Demographic ageing is one of the most serious challenges Europe is facing.

Better care and sustainability of health services calls for innovative ways to address the needs of older people.

Supporting homecare, i.e. care provided by professionals within users’ own homes, has been identified by EC as a possible solution.

Although a high number of old people and their families are searching for skilled practitioners, they often have to face a mismatch between the skills they are asking for and those offered by job-seekers.

The CARESS project will target this skill mismatch in order to overcome it.

The project addresses this scope by adopting an innovative approach to VET design and implementation.

An initial analysis of the context of homecare for old people will be carried out in the three countries involved in the project (Finland, Italy and Spain) and at European level in order to identify:

• existing older adults homecare practitioners and their respective skills and roles;
• existing curricula, VET and career pathways targeting them.

Information gathered through the initial analysis of the context has been organized and systematized in a EU framework for VET in the field of homecare. In addition, tools supporting the design of effective “compensative” VET modules targeting specific skill gaps have been developed.

Then national pilots has been designed with the support of the EU Framework and the design tools in oder to test their efficacy.

Pilots have been implemented in 3 different countries, targeting 3 different professionals: Social-Health operators (IT), Registered Nurses (SP), Practical nurses (FIN). They envisaged different educational methods and have been based both on formal (presence learning an e-learning) and non-formal/informal learning.

The CARESS project’s main outputs are:

• a WEB-BASED HOMECARE FRAMEWORK accessible for free in an online platform, including VET DESIGN TOOLS and enrichable by registered users; it collects information about 9 main categories of homecare professionals in 31 EU countries.
• 3 pilot courses (designed with the support of the Framework and its tools) targeting different professionals in 3 different countries: Social-Health operators (IT), Registered Nurses (SP), Practical nurses (FIN).
• an INTEGRATED PLATFORM FOR E-LEARNING and for supporting VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE, for trainers, professionals, associations, etc.
• free e-learning materials in 4 languages (EN, IT, SP, FIN): 93 multimedia contents, 3 videos, 60 materials supporting collaborative learning.

The CARESS project results will benefit both homecare professionals and VET providers/educational institutions, Regulatory institutions in the educational field, professional associations, public and private healthcare organisations/institutions, as well as older adults and their families.

The EU Framework and its design tools will support VET providers to design courses which target the ACTUAL skill gaps of different homecare professionals, being compliant with the main EU instruments and tools related to skills and occupations. The pilots have been recognized at local level by regulatory bodies and they will be replicated in further editions. Platforms and materials will be available for VET providers, professional associations and individual professionals.