PULSE 2.0: Assessment of language and communication skills for foreign nursing assistants and caregivers Erasmus Project

Project Title

PULSE 2.0: Assessment of language and communication skills for foreign nursing assistants and caregivers

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: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Migrants’ issues

Project Summary

Although nursing is mostly regulated across the EU, there are limitations regarding nursing assistant/care workers regulation, which vary considerably among different member states. Most regulators require language testing as part of the process of registration and accessing the profession in the host country. The reasons behind this are about patient safety. Healthcare decision making requires that the patient and professional are able to exchange information clearly and freely.
Being generally competent in the language of the hosting country did not mean they had the ‘right’ language skills. Moreover, in nursing and caregiving work language is used to facilitate quality care and inform and educate recipients of that care. Language and communication skills and proper cultural behaviours become a fundamental tool in order to increase the job opportunities of health personnel.
The Pulse 2.0 project will reinforce and facilitate language and communication competences relevant to the medical workplace in order to improve employability and enhance European competitiveness.
The project aims at:
improvement and assessment of language, communicative and intercultural competences of nursing assistant and caregivers who work or plan to work in a foreign country
Improvement of capacities of VET and language education providers by delivering to them tailored products: workplace language learning and assessment didactic and tools relevant to lower-skilled healthcare professional groups

The project addresses nursing assistants and personal care workers in mobility or planning mobility, organisations providing tailored training for health care staff, and employers in the health care sector by:
– designing, piloting and validating assessment tools aimed at measuring language proficiency in Swedish, Italian and German as foreign languages in an occupational context, more specifically in the nursing and caregiving sector in Sweden, Austria and Italy.
– providing an autonomous access to innovative language learning resources and instruments for language skills testing;
– facilitating the development of innovative language learning and assessment practices in the field of vocational education and training;
– rising awareness of needs of inclusion and of cultural and linguistic diversity in a professional context.

The steps for development of the project activities are as follows:
• Setting up a network of stakeholders as partners in the development, testing, application and in sustaining the project results after the project end
research study on the needs for language, communication and intercultural competencies of foreign nursing assistant and caregivers in Sweden, Italy and Austria
Development of Methodology for assessment of workplace language and communication for nursing assistants and caregivers
Development of Assessment tool – task-based and domain-specific language proficiency tests in Swedish, Italian and German, related to CEFR B1.
Development of Learning tool – full package with online preparation materials for the assessment tests in Swedish, Italian and German, designed to be used as part of a VET training , or as self-training.
• Piloting the learning and assessment tools in Sweden, Italy, Austria and Romania
Organisation of exploitation events in 4 countries for dissemination, valorisation and sustainability.

The project’s envisaged outcomes and results (both during the project lifetime and after its end) are:
improved linguistic, communication and intercultural skills of foreign nursing assistants and caregivers relevant to the medical workplace, and thus improved employability and enhanced European competitiveness in the sector;
improved transversal competences of nursing learners and staff: learning to learn skills and digital competences
increased motivation of foreign lower-skilled healthcare professional groups a to get involved in language learning and assessment processes providing them with an autonomous access to innovative language assessment resources and instruments for language skills testing
Self-recognition by migrant workers of their own skills and competences
contributing to capacity development of VET and language education providers by delivering to them tailored products for workplace language learning and assessment didactic and materials relevant to medical sector
developed tools and models for assessment of linguistic and communicative competences of nursing assistants and caregivers
raised awareness of inclusion needs, the need to fight racism, prejudice and xenophobia, and the need of cultural and linguistic diversity in a professional context

Pulse 2.0 will be implemented by 5 organisations from 5 European countries. European collaboration implies finding more sustainable solutions and establishing a strong international partnership team for future work in this area.

Project Website

http://pulse-project.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 206587 Eur

Project Coordinator

CFL Söderhamn & Country: SE

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITA PER STRANIERI DI SIENA
• Inthecity Project Development B.V.
• Fundatia Centrul Educational Spektrum
• DIE BERATER UNTERNEHMENSBERATUNGS GESELLSCHAFT MBH