The number of elderly people in the EU is growing rapidly+will increase even more in future (Sobotka et al.,2011). Elderly people are prone to inadequate nutritional status and therefore are at risk to suffer malnutrition (Brownie,2006;De Groot et al.,2005). The problem of malnutrition has been showed to be multifactorial, so problem-solving strategies require a multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral approach. Lack of knowledge+good training seemed to be the main cause. Employees from different sectors need specialised trainings+education to acquire new skills. This project it mainly concerns 3 areas: 1) staff in the food industry 2) staff in catering+meal delivery services and 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+tastefull meals in old people’s homes, hospitals and public kitchens. Knowlege 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 (www.fightmalnutrition.eu). 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. The project aims at establishing a comprehensive curriculum+learning units for the different types of actors involved in producing and offering nutrition for the elderly and the prevention and treatment of malnutrition. The learning units and the handbook developed will be offed with open educational ressources. Tailored training concepts in different sectors will be tested and evaluated. The consortium consists 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 provide a very important link to higher education. Project results and output can be implemented in the curriculum of 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 will represent the governmental issues. They have lots of relevant activities in public services related to the topic. THE WORK PACKAGES: 1) Project management: developing detailed project guide and code of conduct for every partner, coordinating and attending transnational meetings, making reports, proper budget management and keeping good overall communication. 2) Quality assessment: The project manager will account for the quality of all processes. He will execute relevant quality checks and use defined indicators to measure achievement. 3) Dissemination will be an ongoing process from the start of the project until its end. All intellectual outcomes will be distributed effectively to target groups and amongst stakeholders. 4) Output creation: A handbook, e-learning units and a manual for trainers Methodology: Based on input from all partner organisation, exchange of best practice+cross-sectoral discussion amongst partners a handbook based on learning outcomes that follow ECVT and EQF will be developed and offered as OER. E-learning units will be develoved and tailored to specific target groups. With the help of a general training concept all partners will develop, test+evaluate training concepts. The outcome will be offered in a manual via OER. Result+impact: Workers from all target groups will be better educated and skilled thanks to the handbook and e-learning modules. VET-insititutions and organisations involved in health care for the elderly, the food industry, catering and meal delivery will be triggered to work on this topic and be supported by the output created. European support tools will further foster exchange+mobility within and between the different sectors. On a long term basis the project will result in less malnutrition in the elderly. People working in healthcare and catering services will be better skilled and fulfil the needs of the labour market. SME’s can grow sustainable due to innovation induced by knowledge transfer and training.
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.