Inclusive care worker training

Within the scope of the EU project "Inclusive Care Worker", an inclusive teaching model for qualification in the social sector and support modules for a successful integration into the labour market were developed. It enables persons with learning difficulties and disabilities to choose a care profession.

This project trains persons with learning disabilities as care workers and enables them to gain a professional foothold in the social sector. The organisation Lebenshilfe Graz und Umgebung-Voitsberg coordinated the EU project “Inclusive Care Worker” from 2003 to 2012. Within the scope of the project, an inclusive teaching model for qualification in the social sector and support modules for a successful integration into the labour market were developed. It enables persons with learning difficulties and disabilities to choose a care profession. Inclusive care worker training is a two-year training programme that was implemented for the first time in 2009 in Graz at the Ausbildungszentrum für Sozialberufe, a training centre for care professions run by Caritas. The second training course began in autumn 2011. Thus, for the first time in Austria, the vocational school system was opened up for persons with learning disabilities and an entirely new career area in the social sector established for the target group. This training programme was developed and implemented in cooperation with the following partners: - Ausbildungszentrum für Sozialberufe der Caritas Steiermark (a training centre for care professions) - the Styrian Board of Education - the Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture - Dachverband der steirischen Behindertenhilfe (an umbrella organisation for persons with disabilities in Styria)

Solution, Innovation and Impact

Three to four persons with learning disabilities attend integrated studies per course. To date, three persons have completed the training and another eight persons are currently attending the course. Two of the three graduates got a job on the primary labour market. They are working in multi-professional care teams. Lebenshilfe Graz und Umgebung-Voitsberg was founded in 1960 by parents of children with disabilities and has the aim and vision of providing opportunities for people with disabilities to build a self-determined, integrated and normal life.

Funding, Outlook and Transferability

Styria and Vorarlberg, two Austrian country states. Other schools for care professions in Salzburg and Italy are interested in the concrete implementation of this inclusive training programme. There are adapted models currently in Spain and Poland.