CARER+: Ageing well in the community and at home: developing digital competences of care workers to improve the quality of life of older people

The Carer+ consortium is a diverse, motivated group of European organisations that are committed to contribute to The Digital Agenda for Europe, making digital literacy and skills a priority for care workers and caregivers, and to support Active Ageing. The consortium was led by IPERIA l’Institut – the main actor of the professionalisation of family employment in France, and it was composed of 12 organisations from 8 EU Member States.

The CARER+ project aimed to equip EU care workers and caregivers with the required set of digital competences that will allow them to

• support older people in their use of ICT and AAL technologies (Ambient Assisted Living) that will enhance their professional status and impact positively on the quality of life, autonomy and safety of those in their care;
• be more active in society, enhancing and diversifying their opportunities for EU mobility, employability and personal and professional development.

Major inequalities exist amongst European countries with respect to the role of care workers and their ability to act as mediators or facilitators for the diffusion of ICT tools and services among older people. For most, there is little evidence of care-related ICT use among care workers, while in only a few, care workers play a significant role in domiciliary long term care and are increasingly involved in ICT projects. The development and uptake of ICT services via support carer is still limited and to a large extent their value remains unrecognised by care workers.

3s as a partner in the project ensured the development of a Carer+ Competence Framework of digital skills and competences for care workers. For the competence framework to be both conceptually robust and practically relevant and functional, its development was informed by an original research that collected, in 8 European countries, evidence on the use of digital skills in care work from various sources: experts in the fields vocational education and training, in care work and domiciliary care, practitioners as well as receivers of care. Later on, a handbook for possible future certification of digital skills in care work was published based on expert workshops input.

In the following phases of the project, other major outcomes such as a European Portal for ICT in care work was produced, training programmes and materials for continuing education of care workers were designed, and the use of smart care devices was pilot tested with practitioners and care receivers in five European countries.