HealthCareEurope: Fostering transparency and recognition of prior learning within geographical mobility of professionals in the health care sector Erasmus Project

Project Title

HealthCareEurope: Fostering transparency and recognition of prior learning within geographical mobility of professionals in the health care 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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; Recognition, transparency, certification; Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits)

Project Summary

More than any other sector, today’s health care sector is dependent on the mobility of workers from across Europe and even on an international scale in order to overcome skill shortages within the EU Member States. The mobility of skilled workers is strongly hindered by highly complex and time consuming validation and recognition processes and by a lack of transparency among health care qualifications in the European Member States. The HCEU Project has made a major contribution towards the transparency of health care qualifications across borders and the facilitation of processes to formally recognise and validate health care qualifications acquired abroad as well as through in- and non-formal learning within different health care recognition and validation systems throughout the European Union.

For this purpose the HCEU consortium made use of the award-winning, practically-applied VQTS model. The VQTS model does not focus on the specificities of national VET systems but uses learning outcomes and work processes to enhance transparency. It provides a ‘common language’ to describe competences and their acquisition and a way to relate these competence descriptions to concrete qualifications/ certificates and competence profiles of individuals. The VQTS model relates on the one hand to the work process and follows, on the other hand, a ‘development logical’ differentiation of a competence profile. This makes it an ideal and comprehensive tool to appreciate the lifelong learning of health care professionals in the context of formal recognition processes.

Based on this approach HCEU developed VQTS matrices, profiles, tools and instruments for the field of ‘professional care’ for the national contexts of the project partners in order to facilitate recognition praxis in those EU Member States. In addition HCEU developed transfer kits in order to facilitate the transfer of those tools also to other national (within and beyond Europe) contexts and to other fields within health care. Those tools are expected to make a major contribution to the work of VET providers and recognition bodies/authorities involved in transnational mobility of health care professionals. In this way HCEU makes it possible to facilitate the establishment of a European labour market that helps to overcome skill shortages and high unemployment rates through fostering the mobility of health care professionals across the European Member States.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 413822 Eur

Project Coordinator

DEKRA AKADEMIE GMBH & Country: DE

Project Partners

• TECHNOLOGIKO EKPAIDEFTIKO IDRYMA ATHINAS
• TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET DRESDEN
• UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI
• DEKRA Akademie Felnöttképzö, Munkavédelmi és Szolgáltató Kft.
• Polish Nurses Association
• DEKRA Akademie- ypiresies katartisis, pistopoiisis & symbouleutikes ypiresies- EPE
• VEREIN FUR INTERNATIONALE JUGENDARBEIT EV