<< Background >>During implementation of one of our national projects addressed to seniors (Senior in Action), we had the opportunity to establish contact with a fairly large group of seniors. During the talks with them, it turned out that in Poland there is quite a big problem with professionalism among people who care for seniors, both privately and in nursing homes. By professionalism, we understand soft skills, not specific hard skills. Seniors often emphasized that caregivers lack the appropriate approach, commitment, empathy, and the ability to communicate with an older person.We have consulted this topic with partners with whom we implement other projects. It turned out that the situation is also similar in many other countries.Many EU countries are aging and the process is progressing fairly quickly. This process goes hand in hand with the weakening of family ties, which unfortunately results in the younger generations being reluctant to take care of seniors.The demand for paid care for the elderly will therefore increase in importance in the coming years. Along with this demand, the requirements for people working as carers of seniors will also increase. Today's generations of seniors pay more and more attention to the way they are cared for and to the soft skills possessed by caregivers.We want our project to meet these issues.On the one hand, we want to make all interested parties aware of the importance of having appropriate soft skills for people who care for seniors. In our publication, we want to emphasize the importance of having appropriate soft skills on the professionalism of caregivers. On the other hand, we want to enable the caregivers and the people who train them to develop these competences, which are undoubtedly the most important in the carer's work.One of our results will also be a knowledge base containing basic information on the formal requirements and working conditions of senior caregivers in different countries. The database will be a response to another noticed problem - the lack of sufficient information for people who would like to work as a carer for seniors abroad. Our database will make it easier for them to obtain the information they need to choose the country in which these people would like to work.We hope that our project will contribute to the improvement of the situation on the market of care services for seniors<< Objectives >>The main goal of the project is to increase the knowledge and skills necessary to perform the profession of caregiver for seniors, as well as to increase the interest of young people in this profession, by developing a number of training and information materials targeted at young people in various EU countries.Detailed objectives:•Providing young people who want to work as a caregiver for seniors or who work in this profession with tools enabling them to improve skills useful at work as a carer for seniors•increasing the efficiency and attractiveness of educating caregivers of seniors by indicating good practices in the field of non-standard methods of education and training of carers of seniors•increasing the awareness of young people about the education path and formal requirements regarding work for a caregiver of seniors in various EU countries<< Implementation >>All our activities will be focused on the preparation of planned results. Of course, at the same time, we will carry out all activities related to project management, ensuring the appropriate quality of project activities and the developed results, as well as disseminating information about our work and materials that we will develop.Activities that we plan as part of the preparation of individual results:O1 –Publication. At the beginning of activities aimed at developing this result, the partners will jointly decide on the exact division of responsibilities - i.e. which expert will be responsible for the preparation of specific content. Each of the partners will appoint an expert who will be responsible for the work on a selected part of the publication (as well as for conducting research aimed at preparing the content), evaluating the content prepared by other experts, and translating the finished publication into their native language. At a later date, each partner will also be responsible for disseminating the publication to their respective target groups in their country.O 2 – online courses. The first step will be for the partners to develop a list of questions that will be included in the tests measuring the level of skills before and after the completion of the prepared courses. The package leader will, of course, supervise the work of the experts, however, it is important that all experts actively participate in the preparation of the tests. The lead expert will prepare the final version of the questions and a description of the results and feedback for the people who will use the tests.In the next step, the package leader will present the other experts with the template for the webinar scenario and the sample text for the course. Of course, other experts will also be actively involved in this stage.The partners will also divide the materials to be prepared. Each of the experts will develop the selected part, and the lead expert will be responsible for ensuring that the final shape of the materials is uniform and consistent.In the last step, each of the partners will organize a short testing of selected elements of materials (those prepared by their experts) among a selected group of 10 people. Based on this testing, the final version of the materials will be developed, which each partner will translate into their own language.O3 – Database. At the beginning of the activities leading to the development of materials under O2, the partners share the responsibilities so that each of them will be responsible for analyzing the situation in several countries and preparing some of the materials. After the first version of the materials has been developed, each of the partners will organize a short testing - send a link to the test version of the materials to friendly institutions and experts for evaluation of the prepared content. It is important that people outside the project team can make an independent assessment of the suitability, reliability, attractiveness and understandability of the materials that will be widely available.<< Results >>As part of the project activities, it is planned to develop 3 main intellectual outputs:•O1 – publication/report containing 3 main chapters. 1st one containing information about what soft skills a caregiver of seniors should have and why they are so important. 2nd chapter containing a specific list of soft skills that are most desirable in senior caregivers. 3rd chapter containing a set of good practices in the use of non-standard tools for the development of soft skills among people participating in courses preparing for the profession of caregiver for seniors. •O2 A set of training materials supporting the development of soft skills of people who want to work or work as carers of the elderly. The materials will consist of a series of thematic webinars on individual competences, as well as tests to check the knowledge of people participating in webinars (in the form of pre-tests and post-tests, both to be done by individual people, and to be carried out by training institution)•O3 - materials containing information on the path of education of carers of elderly people in various EU countries, as well as a list of formal requirements in individual EU countries that should be met by people who want to work as carers of the elderly peopleApart from the quantifiable results, we hope that the project will also contribute to:•Change attitudes both training institutions offering training for seniors’ caregivers as well as seniors’ caregivers themselves about importance of having high level of soft skills while working with seniors•increasing professionalism in the performance of professional duties by caregivers of seniors thanks to the possibility of improving their soft skills•increasing the professional mobility of caregivers of seniors by gaining access to information on the formal requirements and working conditions of a caregiver of seniors in various EU countries•increasing the standards of care for seniors thanks to the greater soft skills of the caregivers•making the training offer for carers of seniors more attractive was preceded by adding elements shaping soft competences