Project website: https://www.eancertificate.com/en/

PROJECT NEWS

October 2021:  Information leaflet about EAN Education curriculum published HERE 

September 2021: Final version of  EAN Education curriculum (project output) was approved.

June 2021: Final project meeting was held in Vienna (8th June 2021) - creation of the final version of the EAN Education curriculum

January 2021: The curriculum should be completed in April 2021. 

December 2020: Austrian colleagues organized en extraordinary online meeting with representatives of local universities and asked them for feedback to the draft of the curriculum.

September 2020: Second part of the most important project activity was organized in Vienna from 8th to 9th September 2020. Austrian and Czech partners met each other face to face and Romanian partners participated online due to COVID-19 restrictions.

June 2020: First part of the most important project activity was organized online on 19th June 2020. During this activity partners created first proposal of the new curriculum. The proposal was based on outputs from focus groups held in participating countries. Minutes and documents from focus groups are available here: https://www.eancertificate.com/en/zamknuta-stranka/

May 2020: 3rd focus group took place in Austria and in the Czech Republic on 28/5/2020 and in Romania on 29/5/2020.

September - November 2019: The 2nd focus group in all partnership countries was organized.

June 2019: The 2nd project meeting with all partners took place from 24 th to 25 th June 2019 in Vienna. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the results and outcomes from the 1st focus groups in all countries as well as the results of the questionnaire survey prepared by EAN.

February - May 2019: The 1st focus group in all partnership countries was organized and participants tried to answer key questions set by coordinator (Association of Social Services Providers Czech Republic).

December 2018: From 18th to 19th December 2018 took place in Prague the 1st project meeting with all partners. There were specified during the meeting: schedule of project activities, responsibilities for individual tasks and personnel involvment of project partners. At the same time, the current state of the education was discussed and there were created several key questions for individual focus group in the partnerhip countries (the Czech Republic, Austria, Romania) scheduled for the year 2019.

 

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Modification of the educational module E.D.E. - certificate for long-term care providers

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 is going to be modified in structure and content through project activities. This will enable distributing it to interested subjects from other European countries. The former European association of long-term care providers (EDE) - currently European Network for Aging (EAN) - cooperate with Association of Social Services Providers Czech Republic and passed the Association onto coordinator role.

Current situation: 

Innovation of the current curriculum is going to include also modification of the structure. The current structure of the educational program was created in the 1990s. It is divided into 9 modules with 600 full-time lessons and 200 lessons in other forms (E-learning). From the current point of view, it looks inflexible and is becoming obsolete. The current content does not reflect the actual needs of the target group and demographic trends and challenges. Structural change consists in dividing the educational program into three levels. Innovation of the content is going to be based on an analysis of needs in the area of ​​education managers in social services in Europe.

Output:

The output of the project is going to be an innovated flexible training module that will be freely accessible on the basis of an open license and adapted to the needs of the target group of managers in the field of social services. The educational model is going to be prepared in the form of a curriculum with a detailed description of each module, including e-learning content. The expected range is 30-50 pages.

Structure:

The new structure / curriculum is going to include:

  • creation and justification of training modules in relation to the current situation 
  • time requirements
  • content of educational modules
  • recommended forms of education
  • educational materials and tools

The new structure / curriculum is going to reflect the modular setting of the curriculum to 3 levels.

  • Basic certificate - is going to be generally valid in all EAN member countries. Obtaining a basic certificate is going to be as required minimum for the management staff of residential social service facilities.
  • Advanced certificate - this level is going to consist of mandatory modules containing country-specific topics. It means focusing on important aspects and differences in the specific country.
  • Professional certificate - this level is going to represent an optional specialization enhancing professional skills of workers in specific areas of care for the elderly. 

Entry conditions for the basic certificate is going to be universal for all students/participants. The educational framework for Advanced and Professional certificate is going to be based on the specific legal conditions and on the system of social services in involved countries.

OBJECTIVES OF NATIONAL FOCUS GROUPS - focus groups are going to take place in parallel in the Czech Republic, Austria and Romania:

  • Focus Group 1: To analyze current situation in the field of executive education in social services and needs in individual European countries and generally suggest possible modifications of the current education system.
  • Focus Group 2: To compare current structure and topics of E.D.E. (EAN) certificate with the needs collected through the needs analysis within the 1st focus group and questionnaire survey. The questionnaire survey will take place in all EAN member countries, with the expected return of questionnaires from 15 European countries.
  • 3rd Focus Group: To define new educational topics and finalize the content of existing topics of the E.D.E (EAN) modules.

Key questions for the focus groups:

  • What qualification and level of education should the manager in nursing home or generally in management in social services to have?
  • What knowledge and skills should the manager in nursing home or generally in management in social services to have?
  • To define the roles of EAN, national associations and educational institutions in the system.
  • Which topics from the current E.D.E. modules should be kept/modified/added?
  • Which topics are important for the Czech Republic, Austria and Romania?
  • How divide topics into 3 levels - basic, advanced, professional - and how to set up the educational units?
  • How to use alternative forms of education in the new EAN certificate?
  • How should the procedure if manager having the current E.D.E. certificate decide to apply for the new EAN certificate look like?