Through this strategic transnational partnership we will support innovation in the field of elderly care training in 4 European countries-Romania, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain. This will be possible through cooperation between VET providers and other relevant private/public authorities, including employers interested in this growing field, from 4 mentioned countries, during 18 months. The partnership will involve also the production of new intellectual outputs, consisting of: 1) a common curricula for practice - integrating the specification of occupational standards in the 4 countries and new modules according to new IT technologies and trends; 2) a support pedagogic instrument (an e-book with ISBN code including a careful selection of case studies, examples, legislation, comparative analysis, best practices of the mentioned topic (professional care of the elderly). This e-book will include the mentioned materials in virtual graphic volume of high quality with subtitles in four languages (en+ro, bg, sp, it); 3) an online platform that represents a collaborative space where partners may create content, exchange ideas, a space to organize webinars for practitioners/trainees, a space to inform the practitioners of all new learning opportunities in social care around Europe etc. In order to achieve our goals we will organise two types of activities, interrelated: - 3 Short-term joint staff training events with 16-18 participants (5 days, excluding travel days), as it follows: one in each country, in which experts from each of the 5 participating organizations will be trained on innovative practices in adult care, through a interdisciplinary perspective (legislation, social assistance, innovative therapies, caregiver training specific approaches etc), with a focus on tools and methods for professionalization and professional development of VET trainers and staff (how to use visuals and videos in training and communication with final beneficiaries, how to create a case study, how to develop a common curricula/how to support caretakers to energize and activate the elders in order to remain valuable assets of society, how to use ICT tools and devices in elderly care etc); the format of this events will combine on-site visits to relevant organization and intensive training course; after the first meeting, a part of the 18 participants (more exactly 8 for curricula and 7 for platform-some of them being the same) will begin to create a collaborative virtual work space in order to to build a learning platform from which will benefit other practitioners/trainers in the field, practitioners who will follow a mixed mobility within this project; also, following these joint training events, the experts from the three partner organizations will begin curriculum development and drafting learning support materials, most of the time using the virtual collaborative space; - In the second stage of the project we intend to test and validate the curricula by delivering short courses focusing on practical training, to more than 80 adult learners who want to become elderly carers or to adults already working in the field and who want to form continuously. Also, other 24 adult learners (practitioners with some professional background) will join a blended mobility (6 days excluding travel) - combing virtual preparing with physical mobility. Before achieving physical mobility we want them to be prepared both by accessing that learning platform, and through short training based on curriculum already developed in the project. Basically, they would represent to some extent test groups, to verify the effectiveness of the curriculum. After some preparing, these adult learners would benefit from physical mobility, short-term, focused on work-based learning to a potential employer (from another country) - in this phase the associate partners will be fully involved and other employers. We will involve at least 6 day care centres/ residential centers for the elderly in the three mentioned countries, in order to foster the link between real practices, legislation and case studies presented. The role of the associated partners will be to make the curricula and the pedagogical instruments more relevant and concrete for the national labor market in European context. Also, other employers will be involved in this process (8/country) in order to test, debate and get feedback among the curricula. The project will include 6 dissemination events and 2 multiplier events in the three mentioned countries, in order to transmit information of the project progress and to disseminate the concrete results to as many relevant actors in the field of training of workers in the elderly care field.
Through this transnational strategic partnership we wanted to support the innovation approach in the field of training in social care for the elderly, by bringing together the vision and practices of 4 European countries - Romania, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain. This was made possible by the cooperation between VET providers and other relevant private / public authorities, including employers interested in this growing field, from the 4 mentioned countries, during 18 months. The innovation consisted in the process of comparing, analyzing and exchanging practices regarding learning in this field and creating a common core of learning, which was processed within all intellectual outputs in this project. The partnership also involved the production of new intellectual results, consisting of: 1) a common curricula for practice - integrating the specification of occupational standards in the 4 countries and new modules according to new IT technologies and trends; 2) a pedagogical support tool (an e-book with ISBN code that includes a careful selection of case studies, examples, legislation, comparative analysis, best practices of the mentioned topic (professional care of the elderly). includes the materials mentioned in the graphic volume and is translated into five languages (en + ro, bg, sp, it); 3) an online platform that represents a collaborative space where partners may create content, exchange ideas, a space to organize webinars for practitioners/trainees, a space to inform the practitioners of all new learning opportunities in social care around Europe etc. In order to achieve our goals, we organized two types of activities, related to each other: - 3 short-term joint training events with 33 participants (5 days, excluding travel days): one from each country, in which experts from each of the 5 participating organizations were trained in innovative adult care practices, through an interdisciplinary perspective (legislation, social assistance, innovative therapies, specific approaches to nurse training, etc.), with an emphasis on tools and methods for the professionalisation and professional development of VET trainers and staff (how to use images and videos in training and communication with final beneficiaries, how to create a case study, how to develop a joint curriculum / how to support carers to energize and activate the elderly to remain valuable assets of society, how to use ICT tools and devices in caring for the elderly, etc. ) the format of these events combined on-site visits to the relevant organization and the intensive training course; after the first meeting, some of the participants started to create a virtual collaboration workspace to build a learning platform that would benefit other practitioners / trainers in the field, practitioners who will follow a mixed mobility within this project; also, following these joint training events, the experts from the partner organizations started developing the curriculum and writing the learning support materials, most often using the virtual collaboration space; - In the second stage of the project we tested the curricula by providing short courses, focused on practical training, to over 80 adult learners who want to become elderly caregivers or adults who are already working in the field and who want to train continuously . Also, another 24 adult learners (practitioners with a certain professional training) joined a combined mobility (6 days except for the trip) - combing the virtual training with physical mobility. Before achieving physical mobility, there was a test of the effectiveness of the curriculum. After some training, they benefited from short-term physical mobility, focused on work-based learning at a potential employer (from another country). Day centers / residential centers for the elderly from the three countries mentioned were involved: Santa Eulalia Residential Center, Domus Vi, Craiova Home for the Elderly, Mimos Day Center, Oleiros Day Center, Montserrat Residential Center, Home Hope Residential Center Sofia, Ramnicu Valcea Home for the Elderly, Targu Jiu Day Center, Residential Center Mitropolit Firmilian Craiova to encourage the connection between real practices, legislation and case studies presented. The role of the associated partners was to make pedagogical programs and tools more relevant and concrete for the national labor market in the European context. The project will include 6 dissemination events and 2 multiplication events (Craiova and Barcelona), in order to transmit information about the progress of the project and to disseminate the concrete results to as many relevant actors in the field of training in the care of the elderly.