Intergenerational Education and Didactic Innovation. Plinio Project: Getting the Elderly to Coach new Startups

Abstract

Despite the fact that entrepreneurial skills are part of the key competences
to be achieved, by the end of secondary school, in Italy there are no present
educational policies about it.
This paper describes the project “Plinio” presented as a case study. A group
of retired managers offered their expertise to help students, attending a vocational
school, in forming a start-up enterprise. As such, it is a training programme
aimed at teaching how to translate ideas into action, to plan and
manage projects to achieve objectives. At the same time emphasis is put on
valuing the expertise gained in the course of personal and professional life
by elderly people.