Anticipating demographic change: COMPLIMENT develops guidelines for professional training in the social sector
Demographic change is one of the most important topics actually discussed on political and economical level. Especially the social sector is affected by an ageing population. In this case the change has a double effect: The number of persons with need of care is increasing and in the same time there is a higher percentage of elderly personal working in care institutions that has to handle with growing stress and pressures.
In order to resolve this problem the Paritätische Bildungswerk LV NRW e.V. co-ordinates the project "COMPLIMENT: COMPetence DevelopMENT and AGE-Diversity", which starts in October 2006. The aim of the cooperation between
institutions of the social sector and professional training providers is to develop a guide which helps to create learning structures that prepare older and younger employees to cope with the new challenges.
The added value of the guidelines is due to the cooperation of six EU-countries. "The project allows a European comparison and aims to transfer the methodical guidelines in other EU-countries" explains the project coordinator
Birgit Oberhofer. The need for self-directed learning and the respect of Age-Diversity are the basic principles of the project. So the employees as well as the employers are involved in the development of the learning programme. In fact the aim is not only to manage the demographical change, but also to maintain the employability of older and younger workers.