workforce by improving its technical capacities, knowledge, values and attitudes to develop and support sustainable social, economic and environmental outcomes in business, industry and the community. With more than 600,000 post offices the world over, the postal sector operates the largest physical distribution network on the planet. Some 660,000 vehicles, 250,000 motorcycles and countless airplanes, covering billions of kilometers every year, are used daily to deliver the mail. What’s more, the post offices and 5.5 million postal employees consume electricity, water and paper, which all have an impact on the environment.More specifically, this project aims to provide a training material for posts’ staff on how to put the European Green Deal into practice at the local level, and respect the UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 ""Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts"", SDG 11 ""Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable"", as well as to relevant targets of other SDGs most material to the postal sector, which take action to mitigate climate change and cover issues such as ensuring decent working conditions, promoting innovation, building sustainable cities and communities, ensuring responsible production and consumption. Also, a pilot training course will be held for testing and making adjustments on developed material.<< Objectives >>Local posts are involved in a variety of environmental activities, but it is not always easy for them to keep up-to-date with science and policy on EU level, so they can create an adequate and complete long-term plan focusing on the right priorities, using the latest evidence, and delivering better results.The proposed project will present clear and tangible benefits for all stakeholders involved. Improve basic skills and competences on leadership, citizenship and action; support for green and social action, with demonstrated benefits for the environment, the region and local communities; and the promotion of social cohesion, integration and inclusion, with benefits and more opportunities for all.The objectives of this project are to establish a training programme which will enable local post offices’ staff to:●Set a clear, long-term direction with flexibility to adapt to new evidence and circumstances.●Provide robust and credible reporting, governance and accountability.●Put in place strong local leadership and a more integrated delivery framework.●Resource, set incentives and support sustainable finance, including from the private sector.●Make sure everyone plays their part in delivering the improved environment we all want.<< Implementation >>Generally, the project is meant to involve local post offices, which are aware of a variety of environmental problems related to noise or air pollution, waste disposal, consumer education and protection. The project's specific goal is to capacitate local posts’ staff for change engagement, developing green skills and fostering leadership skills, creativity, socio-educational and professional development, through its action.Its specific objectives are to help these target groups to keep up-to-date with science and policy on EU level, as well as to enhance their competences in various sustainability-relevant sectors by improving and extending the supply of high-quality learning opportunities for adults, under the perspective of lifelong learning via Online Training Courses and a Virtual Think Tank.Postal services from 4 countries supported by an SME active in building organisational capacity in Climate Change mitigation and adaptation strategies will be sharing experience on their individual carbon management achievements and discussing the new focus areas of the next phase. The initial internal workshops partner organisations have organised on the topics were consistently well attended and an excellent opportunity for internal networking. With GreenPosts activities there will be the opportunity for inter-regional sharing sustaining the success of the internal workshops. Furthemore, the knowledge will be shared via Multiplier Events with the wider EU and international postal Community thanks to the support of the associated partner PostEurope. Partners will be sharing best practice and information facilitating continuous improvement and effective carbon management and climate change mitigation and adaptation.<< Results >>In this project’s PR1 a “GreenPosts Assessment Tool” will be developed in order to enhance local posts' staff role on assistant provision of climate change. Also, “Implementing European Green Deal in Posts” Course (PR2) will be created by the partnership to increase and deepen the knowledge and competences of local posts’ staff working in the decision-making positions on how to increase the resilience of postal services. In this PR we will develop a Course that will be addressed to Postal Management as well as employees and consists of 9 modules that will include guidelines, exercises and case studies, aiming to provide trainees with skills and knowledge which will help minimise the carbon footprint of postal services.Moreover, ""Peer to Peer Success Stories videos"" (PR3) will play an important role in the project's implementation as they will motivate the target group, encourage them to change attitudes and adopt a new mindset, inspire people and organisations to become involved and encourage sustainable behaviours.As a last action, the partnership has the objective to develop a ""Virtual Think Tank"" (PR4) where information and resources about environmental actions in post offices and training opportunities will be shared, in order to increase the capacity and skills of stakeholders.As a result, the project expects to create clear and tangible benefits for all stakeholders involved, by supporting a sustainable improvement of their basic skills and competences on leadership, citizenship, green actions and social change for the environment. Furthermore, GreenPosts will promote the well-being of local post offices’ staff, providing a coherent response to the challenges facing the environmental sector by complementing and adding value to existing initiatives. The consortium declares that the GreenPosts project will have both international and local impact on social cohesion, integration and inclusion, with benefits and more opportunities for all."

The liberalization of the EU Postal Market that led to an increased competition in the provision of high-quality and diversified mail, parcel and financial services has transformed in the requirements for the employees’ attitude towards providing a positive customer experience and attaining high quality of service. The diversification of financial services, respectively the insurance brokerage, is one of the development objectives for each Postal Organization present in the project. The consortium brought together under this proposal is made up of:- Postal operators from member countries which serve as the source for the identification of training needs as suppliers of information and deliverables under the described intellectual outputs as well as the project’s direct beneficiaries whose personnel will be trained.- The Hellenic Post brings the company inside its group which is dedicated to the development and implementing professional programs for vocational education and training for the postal employees – KEK-ELTA.- Insurance E-Learning systems developer and vocational educational and training company serving as a leader for all the intellectual results, acting also as a project manager for developing the e-learning platforms.- Professional E-Learning systems developer: the national research and development institute of informatics from Romania, who will implement the requirements for the platforms drawn by Rory Sol.Postal workers require new skills and behavioural abilities to approach clients with insurance products. This is a new activity for them which requires proactivity, creativity and new knowledge. Also, the Member states are due to implement the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) by 23rd of February 2018. The IDD will impact mainly the insurance brokers and, in line with the future changes, the partners in this project (the postal operators with affiliate broker / insurance intermediary companies) will be prepared in complying with trained employees that will become insurance intermediaries. IDD focuses on customer mainly thus the proposed training programs for postal workers will be strongly customer oriented. The existing certification programs in insurance are mainly knowledge oriented, therefore by this project the intention is to reform from it from grounds shift it from knowledge based to competency based. The Key activities will generate the following intellectual outputs:O1 Research on training needs to intermediate insurance policiesO2 Training curriculum and associated materialsO3. Training e-toolkit for insurance intermediaryO4. E-Learning platforms Each postal operator will bring its own experience on selling financial services and on relating with the potential customers based on culture, internal procedures, specific workflow for intermediating insurance policies. The baseline of the new training curriculum and associated materials will be the national and European qualifications framework (EQF), the new Insurance Distribution Directive, the mandatory list of knowledge, competences and skills imposed by the national authorities on insurance. The research on profiling the postal workers will form the basis of the new Syllabus development, training material, innovative training toolkit and similar e-learning platforms.The main steps for having an innovative training program are:· Assess postal workers’ profiles (knowledge, competences, skills etc)· Correlate profiles with the training needs· Design and develop the training curriculum, materials and content· Implement e-learning platform and deploy training programs· Monitor, evaluate results and effectiveness of training programsFinally, a set of activities have been planned to increase multiplying effects of the project outcomes:E1: Project launching conference - RomaniaE2: E-learning platform launching conference -RomaniaE3: Success stories conference for training in RomaniaE4: Success stories conference for training in Bulgaria E5: Success stories conference for training in GreeceE6: Project closure conference - Romania The participants in this project from the 3 Postal Organizations from this project will be at least 500. After the closure of the program the 3 Postal Organizations can further exploit project's outcomes to all front office employees involved in selling insurance policies, the number of them estimated at 2500.This number is an estimation covering only project partners. Nevertheless, and given the size of the insurance market and extent of the global postal business activities, it is believed that the project’s results can benefit employees of all postal operators interested in adding insurance selling/reselling/advisory as services, as well as the stakeholders (min 40 in each country): the national regulatory insurance authority, the certification insurance designated organism, all the insurance companies, media: newspapers, televisions etc