Nutrition for elderly : Crossectoral approach for training and coaching Erasmus Project

Project Title

Nutrition for elderly : Crossectoral approach for training and coaching

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 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Background:

The number of elderly people in the EU is growing rapidly and will increase even more in future. Elderly people are prone to inadequate nutritional status and therefore are at risk to suffer malnutrition.

The problem of malnutrition has been showed to be multifactorial, so problem-solving strategies require a multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral approach. Lack of knowledge and good training seemed to be the main causes. Employees from different sectors need specialised trainings and education to acquire new skills.

This project it mainly concerned 3 areas:

1) staff in the food industry

2) staff in catering+meal delivery services

3) staff in health care for the elderly

Employees of the food and catering industry need to gain a better understanding on how to develop or adapt food for elderly people. The market for elderly people is still growing. Placing new products for them on the market will strengthen the companies’ position on both national and international markets.

Kitchen staff and other staff working in catering and meal delivery services need to gain a better understanding on the topic. They will also improve their skills and competences relevant to prepare healthy, good and tasteful meals in old people’s homes, hospitals and public kitchens. Knowledge and skills will give them a higher value on labour market and cater to the needs of the labour market.

Early screening and treatment are essential in prevention of malnutrition. People working in health care facilities for elderly people need to improve their skills on how to deal with malnourished elderly people. Those skills are highly relevant for labour market.

Objectives:

The project aimed at establishing a comprehensive curriculum and learning units for the different types of actors involved in producing and offering nutrition for the elderly and the prevention and treatment of malnutrition. A handbook was developed and translated into e-learning modules. The training concept was tested and evaluated in different sectors. Different dissemination events took place to inform people about the developed handbook and e-learning modules.

Participating organisations:

The consortium consisted of 6 associations from BE, FR, DE, BG and NL representing all target groups: Wageningen University (NL) and VIVES (BE), UARD (BG) are research institutes providing higher education (bsc. and msc.). Health and nutrition are among their main areas of expertise. Wageningen also is experienced in developing e-learning concepts. those 3 partners provided a very important link to higher education.

FORUM Berufsbildung is a vocational training institute with expertise in the area of health and nursing of the elderly. While Eurasanté act as an umbrella organization for both health care for elderly and food industry and has a very large network in this sector.

The Municipal Enterprise European Policies and Cooperation of Plovdiv represented the governmental issues. They have lots of relevant activities in public services related to the topic.

Methodology + Main activities:

Based on input from all partner organization, exchange of best practice and cross-sectoral discussion amongst partners a handbook based on learning outcomes that follow ECVT and EQF was developed and offered as OER. To define the content of the handbook a needs analysis was conducted among the 3 target groups.

A selection of chapters from the handbook was made to be translated into e-learning. E-learning units were developed and tailored to specific target groups. With the help of a general training concept all partners developed, tested and evaluated the training materials.

Dissemination was an ongoing process from the start of the project until his end. Important stakeholders are informed about the project results and make sure that the results are still applicable even after the project end.

Result and impact + long term benefits :

Main results of the project were the availability of a handbook and e-learning modules which are applicable in different settings (food industry, health care, catering services). Cooperation with stakeholders such as ‘stuurgoep ondervoeding’, ‘VDiTO’ make sure that the results will be further used. Project results and output were implemented in the curriculum of higher education (e.g. Bsc. nutrition and dietetics), VET-institutions (e.g. nursing programs).

On the long term the developed materials could contribute to better educated and skilled workers in all target groups. VET-institutions and organizations involved in health care for the elderly, the food industry, catering and meal delivery could be inspired by the new teaching methodology and could be triggered to work on this topic and be supported by the output created. This could result in professionals with acquired skills adapted to the needs of the labour market.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 225938,63 Eur

Project Coordinator

KATHOLIEKE HOGESCHOOL VIVES ZUID & Country: BE

Project Partners

• WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY
• FORUM Berufsbildung e.V.
• EURASANTE
• Municipal Enterprise European Policies and Cooperation
• VU PO AGROBIZNES I RAZVITIE NA REGIONITE – PLOVDIV