Through collaboration and community engagement, we can learn with and from one another to unlock the power of intergenerational training and practice.
Intergenerational Education and Training for Further and Higher Education
Educators across further and higher education are increasingly being asked to respond to complex social, economic and demographic change. Learners are more diverse. Workplaces are more age-mixed. Communities are under strain from inequality, loneliness and fragmentation.
Yet much education and training still operates on age-segregated assumptions – in how learning is designed, delivered and assessed.
AHN Education & Training works with educators across disciplines to embed intergenerational practice as a serious pedagogical, research and civic approach. Our training supports educators to connect theory with lived experience, strengthen applied learning and research impact, and prepare learners for multi-generational societies and workplaces.
Why Intergenerational Education?
Most pressing challenges facing education, health, work and public policy cut across generations
People are living and working longer. Learners of different ages increasingly share educational and professional spaces. Health, care and social systems are under pressure. At the same time, opportunities for everyday connection between generations are diminishing.
Intergenerational education offers a way to respond.
For Further and Higher Education Providers, it Supports:
- Inclusive, relational and dialogic learning across age groups
- Experiential and community-based education grounded in real-world contexts
- Preparation for age-diverse professional and organisational environments
- Ethical engagement with communities and organisations
No one educates anyone else, nor do we educate ourselves, we educate one another in communion
Paulo Freire
Intergenerational Training for Educators
Educators engage with AHN in different ways, depending on discipline, institutional context and learner group. Our work commonly supports teaching practice, curriculum design, applied research and community or organisational engagement.
Intergenerational training supports educators working in initial teacher education, education studies, early childhood, SEND, inclusion and related fields.
Educators work with AHN to:
- Extend relational, dialogic and experiential pedagogy beyond single-age cohorts
- Embed intergenerational perspectives into curriculum design and assessment
- Design community-based learning and service learning that is ethically grounded and well supported
- Prepare learners for relational practice, safeguarding and complex learning environments
Intergenerational settings such as care environments, early years settings and community spaces become meaningful learning contexts, enabling learners to engage with lived experience while being carefully supported.
For educators working across health, social care, public policy and related disciplines, intergenerational education provides a powerful bridge between theory, practice and lived experience.
AHN supports educators to:
- Use intergenerational settings as applied learning and research environments
- Develop impact-focused inquiry around wellbeing, ageing, prevention and social connection
- Support co-produced projects with practitioners, organisations and communities
- Strengthen learners’ understanding of ethical practice, systems thinking and cross-sector collaboration
This approach supports both applied teaching and practice-informed research.
Age diversity is an increasingly important feature of organisational life, yet it is often under-examined in leadership, management and workplace education.
AHN works with educators to:
- Integrate intergenerational perspectives into leadership, management and organisational learning
- Explore age diversity, inclusion and collaboration in the workplace
- Connect learners with real organisational and workforce challenges
- Support learning related to future workforce strategy, wellbeing and organisational culture
This work underpins our growing focus on intergenerational workplaces and workforce strategy, supporting educators to prepare learners for multi-generational working environments.
Applied Learning, Research and Community Engagement
Across further and higher education, intergenerational education strengthens applied learning and public value.
Working with AHN enables educators to:
- Build sustained partnerships with care providers, community organisations and employers
- Create learning pathways rooted in real social and organisational contexts
- Support applied research and inquiry with tangible community benefit
- Demonstrate social responsibility and civic contribution through education
Our approach emphasises ethical partnership, reciprocity and long-term relationship building.
Benefits for Learners
Intergenerational education enriches learner experience across ages and disciplines.
Learners benefit through:
- Exposure to real-world, multi-generational and multi-agency environments
- Development of empathy, ethical judgement and relational capability
- Opportunities for applied projects, placements and research with impact
- Preparation for values-led professional and organisational roles
These experiences support both employability and lifelong learning.
A Different Way of Thinking About Learning
Intergenerational education and training with AHN supports educators across further and higher education to design learning that reflects how people actually live, work and relate across the life course.
It enables educators to create more inclusive and meaningful learning experiences, connect teaching and applied research with real-world contexts, and prepare learners for age-diverse societies and workplaces.
At its core, this work is about strengthening the connection between theory, practice and community need, and supporting education to play a more active role in rebuilding relationships across generations.
Contact us to explore intergenerational education and training.
AHN Intergenerational Education & Training
Apples and Honey Nightingale CIC, Nightingale House, Nightingale Lane, London SW12 8NB