Project motivation:

1.THE SUDDEN SHIFT TO ONLINE LEARNING, WHICH REQUIRES MORE SPECIALISED DIGITAL SKILLS for our trainers

 The COVID-19 crisis has greatly accelerated the need for upgrading and digital transformation of education&training systems across Europe. For example, in RO all European projects financed by POCU program (co-financed by ESF) which all include specific VET/learning opportunities for different target groups had two alternatives starting with March 2020: either to switch the learning schemes to online (being the FIRST year when online learning was recognized by ANC as formal qualification-only for more theoretical parts of the trainings) or to suspend the activities on unlimited time. Than, all the organizations were encouraged to upgrade their training skills to maintain the learning process at a satisfactory level and to maintain the learners’ attention, especially through online instruments. By A.2.1, A5.1, A5.2 our project aims at equipping training systems from partners’ organizations in Ro, BG, SP, IT to face the challenges presented by the recent sudden shift to online and distance learning, including supporting our trainers and researchers in VET field to develop digital competences and safeguarding the inclusive nature of learning opportunities.

2. THE POOR TRAINING OFFER FOR THIS TOPIC IN THE 4 COUNTRIES

In Romania and Bulgaria there are not available on the market scientific/documented courses for instructors in physical education of elders, creating a new content will be a value-added action for training systems in all 4 countries. In RO the SO for aerobic&fitness instructor is very general and it stipulates the need for low impact aerobic for seniors, but only in a general manner. In the pandemic context some of the most affected sectors were the training sector and the social care sector which proved extremely vulnerable even in very developed countries. The people working in social care who want to upgrade their skills do not have in all mentioned countries a large palette/offer to choose from. We will easily find training providers in ITC, in engineering, in financial services, but in the field of social services, which is poorly represented in countries such as RO or BG, we find only classic approach of the caregiver profession. Especially if we are talking about specialization and not the initial qualification. And if we really are looking for a specialized training kit/open course/online course in physical education of elders we will find within some training materials only content that will cover only few hours of training or materials in Eng. The learners working in social care will gain the tools to better respond to growing demand for services dedicated to active ageing. One of the functionalities envisaged by this course (instructor of physical education of elders) will be a necessity not just a new trend, once the day centers and the gym dedicated to elders became more important in prolong the active lives of seniors.

Objectives and results proposed by the project:

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

O1: increasing the extent of use of digital tools in learning process for 5 organisations in social care&kinetoprophylaxy in 4 countries-RO, BG, It, Spain by supporting 13 of its trainers &researchers in VET to develop digital competences and safeguarding the inclusive nature of learning.

RESULTS:

-13 of our partners organisations’ trainers&researchers in VET will increase their digital skills, technologies, innovative and open pedagogies in training after participating in 5 days intensive joint training in Italy (LMS for learning, Zoom, Big blue button, augmented reality for digital learning, to synchrony digital learning systems for online training);

- our training platform adapted in the project (being also a direct result of the fact that our experts will improve digital skills) will become an attractive tool for>300 trainees from 4 countries during project.

O2: increasing the knowledge of 13 trainers in the elderly care or kinetoprophylaxy from the 4 countries, on active ageing and concrete techniques of wellness improvement of elders by using know-how infusion from both sectors.

RESULTS:

- 13 trainers in the elderly care or kinetoprophylaxy from the 5 organisations will increase their know-how on the subject of active ageing and wellness improvement of elders by using know-how infusion from both sectors (during A2.2 they will learn from a multidisciplinary team of affiliates of ACRA on gamification of learning, socio-educational intervention in home care for elderly, relaxation&breathing techniques, mindfulness);

- Part of the 13 trainers will be involved in creating the training kit, then our joint team will be prepared to adapt exercises to the physical status of the elders, creating sets of exercises to specific targets-autonomous or semi-autonomous elders, use physical exercise to alleviate certain deficiencies/health problems.

O3: to increase the skills in elderly care and kineto-prophylaxis for 34 trainees&practitioners from 5 partner organizations under a scientific and cross-sector approach.

RESULTS:

- 34 trainees&practitioners from our 5 partner organizations involved in kinetoprophylaxy&social care will upgrade their skills by 3 practice mobilities of 6 working days, organized in Ro, BG and Italy, under a scientific and cross-sector approach.

O4: to increase the degree of attractivity of training tools used by training providers in elderly care sector from RO/BG/SP/IT by creation of a cross-sectoral training kit&1 updated platform allowing to learners to specialize and to better work to any of these countries on the topic of wellbeing and improving physical status of the elders.

RESULTS: 1 cross-sectoral digital training kit created withing the project+1eTraining platform - allowing to learners to specialize, to better work to any of the 5 countries on the topic of wellbeing and improving physical status of the elders they care; the kit will be useful to many qualifications and specialization available on NQF2

Innovative aspects of this project:

A) The subjects approached in the joint staff training event in Naples during the 3rd month of implementation: Augmented reality for digital learning, synchrony digital learning systems -Zoom or Big Blu Button integrated in LMS’s;

B) The cross-sectoral dimension of the training kit that will combine concepts and practices from elderly care&social services (innovative exercises, energizers, ice-breakers, Occupational Therapy for elders), physical education-especially kineto-prophylaxis (low impact aerobics, Pilates, yoga, functional training), psychology (motivation of elders to change habits and to take action);

C) The training kit may be used for 2 main sectors which are similar conceived in mentioned countries: 1) social services providers: socio-educational animation technician/ socio-educational animator or elderly caregivers and 2) for sector dedicated to physical education or kineto-prophylaxis: aerobic and/or fitness instructors for elders, physic therapist;

D) In Romania and Bulgaria we didn’t find suppliers of training treating the physical education of elders (especially of prophylaxis means) under scientific approach; this training kit it will be a novelty for CVT in these countries (the joint team found few suppliers in Italy but only in Italian language and few suppliers in Spain – with the same barrier of language); the best practices from It and SP will also be available for RO&SP and the cross-sector training kit will be translated in 4 languages;

E) A4.3-Testing new training kit to be adapted to the trainees and elders' needs it includes an innovative methodology: specialists from Global Help, UCV and ACRA will test the practical parts of the training kit, by delivering short training sessions of the spot, on the location of their affiliates/stakeholders: gyms for seniors, day centers for elders (like role models from BCN, Bucharest, Satu-Mare), residencies etc. By this, the content and format may be adjusted and validated until the end of the project.

Complementarity with other projects of the partner organizations in the project

This project is complementary to a previous project that 3 of the partners have already carried out, more exactly STRACOV Strategic cooperation in the field of elderly care vocational training, focusing on involvement of socio-economic actors, financed under E+ KA2, Strategic partnerships in VET. The digital training guide created within this project will upload on the mentioned learning platform or to a new one and would be a great follow up of our previous initiative. Also, the training kit will be digitalized and will be transformed into multimedia content with the help of Euroform experts, resulting an online dynamic course. The trainee will discover many innovative ways to understand the concepts, to perform the exercises on music, to learn by doing, he/she will have to opportunity to contact the researchers in the project to ask any supplementary information on the studied topic and to get their answer in video format. The past project created 3 common outputs: 1 complete curricula, 1 e-book with ISBN for professional care of the elderly, mixing know-how, experiences, best practices in 4 countries and 1 online platform - a collaborative space where partners’ staff created content, exchange ideas, organize webinars for other practitioners/trainees in the field and where the training curricula was uploaded in 5 languages-en, ro, bg, sp, it. The present project starts from 2 of the units of competences from the previous curricula, where the subject of physical activities was approached in an integrative manner and at a non specialized level, only by proposing and leading social games or icebreakers or easy exercises, which does not require any specialized skills. This new project continues the topic of the previous project (elderly care), isolate a narrow subject and give it a new dimension at a specialized level, enabling workers in social care to adapt to elders’ status (autonomous elders from day centers or semi-autonomous from residencies).