The goal of the project is to increase the quality and reputation of educational activities and the international dimension of the professional education of management staff in social services on the European level to support quality care for seniors with the EU. The need for project implementation stems from the growing requirements to ensure quality care for seniors with regards to the demographic changes, population aging and specific needs of these persons in Europe. The educational program to receive the E.D.E. certificate for providers of long-term care for seniors will be modified in structure and content through project activities. This will enable distributing it to interested subjects from other European countries. The outcome of the project is an innovated, flexible and needs adapted module of professional education to receive the E.D.E. certificate by the management staff in social services. It will be created in the form of a curriculum with a detailed description of educational outlines and modules, including the content of e-learning. The curriculum will contain the creation and justification of the educational outlines, time requirements, the content of all educational modules, recommended forms of education, educational materials and tools. The prerequisites and conditions for receiving the E.D.E. certificate and the conditions to receive the accreditation by the educational education will also be an integral part. The curriculum will reflect the modular setup of 3 levels. The first level of the educational product will be the “basic certificate”, generally valid across the E.D.E. member area. Obtaining the basic certificate is the minimum for the management staff of residential institutions providing social services. The second level of education will consist of obligatory modular areas amended with country specific topics. The third level will be a specialization increasing the professional skills of staff in specific areas of senior care. The target group of management staff in social services (the product is innovated for), will be involved especially in the dissemination activities. Every participating country will organize 1 national conference and 1 workshop and will present the innovated educational product and requirements to complete it to the interested subjects. The project implementation will begin by organizing an international project meeting. The key agenda point will be to discuss the current requirements for the modification of educational program to receive the E.D.E. certificate and the final specification of suggestions for changes in content and structure. The experts will conduct individual work in the area of education of management staff in social services on the national levels. This will be further discussed during the 1st meetings of national focus groups in the Czech Republic, Austria and Romania. At the same time a questionnaire survey will be conducted in the E.D.E. member organizations to verify the hypotheses in other European countries. The 2nd international project meeting will take place to discuss the results of work of the national focus groups. At the same time the results of the questionnaire survey in all E.D.E. member countries will be discussed. The product will be modified based on the needs analysis during the individual expert work and then discussed during the meetings of the national focus groups. In the next phase the experts will individual work on setting the requirements to complete the educational programs by participants and other procedural matters. This will all be discussed during the 3rd meeting of the national focus groups. Then the international working group will create a draft version of the new curriculum of the educational program during an intensive 5-day training. The 3rd international project meeting following the review process will discuss and agree on the final form of the curriculum and specify the dissemination activities in order to distribute the project outcomes effectively - conferences, workshops, discussions. The aim of these activities is not only to introduce the educational program to the target group of the management staff in social services but also share the networks of contacts and an intensive transfer of good practice. Even though the program will be created in the environment of 3 participating countries (CZE, AUT, ROU), the impact and interest in transferability across Europe is to be expected. The E.D.E. will support the dissemination through its channels and activities and the innovated project is expected to be positively received across the E.D.E. member area that currently consists of 20 European states. The transferability of the product is also supported by its structural 3 level setup, where higher levels reflect specific conditions of individual countries.
The goal of the project was to innovate the educational curriculum for vocational education of adults - namely managers in social services. The need to implement the project resulted from the growing demands for quality care for the elderly, taking into account demographic changes, population ageing and the specific needs of older people and persons with disabilities in Europe. The original curriculum was administered by the European Association for Directors and Providers of Long-Term Care Services for the Elderly (E.D.E.), which merged with the European Association of Housing and Services for the Ageing (EAHSA) during the project. This created a new umbrella organization called the European Ageing Network (EAN), which is responsible for the accreditations and certificates after successful completion of the new education program. The original curriculum was created in the 1990s and last revised in 2008. This current form was inflexible and did not reflect new trends. It contained 9 modules and the manager had to complete 600 hours of full-time education and 200 hours as e-learning or elaboration of a project plan. The goal of the project was met. A written curriculum was created in a modified structure that is modular, flexible, divides education into 3 levels and at the same time reflects the trends of the 21st century in the field of long-term care. As the modified educational program is offered again throughout Europe (EAN has members in 25 European countries), universal conditions for registration and obtaining the 1st level (BASIC) have been set. The ADVANCED and PROFESSIONAL levels are then ready to reflect more on national specifics and alternative forms of teaching - such as conferences, study trips, seminar work, elaboration of project plans, etc. According to the project application, the expected scope of the curriculum was 30 to 50 pages, however, the final number of pages is 80. This scope therefore exceeded the original expectations. The innovated curriculum was created in cooperation with 7 partners. The partners act either as umbrella organizations in the field of social services or as providers of vocational education of adult. The largest number of partners was from Austria, as it is here that most managers hold the "original E.D.E. certificate." The development of the curriculum took place in Austria, the Czech Republic and Romania also with the participation of local experts (directors of social services, professors, local government representatives), who participated in focus groups. Due to the covid-19 pandemic, the project had to be extended by 3 months, and the curriculum also took into account the aspect of distance learning, which was the only option in many sectors in 2020. The principle of training according to the new EAN educational curriculum is such that the provider of vocational education offering a course for managers in soc. submit their content (curriculum) to the EAN or the authorized national association and they will compare it with the EAN curriculum. If it is suitable both in terms of content and in terms of time allocation and teaching forms, such an educator is granted accreditation. At the end, the graduates of the education program will receive an internationally valid certificate proving their knowledge, experience and qualifications for the discharge of a leading position in social services facilities. The curriculum is freely available on the Internet in English in two variants: 1) The entire 80-page version - its concept is intended mainly for EAN and national associations (they can assess the quality of education if approved), and 2) a brief version in a promotional brochure format. At the end of the project, the partners organized dissemination conferences and workshops, at which the participants were acquainted with the curriculum itself, as well as with topics that are current and relevant for the social services sector and their management.