Erasmus+ Project "caremobility" 5th Newsletter

26 June 2017

5th Project Newsletter Dear colleagues, friends and partners from all over Europe,

Welcome to our 5th Project Newsletter. They say all good things must come to an end. Our project will be finishing in several months, and we are really proud of its results. Care4mobility team created two intellectual outputs: 1. Units of Learning Outcomes for mobilities, described according to ECVET principles. 2. Quality Guideline for mobility projects in health and social care professions.

Meanwhile, the partner institutions have tested the project results by implementing three learner mobilities according to ECVET principles in Lithuania, Germany and Italy. Learners' exchange was implemented using blended mobility, which means that we had to use online tools for preparatory and follow-up activities. For this purpose, we mainly communicated through mobile applications and social networks, such as Facebook and WhatsApp, which perfectly suit for group conversations, pictures and documents exchange.

The partner institutions paired up to three teams of sending and hosting institutions. Then, based on 15 Units of Learning Outcomes following ECVET requirements already developed during the partnership, agreed on a specific unit to be developed during each of the three learner mobilities and signed bilateral Learning Agreements. All international training activities took place by following Intellectual Output no. 2 - Quality Guideline for mobility projects in health and social care professions. We hope you enjoy reading our mobility reports!

Best wishes Your care4mobility project team

Mobility in Lithuania, Klaipeda Sending institution:

Kanuni Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi, Erdemli (TR).

Receiving institution:

Education, Research & Consultancy Center (LT).

Training title:

COMMUNICATION & COOPERATION SKILLS IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE PROFESSIONS

Date:

from 23rd April till 6th May 2017.

Number of participants:

10 students and 3 teachers.

Teaching methods used: Individual work (reading, writing, listening), working in pairs/groups (active listening, writing, speaking, cooperation), watching and analysing video material (active listening and seeing, speaking, cooperation), drama based activity (speaking, listening, cooperation), warming-up games to concentration build up, study visit to hospital.

Assessment method:

1. Answers to questions in written form. 2. Simulation of situations.

Learning outcomes achieved:  Demonstrate positive and innovative thinking in developing consensus with patients.  Display competence in verbal and non-verbal communication.  Apply communication theories.  Communicate ethically.  Demonstrate positive group communication exchanges.  Respond effectively to cultural communication differences.

Strategic Partnership “care4mobility: Promoting the Efficiency of VET Learner Mobilities in health and social care professions by implementing ECVET” Project No. 2015-1-DE02-KA202-002483 Funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

26 June 2017

5th Project Newsletter

Lessons we learnt: When teacher gets the group of students from very different cultural and educational environment, he/she has to be quite flexible and always ready to adapt teaching material, pace and methods to the capability and particularity of learners. For example, our teacher was forced to make more and longer breaks, because lessons in VET schools of Turkey are shorter, and pupils were not able to concentrate their attention longer than 40 minutes during lessons in Lithuania.

The appropriate level of foreign language of all participants in the group is very important aspect during international training. Although our group from Erdemli fulfilled all training programme, teacher had to facilitate the learning material and teaching process itself – to add more video presentations, simulation tasks and warmingup games. Final evaluation report showed that pupils from Turkey were very happy with teaching methods, especially games, which is a perfect tool of active learning. Also students said that mobility was long enough to fulfil their learning objectives. Turkish students successfully passed the exam and received ECVET certificates with their personal transcript of records.

Mobility in Germany, Dresden Sending institution:

ROC de Leijgraaf (NL).

Receiving institution:

Berufsfachschule für Altenpflege der WBS Schulen (DE).

Training title:

COMMUNICATION WITH PATIENTS IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Date:

from 7th May till 21st May 2017.

Number of participants:

5 students and 1 teacher.

Teaching methods used: role play, group work, study visit to health care facilities, visit of an exhibition (topic: Language), simulation, case studies, individual and group reflections, student presentations.

Assessment method:

Role Play

Learning outcomes achieved:  Overcome Language and Cultural Communication Barriers  Work with translators and interpreters  Choose the most suitable communicative way and make the language as plain as possible autonomously.  Give and receive feedbacks to overcome any possible misunderstanding and ambiguity  Employ the best and the most effective communication techniques for the patient.

Strategic Partnership “care4mobility: Promoting the Efficiency of VET Learner Mobilities in health and social care professions by implementing ECVET” Project No. 2015-1-DE02-KA202-002483 Funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

26 June 2017

5th Project Newsletter

Lessons we learnt: It was the first time at our school that we joined a group of Dutch leaners with a group of German learners. As expected, everybody underlined that it was one of the best parts of the mobility to meet young people from another country, to work with them and to become aware of intercultural differences and to become tolerant for different ways of thinking. Nevertheless, as regards communication in the classroom, it is important that everybody sticks to the rules, which is in our case to communicate in English only. Of course it is tempting to speak in your mother tongue with your friends, but at the same time other parts of the learners group will miss important ideas and arguments. So again, appropriate language skills of the participants are of high importance for a successful mobility and for assuring that all learning outcomes can be acquired in the best possible way. If language skills are weak, the sending and hosting partners have to talk about that before the mobility, so that appropriate learning and teaching methods can be prepared.

We also found that some teaching and learning methods can be new for learners. In particular, when it comes to self-responsible methods, for example research activities, group discussions or project work. Of course, these methods are efficient to develop certain professional skills. But teachers and trainers should be aware that learners might need some time to get used to these working and learning methods, so that in the end it might take some more time to achieve all learning outcomes.

Last but not least, it was great for us to see, how the students’ skills developed over the two weeks of training. In the end, it would not even have been necessary to carry out a formal assessment. In particular, in a small students’ group, you can sometimes tell from observation in the classroom that all learners have successfully achieved the aim of the training, i.e. have acquired all learning outcomes.

Strategic Partnership “care4mobility: Promoting the Efficiency of VET Learner Mobilities in health and social care professions by implementing ECVET” Project No. 2015-1-DE02-KA202-002483 Funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

26 June 2017

5th Project Newsletter

Mobility in Italy, Bergamo Sending institution:

Centrum Ksztalcenia Pracownikow Sluzb Spolecznych (PL).

Receiving institution:

Et Labora (IT).

Training title:

NUTRITION: EASY COOKING.

Date:

from 7th May till 21st May 2017

Number of participants:

10 students and 1 tutor

Teaching methods used: creative play, group work, study visit to local nursing home, cooking workshops in an industrial kitchen, experiential learning, simulation, case studies, individual and group reflections.

Assessment method:

Case study, Written test

Learning outcomes achieved:  Provide and prepare meals  Assist the service user in preparing meals  Motivate and encourage people to cook  Buy groceries in an economic manner  Offer effective nutritional counselling  Make meals look inviting  Keep himself / herself clean and hygienic  Keep the working area clean and hygienic  Store food safely  Prepare, cook and hold food safely Lessons we learnt: The lessons learnt are similar to those experienced by the group that carried out the mobility in Lithuania. The appropriate level of language knowledge to be able to carry out a training abroad successfully is very important. The Polish group had a basic level of knowledge of Italian so they chose to carry out the training straight in Italian, instead of English. However, with a basic language level it took a lot of additional work for the teachers to pass the information to the students and for students to receive the messages in a clear way, including a lot of time spent on translation activities. This means that the time necessary for the activities needed to be prolonged and teacher also needed to invest more time into developing training content that could be more easily transmitted to the group. This problem was however much less present during the experiential learning moments.

The group appreciated the use of the experiential training methods, and especially the work in the industrial kitchen.

Strategic Partnership “care4mobility: Promoting the Efficiency of VET Learner Mobilities in health and social care professions by implementing ECVET” Project No. 2015-1-DE02-KA202-002483 Funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

26 June 2017

5th Project Newsletter

Yes, all good things must come to an end. In the case of our project “care4mobility”, we believe, that this project will be sustainable and will have a strong impact on quality of mobilities of students studying health and social care professions. At least we will do our best in order to share good practice of ECVET mobilities with other institutions in Europe and partner countries as well as strengthen our partnership and project's outcomes by follow-up activities, such as signing up Memorandum of Understanding, conducting multiplier events, networking with regional stakeholders. This is what we will do during last few months of the project.

Contacts WBS TRAINING AG and WBS Schools - Dresden, Germany Mrs. Marianne Kolpe Marianne.Kolpe@wbstraining.de www.wbstraining.de

Mrs. Judita Kampe Judita.Kampe@wbs-schulen.de www.wbs-schulen.de

ERCC – Klaipėda, Lithuania Mrs. Julija Šešeika ercc.klaipeda@gmail.com www.ercc.lt

Centrum Kształcenia Zawodowego i Ustawicznego – Skarżysko-Kamienna, Poland Mr. Lukasz Plusa centrum.skarzysko@gmail.com www.ckpss.edu.pl

ET LABORA – Bergamo, Italy Mr. Andrea Bianchi andrea.bianchi@fondazioneikaros.org www.fondazioneetlabora.org

Kanuni Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School – Erdemli, Turkey Mr. Ozan Gucenmez o_gucenmez@hotmail.com erdemlikanuni.meb.k12.tr

ROC de Leijgraaf – Veghel, Netherlands Mrs. Anita Blezer-Diender anita.blezer@leijgraaf.nl www.leijgraaf.nl This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Strategic Partnership “care4mobility: Promoting the Efficiency of VET Learner Mobilities in health and social care professions by implementing ECVET” Project No. 2015-1-DE02-KA202-002483 Funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union