Care4Skills aims to address the needs of the Long-Term Care sector

Last Thursday, May 23rd, we attended the kick-off meeting of the Care4Skills project in Brussels, organized by the EASPD (European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities), the entity leading the initiative.

Care4Skills is a EU-funded project that aims to help Long-Term Care (LTC) workers understand how to apply person-centered care approaches and use digital technologies to provide better quality care and support across Europe. This project is the backbone of the Partnership for Skills in Long-Term Care, a cross-European coalition created in April 2023 to upskill and reskill professionals working in social care and support for persons with disabilities and older persons. One of the Partnership’s goals is to contribute to the annual training of at least 60% of the sector’s workforce.

At the meeting, Thomas Bignal, EASPD Secretary General, assured that Care4Skills will develop “cutting-edge training at the European level” and that, if the ambitions are met, it will mean “better quality care and support and better jobs for those who provide these services.”

The project brings together a large number of sector entities. Firstly, it includes six European networks: the EASPD, the European Ageing Network, Social Services Europe, the Federation of European Social Employers, the European Federation of Public Service Unions, and the European Association of Institutes for Vocational Training. The project also includes 21 national organizations in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

The role of the iSocial Foundation within the project’s framework will be the adaptation, implementation, and evaluation of the training program in Spain. To carry it out, it will analyze the Long-Term Care sector in Spain, identifying present and needed skills and competencies through the preparation of a diagnosis of existing gaps.