D5.6 Delivery of the Training Programme for Care Workers and Caregivers

Deliverable Title / D5.6 Delivery of the Training Programme for the Care Workers and Caregivers
Version / 1
Deliverable Lead / Telecentre-Europe
Related Work package / WP 5
Author(s) / Margit Kinyik
Contributor(s)
Reviewer(s) / Thomas Arbouet
Dissemination level / Restricted to programme participants
Project Number / 297304
Instrument / CIP – ICT PSP – Pilot B
Start date of Project / 09/03/2012
Duration / 36 months
Project coordinator / IFEF | IPERIA
Abstract

This Deliverable gives an overview of the 200 hours training programme as a pillar of CARER+ experimental pilot exercise. It describes the target groups involved, the roles and efforts within CARER+ partnership, the preparation and the set-up of the training in the piloting countries and sites, timing and evaluation procedures. This document has been designed along with and in harmony with WP4 (Development of the learning environment, pathways and resources) and WP5 (Piloting) deliverables. Finally, this Document contains the results of the implementation and realisation of the training programme in a technical sense. However, it is not dealing with qualitative features and impacts of the training (effectiveness etc.), since these outcomes will be explored and measured by the impact assessment research, therefore these features of the training programme will be involved in D5.8 Impact Assessment Report.

Quality control checklist

Quality Control Check / Tick box
Generic Minimum Quality Standards
Document Abstract
Document Summary (synopsis of contents)
CARER+ format standards complied with
Accepted language, grammar and spelling
Objectives of Description of Work
Work deliverable covered
Quality of text is acceptable (organisation and structure; diagrams; readability)
Comprehensiveness is acceptable (no missing sections; missing references; unexplained arguments)
Usability is acceptable (deliverable provides clear information in a form that is useful to the reader)
Deliverable specific quality criteria
Deliverable meets the ‘acceptance Criteria’ set out in the Quality Register
For Key Deliverables only
Deliverable approved by external reviewers
Checklist completed and deliverable approved by
Name: Signature: Date: XX/XX/XXXX

Final checklist to be completed and deliverable signed off by primary reviewer

Document review history

Version / Name / Status * / Date / Summary of changes
V1 / Margit Kinyik / A / 10/05/2014 / Preparation of V1

*Status: Indicate if:

A - Author (including author of revised deliverable)

C - Contributors

PIR – Primary internal reviewer

SIR – Second internal reviewer

Licence and copyright

The content of the Delivery of the Training Programme for Care Workers and Caregivers does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in therein lies entirely with the authors.

The Delivery of the Training Programme for Care Workers and Caregivers is prepared in the framework of the CARER+ project co-funded by the Competitiveness and Innovation framework Programme - ICT Policy Support Programme.

Table of contents

Preamble sections / 5
Document Summary / 7
Purpose and Scope of the Deliverable / 8
Training Programme Delivery / 9
The structure of the training programme / 9
Target groups / 11
Distribution of roles in the provision of the training programme / 11
The availability of the training programme: a virtual learning environment / 12
The implementation of the training programme / 12
Timing for the delivery of the training programme / 13
Administering the training programme / 15
Evaluation of the training programme / 15

Results of the Training Programme Delivery

/ 16

Document summary

CARER+ project was initiated in order to link together and improve those attempts that focus on the improving the ageing process of older people at home and in the community by using modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve the quality of their life.

The CARER+ pilot programme is over a period of 10 months for care workers and caregivers and a period of 6 months for care recipients, and their families. 200 care workers and 50 informal caregivers will be involved in the Continuous Professional Development Programme.

The pilot programme requires that care workers and caregivers will participate in 40 hours of face-to-face learning and will have completed by 160 hours of distance learning. The 200 hours training programme has been worked out by King’s College London, as a project partner. The programme combines individual experiential learning with personal projects, peer mentoring and cooperative learning approaches. This approach foregrounds self-study and reflective learning through public portfolios, and the development of design patterns for articulating and sharing good practices.

During the pilot phase there will be constant community animation, group and individual support.

This Deliverable is to follow and summarise the launch and results of the training programme in the five piloting countries.

The document is divided into two main chapters. The introductory ‘Training Programme Delivery’ part includes a general but short overview of the training programme and its implementation. It covers the following issues:

 the structure of the training programme,

 target groups involved,

 distribution of roles in the provision of the training programme,

 the availability of the training programme: a virtual learning environment,

 the implementation of the training programme,

 timing for the delivery of the training programme,

 administering the training programme and the

 evaluation of the training programme.

Part II, ‘Results of the Training Programme Delivery’ gives a detailed report about the realisation of the training programme based on the evaluation results described in this document. This second section can be completed at the end of the training programme.

Purpose and Scope of the Deliverable

This Deliverable has the following aims:

 to give a short overview of the structure of the training and the learning materials,

 to identify the target groups involved in the training,

 to introduce the availability and operation of the training (technical provision),

 to ensure about evaluation procedures and tools and

 to provide a closing summary of the results of the training in each country (number of participants, modules attended etc.).

However, this document does not provide details of the effectiveness of the training therefore it focuses on the technical operation and delivery of it. (The effectiveness of the training will be analysed in D5.8 Impact Assessment Report based on the impact assessment research accompanying the pilot exercise.)

The provision of the training programme is inter-correlated with WP4 and WP5 and its core deliverables, as:

 D4.1 Online learning environment

 D4.2 Curriculum design with specific subject learning pathway maps

 D4.3 Set of learning resources and evidence samples

 D4.4 Micro-certification system, including the proficiency badges

 D4.5 Skills and competence profiling tool for new learners/users

 D5.1 Handbook for re-Pilot, Pilot and Post-Pilot Phases.

Training Programme Delivery

CARER+ aims to help care workers by defining the new skills of the care workers, skills that can give care workers a new and vital role as a ‘Carer+’. Care workers have many challenges in their profession: little formal accreditation or recognition of prior experience, limited access to technology, lack of chances to continue studying, etc. All of these challenges need to be recognised and solutions found.

Care workers in the CARER+ project will have free access to modern ICT tools; they can freely attend the training and they can apply and try their new skills in the practice of home care. The first part of the project - the so-called pilot phase - requires carers to participate in a training of which are partly face-to-face learning partly by distance learning. This training will develop the care worker’s digital competencies and help establish new working practices. Care workers will then provide 6 months home care service to older people by using the device they received.

The structure of the training programme

The CARER+ training is based on a previous identification of digital competences and a scaffolding of the learning architecture and resources. The project partners have produced a Digital Competence Framework (D2.2) organised according to: 3 Competence Domains; 11 Competence Areas; 41 Competences and 2 Application Levels.

The three main competence domains are:

 Domain A) General digital competence: competences relevant for the development of general ICT literacy (information, communication, content creation, safety competence areas).

 Domain B) Enabling digital competence in social care work: competences to make the application of digital technology possible, sustainable and accepted by both care workers and care recipients (acceptance and adaptation of technology in care work, progression and support competence areas).

 Domain C) Care-specific digital competence: competencies focused on care sector-specific application of digital competence and on enhancing the employability of carers through organisational digital competence and skill management (competence areas of personal development and social integration of carers and independent living and social participation of care recipients and care coordination).

Utilising the Digital Competence Framework, King’s College London has designed and developed the learning pathways and related learning materials (D4.2 Curriculum design with specific subject learning pathway maps):

Figure 1: Logic of the design of the training programme

The programme comprises a total of five courses: two core compulsory courses that must studied one after the other; followed by three electives in areas of professionalization and the provision of social care interventions. The programme is designed to work in a blended setting with all activities supported by a virtual learning environment and an online, social network community. Each of the individual courses is approximately 35 hours in total and designed to run over a period of eight weeks with short, small group, weekly face-2-face sessions with a mentor. Assessment is via portfolio submission and multiple choice questionnaire completion.

The five courses cover the following areas:

Course 1: This course covers foundational digital competence and is designed to lead the participants from a novice or beginner state to one where they are confident in both the use of mobile Internet devices, basic applications, security, privacy and digital content.

Course 2 is the second core course and situates the care worker as a designer of care interventions to develop capability to build and test solutions to identified problems.

Course 3 focuses on the professional development activity of the participants to enhance their competences in the areas of planning, reporting, communicating and networking and professional profile building.

Course 4 focuses on promoting independent and assisted living. It is orientated towards designing and implementing social care interventions with ICT to support and promote independent living for care recipients

Course 5 focuses on ensuring that participants will be able to design and implement ICT based interventions with care recipients.

Target groups

200 carers and 50 informal caregivers will be involved and provided by the training programme in frame of CARER+ pilot exercise. An exact description and identification of carers, as well as involvement and recruitment strategies and procedures can be found in D5.7 Handbook for Pre-Pilot, Pilot and Post-Pilot Phases. Detailed piloting scenarios are also available in this Deliverable (with country specifications of the target groups).

Each piloting country will involve 40 formal carers and 10 informal caregivers.

Open piloters are also invited via a Call for Open Pilot (

The training programme is available in English, French, Italian, Latvian, and Romanian and in Spanish. Since the translation of the training programme and the related learning materials would need more time than Carer+ can provide for the pilot exercise, it will be available only in the above mentioned six languages.

Distribution of roles in the provision of the training programme

3S is conducting a research aiming to map the needs and state of care related digital skills and competences and based on research results it prepares the D2.2 Competence Framework.

King’s College London (KCL)

KCL provides the curricula and virtual learning materials via the following deliverables:

 D4.1 Online learning environment

 D4.2 Curriculum design with specific subject learning pathway maps

 D4.5 Skills and competence profiling tool for new learners/users

KCL provides support to the evaluation of the training.

University of Macerata (UNIMC)

UNIMC providing several complementary documents to implement the training, as:

 D4.3 Set of learning resources and evidence samples

 D4.4 Micro-certification system, including the proficiency badges

UNMC also provides support to the evaluation of the training.

Telecentre Europe AISBL

Telecentre-Europe is responsible for the coordination of the pilot including the training programme. It provides continuous support to the Pilot Institutions to launch and implement the training programme and also is taking part in the evaluation of the training. Telecentre-Europe also provides a support to the possible open piloters with the launch and implementation of the training.

Pilot Institutions: IRS, EOS, Iniciativas Innovadoras, IPERIA, LSA

Pilot Institutions are responsible for the translation of the learning materials and its availability at local levels, to involve and motivate carers as pilot participants to attend the training. Through the local staffs, they provide individual and group support to carers during the training.

The availability of the training programme: a virtual learning environment

The design of the learning programme is sensitive to the learner journey to ensure a coherent path from participant entry, study progress through to the exit. These three elements have been scaffolded by:

 An entry profiling tool to baseline participant skills and knowledge and to assess their readiness to study and attitudes to ICT use.

 Micro-certification delivered through a badging system that rewards skills acquisition and promotes positive learning behaviours and community activity in the VLE.

 A specific course on professionalization that supports personal development planning and enhancement of the individual’s professional status and social capital.

Finally, an important element of sustainability has been built in to the programme through a ‘train the trainers’ pathway that offers advanced participants an opportunity to become mentors for the programme.

The participants will learn in the framework of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) consisting of three tools: a social network, a learning platform and a competency wiki. The social network will integrate or give access to the learning platform and the competency wiki. In each piloting country participants shall access to these tools developed in their national language.

The implementation of the training programme

Set up the learning environment in piloting countries

The training programme has been designed in English by KCL and has been provided via CARER+ website and a Competence Wiki (D4.1 Online Learning Environment developed by King’s College London).

Piloting partners translate the learning materials into their languages via a Moodle platform. In order to a better understanding, piloting partners are also expected to make an adaptation of some specific exercises (i.e. Youtube links, sample exercises) embedded in their cultural traditions and environment (D4.3 Set of learning resources and evidence samples by UNIMC).

The participants (carers) will create their own account (Gmail) and these accounts will be collected and registered at the CARER+ platform. This way, carers will be able to join the learning environment on their own languages and attend the training modules.

Individual support to carers

The programme will start with a self-assessment of digital competences by the carers and an external assessment of digital competences. The procedure and content for the self-assessment of skills are described in D4.5 Skills and competence profiling tool for new learners/users (developed also by KCL in frame of the project).

Each participant in the training programme will have a reference person (a mentor) for solving specific questions related to the individual learning experience and for indentifying individual learning pathways.

Mentorship roles are described in D5.1 Handbook for Pre-Pilot, Pilot and Post-Pilot Phases.

Community animation: group activity support

There will be constant community animation and group support to participants during the pilot phase provided by the Pilot Institutions. A social network will be created on the portal through which carers will be encouraged to communicate with each other and share their experiences, support each other etc. The social network will be set up with a Drupal tool and will be available in piloting countries’ languages.

Networking and cooperative activities are opportunities that support the need of care workers and informal caregivers as well as older people to get connected instead of their usual separation and isolation and to share experiences and support each other during the training and the service provision to care recipients. Community animation should function as a tool to increase the motivation of the carers and can help to get over their some of their difficulties associated with their informal relationships.

Local mentors will be required to organise and support these activities by following the relevant sections and provided tools by the D5.1 Handbook for Pre-Pilot, Pilot and Post-Pilot Phases.

Timing for the delivery of the training programme

The training programme lasts 10 months (as well as the pilot exercise). In the 5th month of the training delivery care recipients will join the pilot and they will be coupled with carers. It will give a new, additional aspect to the training since a mutual learning and knowledge and skill transfer will occur between carers and care receivers.

Considering the delay of the launch of the pilot exercise, the updated timing is shown below.