The project “Handling MultiCulturality in Care” aims to improve working environment in workplaces involved in caretaking of elderly: Although it is not the direct objective of this project European citizens in need of care will also benefit from this as it will improve the quality of the services offered to them. There is today a growing proportion of caretakers, who are of different ethnic background. It creates some challenges within a discipline where values, attitudes and communication are very important to the work environment and to the user-experience. Most European countries are lacking ways to strengthen employees' ability to manage multicultural workplaces. Furthermore, the project partners' experience that there are special circumstances in the care sector, which impedes the acquisition of new skills. Professor Dominique Bouchet from the Department of Marketing and Management at the University of Southern Denmark has for many years done research in cultural differences in workplaces, and he has developed educational material for employees in the integration sector. The material consists of videos, description of small cases and questions for group discussions etc. that supports a dialogue about the caretakers daily activities and these activities relation to more general values. It is intended that this teaching material will be the inspirational source to adapt training programmes especially dedicated for the employees in the Caresector. The project's aim is to strengthen nursing staff skills in managing different value systems in so called "Care Groups" and also to strengthen the nursing staff ability to communicate with people, who receive Careservices. So the target group for this project is the nursing staff in nursing homes or engaged with nursing people in their own homes. The operational objectives of the project are: 1) Caregivers have achieved new key competences in connection with discussions of value systems in relation to their current and future needs 2) Employees perceive that they have been presented with new methods employees experience that opens their readiness to learn in the future 3) To adjust and evaluate new teaching methods to support improvements in formal and informal vocational education and training systems 4) In general, to be better to deal with cultural differences and create a greater readiness in relation to changes in the cultural maps on their job. 5) Facilitating adjustment within the care sectors vocational training through the transfer of knowledge and experience. 6) Improving the interaction between vocational training with learning in practice in different national contexts . 7) Improve the effect in everyday work situations by putting together a curriculum with an interaction between workplace and school The consortium is structured so it involves a care organization and an educational institution from Germany, Italy, UK and Denmark. In addition, LederForum Denmark participates as coordinator and external facilitator of the project results. This external communication occurs through the European organization EDE, representing leaders and providers of continuing care for the elderly. This organizational form is chosen because it creates an opportunity to test the developed educational materials in four different contexts, and thus test the developed materials general applicability to the caresector.
The populations of Europe are rapidly ageing. Due to economic development, advances in healthcare and medicine and improved lifestyle, we have experienced a continuous increase in life expectancy during the last century. One of the consequences is a growing need for caregivers in eldercare. At the same time, the European countries are getting more multicultural and in many workplaces, the elder care staff no longer constitutes an ethnic homogeneous group but consists of employees with widely different cultural backgrounds and different norms and values. This creates challenges within a discipline where values, attitudes and communication are very important to the work environment: In nursing and caring, the staff gets very close to the person in need of care, breaking through his or her personal barriers and entering the intimate sphere. Differences in attitudes and approaches to elder care among colleagues with different ethnic backgrounds often give rise to misunderstandings and irritation in everyday life, sometimes even growing to dissociation and isolation of specific groups of staff. The European countries are lacking tools to improve elder care employees' ability to manage multicultural workplaces and the aim of this project was to contribute to strengthening of the competences of employees in the eldercare sector in managing value systems based on different cultural backgrounds. Both with regard to inter-collegial communication and teamwork and with regard to the communication skills of the nursing staff in their contact with their clients. Objectives: More experience in collaboration between education and employment Caregivers have achieved new key competences regarding their understanding of different value systems and cultural backgrounds Caregivers have learned new methods to support their future opportunities for further training in acquisition of new key competences, including ICT competences New teaching methods to support improvements in formal and informal vocational education are developed with employees as co-developers A strengthened development within the care sector that rely on a broad European basis in relation to differences in cultural, organizational, economic and technological framework Development within the care sector's vocational training is facilitated through the transfer of knowledge and experience from other sectors Interaction between vocational training and learning in practice in different national contexts are improved The partnership consisted of 9 partners: From each of the countries Denmark, Italy, Germany and UK, a care organization and an educational institution participated. Besides, a Danish union representing elder care employees (the coordinating partner of the project). The partners brought into the project their experiences from care giving, training/education of caregivers, working as a union for caregivers, decision making in the field and general experience from work with multiculturality issues and dissemination. Professor Dominique Bouchet from the Department of Marketing and Management at the University of Southern Denmark was subcontracted as an expert. He has done research in cultural differences in workplaces and the training material he has developed in this field, served as inspiration for the partners in the development of their own training material targeting specifically the care sector. The project partners developed in each of their countries training programs and training materials that were tested three times. In the periods between the training sessions, materials and programs were evaluated, adjusted and further developed. There was a mutual understanding among the partners, that training must be rooted in everyday practice to achieve maximum impact so the evaluation also included an assessment of this aspect. Working places and educational institutions cooperated closely in the development of the training. Managements and team leaders of care organizations were involved in the recruitment of staff for the activities and were consulted on how to ensure the sustainability of the results of the project. The development of the training programs in each country had a common transnational starting point, there was mutual inspiration and a high degree of synergy effect. However, the training courses ended up very differently in each country as a result of the different national contexts. We consider this as one of the strengths of this project: The products can actually be used now and in the nearest future because they meet concrete and relevant needs in each country and on top of that, they offer more than courses produced isolated in one country without benefit from cooperation with other nationalities. This is probably why not only the educational institutions and the care organizations that were the project partners but also those to whom we have disseminated information, right now are integrating the results in their activities.