Pre-Retirement educational programme launched

Parliamentary Secretary for Active Ageing Justyne Caruana launched an educational programme for people over 55 years of age in conjunction with the University of Malta earlier today.

“As it has shown through the implementation of various strategies and policies in favour of active ageing, the government aims to take care of the elderly in society,” Caruana said.

She explained that the program would target various issues that were important to the elderly like planning for retirement, social benefits for retired people, and health problems among others.

In her speech Caruana said that retiring from work was often considered as a rite of passage into another phase of life, with some people enjoying the change and others dreading and even fearing it.

“The Secretariat is determined to keep people company in these particularly trying times, and these courses aim to facilitate the transition into retirement,” Caruana said.

“Initiatives like this want to show that the elderly have a very important role in society, even if they retire.”

Caruana said that recent figures had revealed that much of the voluntary work in Malta is carried out by people who are retired and that without their input in the sector, it would practically collapse. She also added that the input of the elderly was invaluable even in families, where grandparents often took time to take care of their grandchildren.

Caruana said that the talks would take on the form of a debate and exchange of ideas more than anything else. Meetings would take place from the 22nd April until the 24th June on a weekly basis on Wednesdays.