Recommendations for an European Curriculum for Care Assistants of People with Disabilities

Designation of Occupation

1. Care Assistant (f/m) for People with Disabilities
2. A training for this purpose will differ very much in reference to special target groups (p.e. students, family members, special employment situations as German “Zivildienst” or “Soziales Jahr”, unemployed persons looking for a new job perspective or persons seeking a first qualification step for a professional career). Each training provider will consider the needs and chances of its given trainees, while these recommendations do not refer to a special group.
3. The trainee’s work must not substitute more qualified work staff, when the rights and wishes of assisted persons require those services.

Duration of Traineeship

• 200 hours / 4 months

  Venues for training are facilities of a training provider and place(s) of internship

• An appropriate number of lessons/hours might be added for items of general, cultural and political education, training in a second language …, depending on special target groups. As competence in ICT is most important for any trainee, it is to be recommended to put special emphasis on this subject.
• We recommend two periods of internship (practical stays one with a disabled person living at his/her own home and one in a rehabilitation or living institution) with not less than 80 hours each in about three weeks all together. These hours are not included in the 200 mentioned above.

Occupational Profile

Field of Activity

1. The assistant will be guided by the rights and wishes of the assisted persons, look of their and his/her own safety and develop as far as possible a professional understanding of her/his performances, which enhances inclusion in society and cooperation with other partners, mainly in the following fields of activity:

   A) Delivering personal services

   B) Assisting person with handicap in their tasks in household, place of education / training, work or leisure places

   C) Promoting assisted person’s inclusion in society

   D) Organise own work as needs of assisted person might require flexible work in special surroundings and time frames

2. Special questions and tasks of elderly peoples’ care and nursing as well as those to assist persons with severe psychic disabilities are not part of the training concept proposed here.

Occupational Skills

I) Practical skills to give assistance in the fields of activity mentioned above

II) Knowledge of basic facts for understanding situation, abilities and rights of assisted persons and the surrounding structures

III) Competences of communication and cooperation with assisted persons and their family, colleagues at work …, assistants from other professions

IV) Attitude of self-development in adapting oneself to the faculties and assistance needs of other persons without loosing sight of own situation

Framework Curriculum

Syllabus of Training Items

The syllabus in the following table links a list of items suggested and found relevant during the partnership work to the fields of activities and competences described above. We recommend that a training provider considers this syllabus in relation with the rights, wishes and needs of future assistance users and the special target group of trainees and develops its learning objective and planned learning outcome accordingly. Some examples are given in the sample lessons in annex to these recommendations.

General Training Plan

General explanations

1. As we propose a duration of 4 months and 200 hours this means 50 hours per month. As times for approximately 2 ½ internship weeks are not included in the 200 hours, the weekly training time in the remaining 13 or 14 training weeks would be about 15 hours.
2. Following these recommendations, the procedures seem to be a half-day training on 3 or 4 days a week. When items of “general education” are added, it would be 5 or even 6 half days. A training provider might choose to offer a course on one or two full days, combined with half-day(s) or might offer a minimum training on evening hours in combination with some week-end sessions. Providers with wide areas of “influence” giving accommodation to their trainees might decide to condense this course to a less numbers of weeks by organizing full-day-training and practise. On the other hand, it seems not necessary that a local training provider offers whole day stay facilities (or overnight accommodation) to its trainees, who probably continue living at their resp. homes.
3. Training providers have to realise that trainees will probably combine course attendance with a (small) part-time job, an independent small business, a perhaps reduced study program, job-seeking activities when unemployed or family and community responsibilities (child-minding, care for elderly parents …). Particularities depend on the choice of target groups. We suggest that even the tighter schedule of the proposed internship weeks is not a decisive obstacle for continuing these tasks, as the internships have to be planned weeks in advance and the training provider might offer help in organising substitution. A training provider should therefore be able to understand such situations, especially for women, offer qualified advise and be able to cooperate with service providers which offer child minding, care service for elderly or disabled persons or even substitution on independent small business or agricultural facilities. Staff should be able to advise a trainee about dealing with an employer about part-time working hours etc. Certainly, all this it not necessary if some other institution, agency … provide it, but the training provider and his staff should consider such situations of their trainees!
4. Reflecting the importance of e-learning and the use of ICT in learning, we strongly recommend that a training providers make any possible effort to include methods of ICT and web based learning in the “classroom” or other suitable activities in order to use the potential of these learning strategies for case-studies, motivation and evaluation of personal learning outcomes. It might be possible for trainees to make acquaintance with persons with disabilities and see their potential via web-based learning strategies who they could not get in touch with in any other place. Still, reflecting on the situation of this short curriculum, we do not recommend to use “decentralized” e-learning strategies which would make it necessary for trainees to study at an PC at home. The case is different if the training provider organizes this training piece by piece over a longer period of time.

Internships

1. Internship weeks should be placed around mid-course (7th to 9th training week). At least one week-end should be included as typical performances with leisure time activities should be introduced, too. These internships would include job-shadowing and applying training activities.
2. It seems to be very difficult to find suitable places for internship “at home” as the assisted persons, his/her regular assistant and the trainee must not “stand on each others feet”: After all, it is clear that a training provider cannot be successful without very good “connections” to associations of disabled persons or service providers and the trust of community, formal and informal networks of disabled people in his area.

Time order of items

1. Overview of training weeks:

   

   Therefore the training might be divided in these 5 stages:
   a) introduction weeks
   b) preparation for internship period
   c) internships
   d) evaluation of internships and consolidation of competences
   e) preparation for examination or securing of results

2. Example for planning a training period – first stage

   As an example for further planning a training curriculum, we recommend the following topics as subjects of the first training weeks – all necessary items like general introduction into the training, get-to-know of institutions, trainers and other participants, obligation and rights of trainees, practical and technical questions, clearance of expectations for the training set aside -, before the period of practical internship:

   • Importance of human rights / human dignity in everyday life and assistance tasks and communication. Understanding of “help for self-help” priciples, not to “over-support”, “over-protect” an assisted persons, but communicate about needs and feelings with respect for their self-esteem, recognizing and avoiding .stereotypes and prejudices
   • Typical needs related to types of disabilities – ability to recognize these needs and communicate about them with an assisted persons and other assistants
   • Respecting privacy and intimacy – assistant being a guest in the home/sphere of living / working / learning of another person – empathic behaviour, giving self-confidence
   • How to communicate in a professional way, be able to listen and to understand (and see to own) unspoken messages, being able to talk and reflect about own way of behaviour and style of communication
   • Basic hygiene rules in a private home / in an institution
   • Basics rules for touching and bodily supporting another person when performing services like transfer, nutrition, assistance with dressing etc.
   • Working techniques to avoid p.e. own backache, muscular problems and other typical health risks
   • Juridical and practical questions of liability and data protection

   We recommend that training providers with target groups not acquainted with assistance and caring situations organise at least two “visit to practise days” during the first two weeks and gives opportunity to reflect these experiences during the “classroom” sessions of the training.

   The training provider should offer similar “visits to practise” to interested persons before they decide about entering the training, but this should not substitute the visit days mentioned above.

3. Questions about internship in a private home / with a person living independently

   It might result difficult to organise and arrange such practical stays and find persons with disability ready to welcome such an additional “guest” in his/her own. Nevertheless, we recommend strongly that trainees get to know the practise of independent living and not only institutional care situations. With special target groups, it might not be necessary to add a second practical stay of a different kind, but in general we upheld the principle stated above.

   Therefore training provider has to be part of a network including disabled persons and their associations and representations.

   Other proposals for a training provider to solve this difficulty are:

   • It might be easier to find places for practical stays with persons living in private organized community (flat-sharing) than with persons living as single.
   • After a short period of job shadowing the trainee might do the job on his own (without the “real” assistant) and apply his/her training , provided there is a well organised way for him/her and the assisted persons to “get help”’ and ask back.
   • Certainly the assisted persons has to have the assured right and the opportunity to get to know the trainee before he/she enters the private home and “reject” him/her without any formality.
   • The training provider should organize “workshops” with the assisted persons to prepare such practical stays, discuss all items about them and – if necessary – introduce and prepare them for possible difficulties.
   • There might be some sort of fee or at least reimbursement of additional expenditure to the assisted persons (the additional guest might use facilities, have a drink or refreshment in the home … it must not be takes for granted that the assisted persons provides these means).

To the trainees it has to be made clear that they have to follow the way and rhythm of living of the assisted person even if this practical stay is considered (perhaps paid for) as part of “their” vocational training.

Examination Requirements

This has to be considered by any training provider with reference to its special “target group”. Some might require a formal examination, others one a “certificate of attendance”.

Following European standards, it is to be recommended to use system of “credit points” for evaluation the trainees performance as well as for giving the trainer a clear view for training priorities (p.e. from a sum of 60 credit points to be reached during the complete training, 20 points might be gained from performance in practical stays, 20 points in training communicative competences (field of competence III) and 10 points in classroom training on the other fields of competence).

Annex

Resources

The outline of this proposal follows recommendations of:
>> Federal Institute for vocational Education and Training (BiBB Bonn), Vocational Training Regulations and the Process Behind Them (2006)

For definitions of above mentioned terms see
>> European Communities, The European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF), Annex 1 (2008) and
>> European Communities, Key Competences for Lifelong Learning – European Reference Framework, section “Key Competences” (2007)

On questions of ICT and e-learning:
>> Commission of the European Communities, Commission Staff Working Document SEC(2008) 2629 final, The use of ICT to support innovation and lifelong learning of all – A report on progress

On actual questions of Vocational Training
>> European Commission, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the council, the European Economic and social Committee and the Committee of the Regions COM(2010) 296 final, A new impetus for European cooperation in Vocational Education and Training to support the Europe 2020 strategy

Proposal for lesson planning

Please find below the link to the partnership’s proposal regarding the content and the timetable of the training procedure:

–> Modules of the training courses

Consortium

Members of the Leonardo Partnership 2008-10 “Training of Care Staff for People with Disability” are (A.P. = associate partner)

• Turk Spastik Çocuklar Derneği Sinop şubesi (until Jan. 2009)
• Boyabat Beyaz Menekşeler Özel Eğitim ve Rehabilitasyon Merkezi
• Sinop Halk Eğitim Merkezi ve Akşam Sanat Okulu (A.P.)
• Doğan Güneş Özel Eğitim ve Rehabilitasyon Merkezi (A.P.)
• Гражданско сдружение „Втори шанс” (“Second Chance” Civil Аssociation)
• CEIPES – Centro Internazionale per la Promozione dell’Educazione e lo Sviluppo
• Diakonisches Werk Bremen e.V.
• Neurologisches Rehabilitationszentrum Friedehorst gGmbH (A.P.)
• ΑΝΑΠΗΡΙΑ ΤΩΡΑ (DISABILITY NOW)
• Netværket – The Network
• Tøjhuscentret – Boligerne Lene Bredahlsgade (A.P.)

Partnership’s homepage: www.trainingofcarestaff.eu

Last modified June 2010 by Jürgen Stein, partnership coordinator