Supporting migrants’ professional and social integration as carers
The objective of the MiCare project is based on a win-win approach: to support migrants’ professional and social integration as carers while improving the quality of care delivered to older people.
Migrants, especially women, are poorly integrated in European labour markets (Eurostat, 2019) and, to a large extent, concentrated in sectors of the economy which are traditionally linked to unpaid reproductive, and hence unrecognized and undervalued work such as domestic work (ILO, 2013). Still, domestic work remains one of the main areas of employment available to women migrants (Eurostat, 2012). Health care, services to families and domestic work – these sectors are considered as an opportunity to integrate migrant women in the labour market by policy makers. And this is what MiCare project intends to facilitate.
Key Figures
PERSONAL AND HOUSEHOLD SERVICES (PHS) WORKERS
According to the most recent data available at EU level, this sector, Personal and Household Services (PHS), represents 8 million jobs, or 4% of total employment (EU average), and the share of female workers in PHS reaches 91% in the EU 24 (EFSI, 2018). Indeed, the Cedefop “Skills Panorama Report on Care workers: skills opportunities and challenges (2019)”, these sectors have bright employment outlook, which drives the future demand for care workers.
However, it is not true that anyone can provide PHS. These activities require specific skills that are often underestimated and PHS workers are not just substitutable since many soft skills are required, such as language skills, good manners, thoroughness, and the ability to work independently (Deutscher Frauenrat, 2013).
AGEING EUROPE
In 2020, older people (+65) represented 20,6 % of the total population and this is expected to reach almost 30% in the EU by 2050 (Eurostat, 2019). This will result into a growing demand of PHS (personal and household services) and some estimations state that at least 5 million jobs are to be created (EFSI, 2018) and even 20 million (Blueprint about Digital Transformation, 2017).
SKILLS ADRESSED BY THE MICARE PROJECT
The Skills Panorama highlighted that caregivers will be called to respond to opportunities for new services that an older society will create. There is a rising need of such soft skills as: communication skills, active listening, clear speaking, tact, empathy, and negotiation skills. Personal carers will also need observation skills to check physical and mental health on a daily basis, and the ability to follow set rules in order to avoid potential risks for the older people.
From this point of view, the MiCare project will also be in line with the 2020 Erasmus+ Programme, stating that particular attention will be given to actions that allow to better deal with inclusion and diversity, including cultural and linguistic, through the use of more diverse and more adapted teaching, training and youth work styles.
The MiCare project’s key expected outputs
01.
MiCare project’s Benchmarking report
A comparative report about the existing opportunities to support integration and training for migrant home caregivers in Europe, delivering an overview on the situation in the partner countries regarding the existing training for migrant workers and tools to recognise their degree of professionalisation. A collection of practices about existing training opportunities for migrant home caregivers in Europe.
MiCare Benchmarking Report
02.
MiCare project’s Competence Framework
A competence framework defining the skills required for home-based migrant carers of older people, followed by a learning architecture with a common part, relevant for all participating countries, and a specific part, adapted to the national needs and context. These will be in line with EQF and learning outcomes approach and use as far as possible ECVET methodology.
MiCare Competence Framework
03.
MiCare project’s self-assessment tool
A “professional profile” tool to evaluate the knowledge and skills of migrant workers, to identify which competencies are possibly missing, and how to gather them via specific training.
04.
MiCare project’s Training toolkit
A set of training modules and materials to support professional and social integration of migrants – providing attention to cultural aspects, national language, communication, and relational skills. The training will be delivered according to EQAVET principles so as to provide evaluation and make possible further improvements.
05.
MiCare project’s Guidelines
A practical guide on how to use tools and materials provided by the project, in order to support usage of results by other players in Europe and to provide useful insights for policy planning, contributing then to the improvement of the learning offer for migrant home caregivers, and to the improvement of quality offer to care recipients.