On 29. 11. 2014 a new law on the provision of childcare services in the so called children's group came into effect in the Czech Republic which enables to run facilities providing childcare services for children in the age of 1-3 years. A preschool (also nursery school, pre-primary school) used to be a popular concept in the Czech Republic before the Velvet Revolution. The nurseries used to be run as healthcare facilities and children were taken care of by healthcare personnel – nurses. Currently, the so called children’s groups are designated for children in the age of 1-3 years and are complementary to kindergartens which accept children from the age of 3. There is demand for the services of children’s groups from parents who are willing to return to the labour market soon after the child's birth. The demand is expected to rise after the new law on state social support comes into effect, which will enable the parents to get the parental benefits in shorter time as it is standard in more developed EU states (Nordic countries, Germany, Austria etc.). The problem we are facing now is that there is lack of qualified nurses who have competencies and experience needed for taking care of children so young. In the present project we have formed a partnership with partners who already have experience in this field, and we will exchange the know-how and create a new educational programme (including a curriculum and a set or worksheets for nurses-to-be). The project involves 7 partners from 6 countries who represent preschool facilities, NGOs, university and entreprises. Each of the partners brings special expertise to the project and together they will create the following ouptuts: 1) comparative study of early child care in the partner countries 2) curriculum of a course for future nurses 3) worksheets for the course for future nurses based on the Montessori approach 4) one pilot module for web based learning The educational programme we will create during the course, will contain 10 topics given by the Czech National Qalification Framework and will be completed by two added topics: the Montessori approach and the special approaches for work with children in the age 1-3 years. The comparative study will be disseminated towards policy makers in the partner countries in order to improve the child care systems with regards to best practices in the other European countries. The educational programme will be pilot tested during the project and after the project provided by the partners in their day-to-day activities. In the Czech Republic the programme will be accredited by the Ministry of Social Affairs. The pilot module will be a base for future reference and for future development of web-based educational programmes for nurses. The outputs will be disseminated towards educational organizations providing professional VET courses for future nurses and to preschool facilities. With the project we will contribute to a better offer of effective and needed educational programmes.
In 2014, a new law on the provision of childcare services in the so called children's group came into effect in the Czech Republic which enabled to run facilities providing childcare services for children in the age from 1 year. A preschool for children so small (also nursery school, pre-primary school) used to be a popular concept in the Czech Republic before the Velvet Revolution. The nurseries used to be run as healthcare facilities and children were taken care of by healthcare personnel – nurses. Currently, the so called children’s groups are designated for children from the age of 1 and are complementary to kindergartens which accept children from the age of 3. There is demand for the services of children’s groups from parents who are willing to return to the labour market soon after the child's birth. The demand has also risen after the new law on state social support came into effect, which enables parents to get the parental benefits in shorter time as it is standard in more developed EU states (Nordic countries, Germany, Austria etc.). The problem we are facing now is that there is lack of qualified nurses who have competencies and experience needed for taking care of children so young. In the ProChil project we have formed a partnership with partners who already have experience in this field, and we exchanged know-how in the area of ECEC professional education and we created a new set of materials for an educational programme for nurses-to-be. The project involved 7 partners from 6 countries - preschool facilities, NGOs, entreprises and a university. Each of the partners brought special expertise to the project and together they created the following ouptuts: 1) comparative study of early child education and care in the partner countries 2) curriculum of a course for future nurses 3) worksheets for the course for future nurses based on the Montessori approach 4) one pilot module for web based learning The educational programme we created during the project contains the following 6 chapters chosen carefully by the partners: 1) The Pedagogical Work of an ECEC professional (by MBM Training and Development Centre, UK) 2) The Developmental Stages of a Child and its Socialization (by Paizontas/Playing, GR) 3) Pedagogical Approaches based on Montessori System of Education (by Montessori mateřská škola a klub Kladno, CZ) 4) Specific Educational Situations and Approach to Children with Special Needs (by Brudhammar Forskola, S) 5) Guiding Children towards Hygiene Habits (by Montessori mateřská škola a klub Kladno, CZ) 6) Application of the Healthy Lifestyle Principles according to the Age of the Child (by Asisttel, ES) Apart from these six chapters the curriculum is completed by 3 annexes: Annex 1: Born to socialize methodology (by Karel de Grote University College, Belgium) Annex 2: Worksheets for testing the acquired knowledge Annex 3: Learning Activities for face to face learning The outputs were disseminated towards ECEC professionals, future ECEC professionals and also towards policy makers in the partner countries in order to improve the child care systems with regards to best practices in the other European countries. The educational programme was pilot tested during the project and in the Czech Republic the programme will be prepared for accreditation by the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2020. The pilot module is a base for future reference and for future development of web-based educational programmes for nurses.