seCtor skills for elderly home care – An integRatEd framework for domiciliary healthcare SkillS development Erasmus Project

Project Title

seCtor skills for elderly home care – An integRatEd framework for domiciliary healthcare SkillS development

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 : Sector Skills Alliances in vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal); Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits)

Project Summary

CARESS project involved 13 partners form 4 EU countries. It was was aimed to overcome a “skills gap” identified in the field of older adults homecare, i.e. a gap between skills demanded by end-users and their families and those offered by Home Health Care Practitioners (HHCPs).CARESS offers a clear picture of the main roles, competences and curricula of 9 categories of homecare professionals working both in health and social care at older adults’ own homes in 31 EU countries. For the first time this information have been collected and systematized in an EU Framework available for free in a web-based system, allowing to: 1)DESIGN AND DEVELOP VET COURSES a) BASED ON INFORMATION about professionals’ ACTUAL competencies, roles and skills gaps; b) integrating EXISTING CURRICOLA in a “compensative” bottom-up approach2)SHARE BEST PRACTICES through countries and professionals;3)ENHANCE the COLLABORATION and the COORDINATION among professionals and thus coordination and integration among social and healthcare services.The EU Framework provides a fundamental help in order to identify the actual skill gap which characterize an homecare professional in a specific country. The Framework is endowed with an interactive Wizard interface allowing for its integration and update and with fundamental “training design tools” supporting VET teachers to design effective compensative modules, able to address a specific skill gap. The Framework and its tools have been tested during the project through the DESIGN AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF 3 NATIONAL PILOT COURSES, targeting 3 different HHCPs in 3 different countries: Social-Health operators (IT), Registered Nurses (SP), Practical nurses (FIN); pilots were based on different educational methods, on presence and distance learning, and on formal and non-formal/informal learning. To support pilots implementation a number of outputs have been produced, such as:a)3 E-LEARNING MODULES about HHCPs transversal competences in 4 languages (EN, IT, SP, FIN): e-learning materials consists of 3 main types: 93 interactive materials, for individual self-fruition (SCORM 1.2 compliant); 3 video-pills, focusing on specific skills/practices or the use of technologies; 60 materials supporting Collaborative Learning in Virtual Classrooms: different learning strategies are implemented, such as role playing, case studies, etc.b)an INTEGRATED PLATFORM FOR E-LEARNING and for supporting VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE (VCP), for trainers, professionals, associations, The Integrated platform has been used by pilot students and then opened to any registered user who would like to join communities of professionals in the field of homecare. The VCP platform is an important example of how to manage non-formal learning in a professional curriculum, being endowed with specific functionalities allowing for its recognition. Any VET designer and teacher could use the VCP environment in order to support non-formal learning in a specific course; professional associations can adopt the VCP system as a common environment where members could share their own practices, documents, opinions, etc.Results of pilots evaluation and tools validation took to the refinement and the final release of the EU Framework. CARESS Framework can be updated even after the end of the project, since external contributors, after a registration process, can integrate/revise/update the information included in the framework; the reliability of information is assured by filtering rules integrated in the system.The main project results are accessible for free from the project website, at http://www.project-caress.eu/ Both the CARESS EU Framework and the Integrated Platform will be accessible for free to the public for at least one year by the end of the project. Students can access the e-learning materials on the Integrated platform for self-fruition and teachers can download them from the project website.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 999906 Eur

Project Coordinator

SI4LIFE – SCIENZA E IMPRESA INSIEMEPER MIGLIORARE LA QUALITA’ DELLA VITA SCRL & Country: IT

Project Partners

• INSTITUTO DI ISTRUZIONE SECONDARIA SUPERIORE VITTORIO EMANUELE II – RUFFINI
• AGE PLATFORM EUROPE
• SOCIEDAD DE GERIATRIA Y GERONTOLOGIA DE CASTILLA Y LEON
• AYUNTAMIENTO DE VALLADOLID
• ESPOON SEUDUN KOULUTUSKUNTAYHTYMA OMNIA
• SUOMEN LAHI- JA PERUSHOITAJALIITTO SUPER RY
• REGIONE LIGURIA