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Newsletter 6

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Editorial

Welcome to the 6th and final M-CARE Newsletter.

It covers the final activities realized within the frame of the M-CARE pro-

ject in the period October — December 2015. This issue will make an

overview of actions and interventions made by all Partners in the last

project months, as well as will look forward to the future as well, with a

string of relevant future events announcements.

In the first section you can find information about the pilot phase in Bul-

garia, Belgium, Germany and Turkey. If you want to know how the test-

ing was run and what the main conclusions and recommendations are,

go to this heading of the Newsletter.

In the dissemination section you can learn more about final dissemina-

tion events of M-CARE project held in Brussels, Sofia, and Plovdiv. In

addition you will be informed about various dissemination events in

Partners’ countries where the project was promoted.

Last but not least the Newsletter ends with special section dedicated to

project sustainability. Here you will find news about how Partners en-

sure further use of M-CARE outcomes in their countries under the head-

ing “Sustainability”.

Don’t forget to follow the progress of the project on the official M-CARE

website which will remain active even after the end of the project. We

wish you a pleasant reading and in case you want to contact the editor’s

team, please use interprojectsbg@gmail.com.

The whole team of M-CARE project would like to thank all of you for supporting us in the last two years. No matter that the project will end

on 31st December 2015 we would like to assure you that our efforts to

promote and mainstream the M-CARE training programme will continue

with the same enthusiasm and dedication.

M-CARE PILOT PHASE

Piloting in Turkey The pilot phase ended

on the 23rd of De-

cember in Turkey with

the delivery of the

certificates of atten-

dance to the partici-

pants. A total of 20

participant completed

the training success-

fully. We had 3 trainers from the research group who were work-

ing with an academic degree in Gazi University. Two of them were

physiotherapist and one of them was working in vocational health

care school. They all have teaching and training experience since

they are expertise in that field.

In the first part of the piloting phase the participants were trained

by the lectures offered by the trainers. The main role of the train-

ers were to provide didactical support to the piloters, as well as to

give practical courses about some modules, like first aid, hygiene

and mobility. The practical sessions took place in the laboratories

of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Physiotherapy

and Rehabilitation at Gazi University. The piloters also had the op-

portunity to have face-to-face support, individually from the train-

ers.

The piloters went through all training modules, using the mobile

app, also exploring the content through the online training plat-

form, using electronic presentations as well as the hard copy of

the al modules. After completing the training all the participants

went through an assessment process done for all the modules in

the training. All the participants improved their knowledge and ex-

perience regarding the modules in the field of care giving. Among

the highly recognized modules were hygiene, physiological needs,

daily care at home, psychological empowerment and mobility.

In order to get more impressions about the feedback given by the

Turkish piloters, here are some statements by piloters:

Zülal: This training offered be the opportunity to know more

about the needs of a disabled people.

Suna: The practical training gave us the opportunity to try

and feel the right and the wrong movements.

Kudret: Using the app gave me the opportunity to study on

the modules everywhere and every time.

Piloting in Bulgaria

The pilot phase in Bulgaria has ended on the 18th December with

a Final Certification event where all 22 participants received their

certificates for participation in M-CARE training programme out of

the hands of the Belgian coordinator PhoenixKM. Piloting went

swiftly and the training content was positively assessed both by trainees and trainers.

Regarding the profile of the participants we had personal caregiv-

ers, social workers, personal assistants, medical nurses. All of them are currently employed either by the Municipality of Plovdiv, or by private elderly care agencies in Bulgaria, therefore we con-

sider their positive feedback as reliable and valuable.

The trainers, who facilitated M-CARE pilot phase in Bulgaria, were

3 experienced professionals. One of them is a VET trainer, another is a Pedagogical expert in the field of non-formal training, and the

other one is a practitioner who is working as a PCG. The main role

of the trainers was to provide didactical support to the piloters, as well as to give additional clarifications about the training content

upon request. Another important trainers’ task was to help the participants to interpret the training content in a proper and safe

way so that all have common understanding about the practical materials and guidelines.

Trainers played a significant role and gave a huge contribution to

the success of all participants because they executed the assigned

responsibilities in a professional manner.

The piloters went through all training modules, using not only the

mobile app but also exploring the content through the online

training platform and using offline electronic presentations. In ad-

dition the piloting included several face-to-face workshops where

the participants discussed in the group the topics taken from the content.

Thus, the per-

sonal caregiv-

ers had the

chance to util-

ize the training

materials using

a variety of

teaching meth-

ods. The com-

pleted quizzes

showed that

the participants

increased their

overall level of

competence and skills to provide qualitative and reliable care to

their clients. All 14 training modules were highly evaluated, how-

ever, the participants distinguished some modules as the most

useful ones. For example, among the highly recognized modules

were disability awareness, hygiene, physiological needs, daily care

at home, first aid and risks, communication and social inclusion,

psychological empowerment, and PCG burnout. The other 6 mod-

ules were also well received but the piloters considered them a bit

aside from their direct field work. However, they would explore

them in order to enhance their skills and attitudes needed for their

career promotion.

In order to get more impressions about the feedback given by the

Bulgarian piloters we give you several quotations:

Elena: I think that M-CARE mobile app tend to be my pocket

e-handbook that I will use during my daily work.

Kristina: This is a great training content that helps me a lot

in order to serve better my client with dementia.

Nina: M-CARE training modules are very practical and I am

sorry that they were not at my disposal when I started

working as a PCG. Now I feel more confident with what I am doing and I would like to recommend the training course to

my colleagues.

Piloting phase in Germany

The piloting phase for

the contents of the M-Care Learning Portal and

the M-Care Mobile App

was carried out among

EVBB members Interna-tionaler Bund (IB) and

Christliches Jugend-

dorfwerk Deutschlands (CJD). The participants

involved were mainly

trainers. They evaluated

the contents of all the different modules and contributed along with the EVBB Advisory Board to the recommendations given to

the project team.

The piloting from EVBB

side went well, recom-mendations from practi-

cal point of view, e.g. to

involve stakeholders in

the learning pathways as well as additional experts and establish practical

“try-out phases” etc. were given as well as

from the content-driven view as well, e.g. to dou-

ble check the compliance with national rules for PCG once again or the integration of a guide in the mobile app for first time users

etc.

EVBB will distribute the results and outcomes of the M-Care pro-

ject within its network of more than 50 members in Europe, Asia

and Africa.

(source of Photographs: Internationaler Bund)

Piloting in Belgium

Piloting took place in Flanders with 27

trainees and 3 trainers (1 expert user

who shared own experiences and 2 (ex-)

PCGs of which one with current position in

state centre for social support.) To ensure a close cooperation during the project and

fine-tune all materials in time for the pi-

loting, 1 PCG trainer also participated in

some of the project meetings.

Induction training sessions for the train-

ers were organised on 2 occasions in March and April 2015, while 14 sessions

were organised for the trainees.

Based on a close cooperation with the trainers and trainees, the

Belgian piloters identified a number of issues that were swiftly ad-

dressed by the Belgian pilot coordinator: The first aid module was extended upon request of partici-

pants to include a wider range of cases. This was included in

the online version. The mobility module lacked a unit on handling of wheelchairs:

The limited knowledge how to handle a wheelchair was raised by several piloters, as well as by expert users from our advi-

sory board. The Belgian coordinator immediately took action to introduce this as additional training material, addressing the core issues.

The policy modules will require regular up to date informa-

tion. A list of links is already helpful. This request is especially relevant due to the the changes in the personal budgets

made available to people with disabilities.

Some users expressed their satisfaction:

Nelly: “I consider this a VERY complete training, I have 5 years experience as PCG, and have never seen a workable

training, this one makes the difference, the more via the modular approach. Very well done “

Els: “The home visit to a PCG performing the work with a

client was very revealing and helped us to understand many

of the techniques that had been taught.”

Andy: ““Nothing about people with disabilities without peo-

ple with disabilities” has always been my personal motto. I am glad this training has been very close to what is happen-

ing on the field itself. A big thumbs up to the organisers!”

Belgian trainers and trainees also were invited and attended the

final M-CARE event in Brussels on 1 December 2015.

M-CARE dissemination events

M-Care mobile app presented at gi-Cluster Networking Day

Professor Constantinos

Mourlas presented M-Care

project at gi-Cluster Net-working Day, in Athens,

on 10 November. The

event was focused in

identifying networking op-portunities between uni-

versities and the industry.

In this context, the pres-entation focused on the

work undertaken under

the framework of the pro-ject both in academic terms (research, analysis of user require-

ments, gamification theory) as well as in terms of content and

technological solutions production (implementation of the applica-tion).

About 150 people repre-

senting academic institu-tions, research institutes,

and gi-Cluster members attended the M-Care

presentation. During the round table sessions the

representatives of the New Technologies Labora-

tory of the Department of Media - University of Ath-

ens had also the opportu-

nity to further discuss with the participants cooperation prospects regarding the future

exploitation of the project’s outcomes.

It is noted, that the gi-Cluster comprises of small and large com-panies, academic and research institutions, all involved in the

Gaming and Creative Technologies and Applications Industry.

M-CARE presented at Games and Learning Alliance confer-

ence 2015

University of Athens had the opportunity to present the M-Care

mobile application at the Games and Learning Alliance conference

(GALA 2015), in Rome on 9th December.

GALA is an interna-

tional conference

dedicated to the sci-

ence and application

of serious games.

The conference is or-ganized by the Seri-

ous Games Society,

which is building a

scientific community at international level

for shaping future research in the field. This community repre-

sents a significant blend of industrial and academic professionals committed

to the study, development and deploy-

ment of serious games as really useful

and effective tools to support better

teaching, learning, training and assess-

ment. The app was presented at the Games

for Health workshop, focusing espe-

cially on the adoption of gaming tech-

niques in situations where health and

well-being are involved.

Discussing the M-Care app with us-ability and accessibility experts

The M-Care application was presented

at the Usability and Accessibility days 2015, at the University of

Athens (UoA) on 19 December. The event gives the opportunity to the academic society to discuss recent developments in the

field of usability and user centered design and share good prac-

tices.

The New Technologies

lab of UoA presented M

-Care and had the op-

portunity to discuss its

features with several

experts. The app re-

ceived very encourag-

ing comments for both

the gamification fea-

tures and the multiple ways offered for accessing the learning ma-

terial, while some expressed their concern that the low penetra-

tion of smartphones/tablets among low skilled workers in Greece,

considering a challenging fact for future projects focusing on mo-

bile vocational training.

M-Care Final Dissemination Event in Sofia, Bulgaria

On 9th December 2015

Interprojects Ltd. team

organized a final dissemi-nation event on national

level held in Sofia, Bul-

garia. The main purpose

of the event was to make in-depth presentation of

M-CARE final outputs, as

well as to discuss with key stakeholders and policy makers on national level the opportu-

nities for future mainstreaming of project results.

The event was officially opened by Mincho Koralski, the Executive

Director of the National Agency of people with Disabilities. In his

welcome speech he congratulated the M-CARE project team about their achievements and the precious work that they have done. He emphasised the importance of such European projects which di-

rectly impacted the quality of the national system for social ser-vices. Afterwards the organizers read out the welcome address

sent by the Bulgarian Minister of Health.

Then the floor was given to the team of Interprojects LTD who demonstrated the mobile app, the e-learning platform, as well as the Bulgarian version of all training modules. The presentations

were followed by fruitful discussion where the participants shared

that they found M-CARE results very applicable to the work of PCGs and furthermore the representative of the State Agency for

Social Services and Support commented that they are coming just on time. He further explained that since 2016 all over Bulgaria

about 2300 new personal caregivers will be appointed on perma-

nent and part-time contracts. This means that M-CARE Training Programme might be included as a training tool with this planned

new job placements.

The event was attended by more than 40 participants coming from disability organisations, state institutions working in the field

of social affairs, policy makers such as National Ombudsman, the

experts from the Bulgarian Presidency administration, etc. In ad-

dition there were also representatives of VET centres, NGOs, and

Daily Care centres. All participants received conference packs con-

taining M-CARE dissemination materials and the event was ended by a cocktail where the participants continued networking in in-

formal environment.

For your information you can find the video from the conference

and the conference presentations on M-CARE website, slide share, and youtube.

M-CARE presented at "Capacity Building Seminars for Civil

Society Organisations"

The fourth and the last seminar within the scope of the Project:

"Capacity Building Seminars for Civil Society Organisations" was

held by Ministry of Family and Social Policy, General Directorate of

Services for Persons with Disabilities and the Elderly in Eskişehir

between 7 and 8 December 2015. The seminars were aimed at

monitoring and promoting the implementation of United Nations

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by the rele-

vant stakeholders. The participants of the seminar included repre-

sentatives of civil society organizations working in the field of dis-

ability, representatives of General Directorate of Services for Per-

sons with Disabilities and the Elderly. Approximately 80 persons

attended the seminar.

The presentations made in the seminar were mainly focused at

providing a rights based approach for disability studies, eliminat-

ing possible inadequacies in the capacity of CSOs, strengthening

the structure and operation of disability CSO's and providing infor-

mation and raising awareness on the implementation process of

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

M-CARE project was promoted in

this seminar through a short pres-

entation on current situation of the

project in general and the outputs

of the project. The participants

were informed about activities and

the partners of M-CARE Project. In-

formation on the mobile application and the website of the Project

were also announced to the participants.

M-CARE Dissemination Conference in Plovdiv, Bulgaria

December 2015 was the most intensive month for dissemination

of M-CARE final outcomes. The second consecutive event was or-

ganised in Plovdiv on 21st December 2015 in the format of confer-

ence entitled “Human capital development through education and training”. The attendees were 85 in number coming from public

administration, daily care centres, sheltered houses for people

with disabilities, rehabilitation and social inclusion centres, NGOs, VET schools, and other training providers. Among the participants

were also people with disabilities, psychologists, personal caregiv-

ers, teachers and trainers, and journalists.

The conference started with welcome speech by Veselina Boteva,

the Head of Social Services Department under The Municipality of

Plovdiv. She declared the readiness of the institution that she pre-

sents to keep on using the valuable M-CARE results for training of

staff recruited by the municipality.

Then the floor was given to the In-terprojects LTD team who presented

M-CARE final outputs using different attractive tools such as videos, dem-onstration, and discussions with the

audience.

The conference programme also in-cluded presentations by guests

speakers who talked about new

pedagogical approaches for educa-tion and training of people with dis-

abilities and professionals working with them. One of the most at-tractive part of the conference was the so-called awarding cere-

mony dedicated to the organizations who collaborated with Inter-

projects LTD in order to achieve better opportunities and make people with disabilities more independent and equal citizens. 24

plaques were handed to journalists who disseminated the project,

organizations and individuals who supported the implementation

of the project and contributed to its sustainability.

The conference was publicised by The Bulgarian National televi-

sion, Daric Radio and Maritsa Newspaper who published materials

and interviews with the speakers. You may find the video and

written materials of the conference on M-CARE website, youtube

and slide share.

Although this was the final dissemination event in Bulgaria of this

project our team will plan a number of activities in order to keep

the interests towards the project alive.

M-CARE presented at EUROSTAR TV

M-CARE project was presented at EUROSTAR TV channel by Gazi

University coordination team Prof. Seyhan Firat and Alper Güzel.

Various events M-CARE was also disseminated at following string of events:

3-5 June 2015, Interdisciplinary Symposium “Social Compe-

tence, Creativity and Wellbeing”, Plovdiv, Bulgaria: part of

presentation: Keynote on social inclusion 15-22 June 2015: meeting with Latin American policy makers

in Colombia (Bogota) to highlight relevant European inclusion projects.

22-23 October 2015: ITAG 2015 presentation together with UoA of paper on mobile application

2 December 2015: 5th LLL Week “Investing in Education for

Inclusive Societies” from 30th November to 4th December

2015 within the European Parliament in Brussels: Guidance

And Counselling: Taking Validation To The Next Level

7-8 December 2015: EDPWD policy event in Brussels

M-CARE transnational partner meeting in Brussels The 5th project meeting

took place in coincidence

with the final dissemina-

tion event in Brussels, Bel-

gium. Within the meeting the Partners reported the

findings from M-CARE pilot

phase and based on them

they decided to make final amendments in the project

outcomes in accordance with recommendations given by the end

users in each partner country.

The meeting ended with an agreed action plan including all com-

mon steps that should be taken by all partners in order to bring M-CARE to a successful end, as well as to ensure that everything

that we achieved will remain public and accessible for the stake-

holders. Forthcoming events M-CARE partners will be involved in following forthcoming events,

to which we kindly invite you: 27 May 2016: Vocational education and training for salesper-

sons of healthcare product, Brussels, Belgium. 3 June 2016: Transition management for SMEs – Cross-

generation issues, Ankara, Turkey. 26-29 July, 2016: CAVA 2016

(International Conference of Adap-tive and Accessible Virtual Learning

Environment) has been launched and will be hosted by Fundación

Universitaria Tecnológico Com-

fenalco, Cartagena de Indias. Phoe-

nixKM will do a keynote “Inclusive

Higher Education: into general aca-

demic courses on campus, across disciplines and departments

- a challenge that will lead to a triumph”. 21 October 2016: Educational serious games and robotics for

children with learning disabilities, ITAG, Nottingham, UK. November 2016: Volunteering and disability, Ankara, Turkey. 2-5 November 2016: ACCESSIBLE İZMİR 2016 congress, Iz-

mir, Turkey, PhoenixKM will do a keynote. June 2017: Supported employment job coaching implementa-

tion in Europe, Sofia, Bulgaria. June 2018: Educational serious games and robotics for chil-

dren with learning disabilities, Brussels, Belgium. June 2018: Supported employment job coaching implementa-

tion in Europe, Istanbul, Turkey.

M-CARE Final Dissemination Event on European level

On 1 December 2015, the final M-CARE conference was organised

in Brussels, Belgium at VLEVA premises.

The event “Caring for people with dis-

abilities and older people: challenges, opportunities and (mobile/online) train-

ing solutions” focussed on the impor-

tance of good quality personal caregiv-ing (PCG) for people with disabilities

and older people. Focus was on caring

in a broader perspective, and how M-

CARE’s (mobile/online) training solutions can contribute to suc-cessful PCGs.

We were honoured with an opening speech by MEP Helga Stevens

(N-VA), who is also Vice-Chair of the ECR group, and Co-Chair of

the Disability Intergroup.

The feedback received was very positive and supports our inten-tions to further deploy M-CARE outcomes across Europe.

“I would like to seize the opportunity to thank you for such an interesting event last week. I have to say I am very im-

pressed with the quality of your report. Your work is also ex-tremely useful and meaningful. Thank you for the interaction

as well as the new perspectives that you and the team al-lowed to emerge. It was a great event, well done to you and

the team! Do keep me on your mailing list : I’d love to hear

about your upcoming activities.” N. G., participant

A full coverage of the event is available online, including the slides

and videos, while also an online picture album is available.

Sustainability

Ensuring sustainability is at the same time challenging and re-

warding activity which proves that all invested efforts and re-

sources come back in the form of real use in the practice of what

was achieved. Since the beginning of the project the M-CARE part-

nership have started to work on it following the straightforward

approach integrated in the commonly agreed exploitation strat-

egy.

Now two weeks before the administrative end of the project we

may conclude that all partners achieved solid results in terms of

embedding of project outputs in the practices of different types of

social organizations providing services to people with disabilities.

You may visit the national versions of the M-CARE website in order

to learn a specific information about partners activities in this

area.

Interprojects LTD team, as a dissemination leader, achieved con-

crete results in terms of sustainability that we are glad to share

with all readers.

First of all, we signed agreement for collaboration of Municipality

of Plovdiv who is the biggest employer of personal caregivers on

the territory of the region. The main subject of this agreement is

M-CARE training programme which will be included as a training

tool for induction training of newly recruited personal and social

assistants. In fact, in the beginning of 2016 about 300 PCGs will

be recruited by the local authorities in Plovdiv and their work

placement will be co-funded by the European Social Fund and the

state budget. This agreement opens new opportunities for lasting

access to the M-CARE training platform by the interested users.

In addition, another cooperation agreement was achieved with the

National Association of Deafblind People who are also willing to

embed M-CARE training modules in their curriculum for PCGs.

It is important to know that at least in the next five years the Bul-

garian users will have access to the M-CARE results in different

formats (e-learning, workshops, and group trainings).

For more information, please visit the M-CARE website which will

be updated with relevant information for your convenience.

M-CARE app available on Google Play

The completeness of M-CARE curriculum and training content forms the perfect

basis for a PA training. In addition, the

mobile training and learning approach is absolutely novel, espe-cially also because the learning content can be dynamically ad-

justed in all languages by the country administrators. These both

facts allow for the mobile application to have a long lifespan and

extensive usability, while highly customisable.

The mobile app can be downloaded from Google Play.

TVPA launch in 2016

As a direct outcome of M-CARE project, PhoenixKM has estab-

lished a spin-off PCG training “TVPA” (Training voor Persoonlijke

Assistentie). This will start in 2016.

Consortium Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey – Project Coordinator

Gazi University is one of the biggest universities of Turkey

with over 68.000 students including 56.000 undergraduate

and 12.000 postgraduate students currently studying in its 171 academic departments.

Contact person: Prof. Dr. Seyhan FIRAT

Email: sfirat@gazi.edu.tr

Ministry of family and social policy, General Directorate of services for elderly and disabled people, Turkey

The General Directorate coordinates the activities

on preparing national policies and strategies aimed

at prevention, education, employment and rehabili-

tation services, ensuring that people with disabili-ties fully and equally participate in social life with-

out facing any discrimination.

Contact person: Mr. Tayyar Kuz

Email: tayyar.kuz@aile.gov.tr

PhoenixKM BVBA, Belgium

PhoenixKM is a consultancy with extensive

expertise in the field of education and train-

ing that targets people with disabilities, but

also their stakeholders, while making use of

the benefits offered by ICT. Contact person: Mr. Karel Van Isacker

Email: karel@phoenixkm.eu

INTERPROJECTS Ltd., Bulgaria

INTERPROJECTS is a training provider, having its activities fully directed towards people with disabilities and older

people. Their team consists of experts in the field of acces-

sibility issues, career orientation and guidance, employ-

ment, mentoring, e-games and networks of employers of disability etc.

Contact person: Mrs. Tonka Cholakova Email: interprojectsbg@gmail.com

University of Athens, Greece

The Laboratory of New Technologies in Communication, Edu-

cation and the Mass Media operates within the Faculty of

Communication and Mass Media Studies of the National and

Kapodistrian University of Athens. The Laboratory serves re-search and educational needs in the domain of new tech-

nologies and their applications in communication, education

and the mass media.

Contact person: Prof. Constantinos Mourlas

Email: mourlas@media.uoa.gr

Europäischer Verband Beruflicher Bildungsträger, Germany

EVBB is an Umbrella-Organisation of 50 Vocational

Training Centres in 21 European and International

countries and is based in Germany. In 2012 EVBB set

up a “Quality Charter”, taking into account the actual developments in European Quality Policy such as EQAVET and EQARF.

Contact person: Mr. Fritz-Gerhard KUHN

Email: Fritz-Gerhard.kuhn@evbb.EU