European ‘A la carte’ tool for efficient education in healthcare

Since October 2017 five healthcare institutes and VET-schools (Vocational Education and Training) out of several European countries work together in a new project Inventory For Care À La Carte (IFCALC), sponsored by Erasmus+KA2.
The organizations come from The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Turkey. All work within health care and with refugees. The coming years the partners  want to compare health care vocational education and training (VET) at the partner countries, discover the possibilities for 'tailor made' health care education to refugees and make an inventory of the requirements necessary for adoption of a  'à la carte’ tool for this type of education in all partner countries.

Shortage of nursing and caring professionals in the EU

According to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, there are growing concerns about a shortage of nursing and caring professionals in the EU and these may become exacerbated as the population continues to age and a relatively high proportion of nurses and caring professionals move from employment into retirement.

The partners aim to develop an efficient education-tool for training migrants and refugees as nursing and caring workers. In this way they can solve a part of the future shortage of health care professionals in the EU.

Education is a key part of the integration process for migrants

Although there are differences in requirements for skills and competences for newcomers in the European society, this does not mean that all newcomers have to be completely re-educated. Many of them already have a vocational degree including relevant experience. Complete re-education (starting at the beginning) would be very frustrating for both trainees and trainers and also very inefficient in terms of time and means/finances. A huge leap in efficiency can be made if it is determined what relevant skills and competences are already available and which still need to be gained.

That's where the 'à la carte’ tool comes in sight. The tool will help to determine prior gained competences and skills. The needed education (including language and cultural awareness) can be made ‘tailor fit’ and personal. The partners aim to develop this ‘a la carte’ healthcare tool for use across whole Europe.

The partners of the Inventory For Care À La Carte project:

Please find the outcomes of the ‘Inventory for care à la carte’ project on the website of "ifcalc".