Active job placement of disadvantaged women in the field of White Jobs (Residential and Assisted Living Care)

Project number 2014 -1-ES01-KA202-003703

Background
The EU is experiencing significant demographic changes, as high life expectancy coupled with declining fertility rates as well as changes in employment and family patterns, result in greater demands for care services (OECD, 2005b). The job creation in this sector has been particularly relevant for women, which increases the “gender gap” in the sector, but also provides social and job inclusion opportunities to women with low qualifications. The sector faces some challenges, though:

• The current economic crisis has contributed to adding new needs on support services, to be met with fewer resources, since many EU countries have cut funding to the social sector, like in Spain and Italy.
• There are serious staff shortages in many countries, and oftentimes personnel don’t have sufficient or adequate skills due to a lack of quality training opportunities, both prior to entering the profession or as continuous career development (“Employment in the Care Sector in Europe” by European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities EASPD), leading to a growing need of qualified people all over Europe, as pointed out by CEDEFOP (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) in its “Quality assurance in the social care sector. The role of training” publication (2010).

Objectives
Focusing on the Residential and Assisted Living Care (RALC) field, CAREMPLOY aims at increasing the Vocational Training offer of high quality, aimed at the qualification of people (specially women) with low education levels on qualifications (EQF level 2), following the NQFs of 4 transferring countries, and tailored to the shortcomings and priorities of the current Vocational Training offer on such countries.

To that end, CAREMPLOY’s strategy relies on the transfer of the PREPÁRATE Training Programme, succesfully implemented in Navarra, Spain, with the following specific objectives:

• To analyze and correlate the RALC qualifications on NQFs and VET systems of 5 EU countries;
• To identify the Training Needs of Residential and Assisted Living Care Professionals;
• To transfer and adapt the PREPÁRATE Training Programme to the priority skills identified on the Needs Assessment Report and to the transferring regions’ NQFs demands and context specificities;
• To transfer and test the resulting Training Course to a B-learning model;
• To get official recognition at 4 transferring countries of CAREMPLOY Training by the regional/national certification bodies.

Topics
According to the strategic framework for European Cooperation in education and training (ET 2020) and Erasmus + CAREMPLOY develops the following themes:

• Reinforcement of links between VET and the world of work by involving RALC providers on project activities to identify their needs and incorporating the required skills and competences into training programmes.
• Acquisition of key competencies for employability in RALC sector.
• Promote entrepreneurship ( based on social economy models)
• Facilitate mobility through the official recognition of CAREMPLOY training programme on participating countries

Partners

• INITIATIVAS INNOVADORAS SAL (ES)
• FORMAZIONE CO&SO NETWORK (IT)
• CENTRUL PENTRU PROMOVAREA INVATARII PERMANENETE (RO)
• VSL SOCIALINIU INOVACIJU CENTRAS (LT)
• ORT FRANCE (FR)