Intercultural Care in the Social and Healthcare Sector Erasmus Project

Project Title

Intercultural Care in the Social and Healthcare Sector

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Migrants’ issues; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

Communication between employees working in the social and healthcare sector and their clients with migration background is greatly influenced by the ability to deal with cultural diversity. In general, the work of the socio-health professionals with people of different national, ethnic, social and economic origins creates difficulties and complexities in the relationship and in professional interventions. Differences in attitude and approaches to clients with different ethnic backgrounds often gives rise to misunderstandings and irritation, sometimes even leading to dissociation and isolation of specific groups of staff and groups of clients/patients.
Social services also play a fundamental role in the exercise of citizenship, which is essentially egalitarian in that it creates entitlement to universal rights. Consequently, in pluralist societies, no social service benefit or action can ignore issues of cultural interaction as an intrinsic feature of notions of fairness and equality.

Considering the increasing number of immigrant users within social and healthcare services, a person-centred approach and diversity management are important new elements to be included in the professional training path. Intercultural competences are considered to be an absolutely essential dimension of a new model of profession in the social and healthcare sector.

However, vocational education and training for people in the social and healthcare sector rarely includes the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies to deal proficiently with clients with a migration background.

I-CARE addresses these challenges by providing people working in the social and healthcare sector with learning and training opportunities that aim to:
• promote communication and social skills in their interaction with clients with migration background
• promote social and emotional learning
• acquire social and personal skills that are essential to their practice
• achieve social understanding and active, confident social participation
• achieve social cohesion and community involvement
• develop a sense of social responsibility
• support social diversity
• reduce prejudices and xenophobia

In terms of concrete outputs I-CARE developed:

• Guidelines for human resource managers and decision makers to help them decide on the introduction of intercultural competence training, and enable VET teachers and trainers to compose tailored education measures of intercultural learning.
• Action Sheets for staff working in the social and healthcare sector, covering all issues of intercultural communication with clients with migrants .
• A Toolbox for Intercultural Competences in the socio-health sector that will offer a range of training materials for enhancing intercultural competences.
• An interactive e-learning platform containing all final training materials, with an area for e-learning and blended learning and open classroom components
• A multilingual forum for networking, exchange of experience and good practice
• Mobile applications of suitable learning materials in order to enable users to get informed and to learn wherever and whenever.

I-CARE put into practice national pilots with at least 120 trainers involved in continuous education, training, HR departments etc. and at least 120 members of the target group (employees in the social and healthcare sector.
At least 150 more VET providers and trainers, HR managers, in-house trainers and multipliers were informed about the project outputs and instructed how to use them in multiplier events.
The main outputs will continue to be offered online after the end of the project and designed in a way which makes it easy for VET trainers, HR managers and team leaders to embed I-CARE training materials in different VET education contexts.

The partnership is led by APRICOT, UK and is composed of experienced partners with complementary competences; partners that share common visions and values in terms of inclusion, empowerment, lifelong learning and innovation in education. They will be joined by a number of associated partners that have, already at the stage of preparation of the proposal, agreed to collaborate. This will further guarantee the sustainability of the concept and that will facilitate the implementation of the project results.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 270347 Eur

Project Coordinator

APRICOT TRAINING MANAGEMENT LTD & Country: UK

Project Partners

• ENAIP VENETO IMPRESA SOCIALE
• DIE BERATER UNTERNEHMENSBERATUNGS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
• SOSU OSTJYLLAND
• BLENDED LEARNING INSTITUTIONS COOPERATIVE
• KENTRO MERIMNAS OIKOGENEIAS KAI PAIDIOU
• BUPNET BILDUNG UND PROJEKT NETZWERK GMBH