What have we achieved so far?
Across Europe as whole
• At the end of the project (October 2011) more than 2,150 people held the European Care Certificate spread across 16 countries and this number is rising all the time. The ECC has been officially recognised in Romania and in the Czech Republic as a suitable qualification for care staff. We anticipate that more approvals will arrive as the momentum behind the ECC develops and the European Qualifications Framework begins to function fully across the EC.
• By October 2011 we had data on more than 3,500 ECC exam candidates on our central database in Brussels. We had also added four new countries to the ECC project (the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland) and shortly hope to add another. Both these achievements exceeded our original project targets (1,200 candidates overall and three new countries) and they are a clear indication of the widespread support for the whole idea of the ECC and a recognition of how it meets a clear training need in many countries.
• We have developed an online version of the ECC exam in addition to the paper based version. This is now available and can be adapted to add new languages as needed. For details on how to do this exam on line contact your country’s Lead Partner. (Click on the ‘Contact’ tab at the top right of this page)
• The ECC has its own permanent Board, which oversees the development of the ECC beyond the end of the project (30 Sept 2011). The Board is constituted as a committee of EASPD and so has a permanent link into the main EC provider representative body in Brussels. EASPD also provides the registrar function for the ECC Board, holding the central record of everyone who has passed the ECC exam.
Important note for the future!
We are still looking for more countries to join us. We are also looking for more Delivery Partners in many countries where we are already established. We want to have a strong ECC delivery group in each country so that the overall user base grows strongly.
We have plans to develop training courses and ‘train the trainer’ course to help deliver the ECC either as a standalone course, or as part of a bigger course of training.
Within the UK
• We have three UK Lead Partners, SCIE TASS UK and ARC (see the Contact tab for details) and four Delivery partners. We believe that it is possible for anyone anywhere in the UK to take the ECC exam, providing we can arrange for a suitable level of supervision for the actual exam itself.
• The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is promoting the ECC and providing the Partnership with advice on best practice and monitoring our effective partnership working.
• We have had more than 200 UK candidates take the ECC exam, with candidates coming from private organisations, charities and local authorities. Some have been studying in colleges whilst others are already working in the care sector. A growing number of employers and candidates are using the ECC as part of their induction process, to evidence their induction learning to the inspectors and to give the new worker an award they can keep and build on. More than 130 people now hold the ECC in the UK.
• At the current time, with all the changes to the Qualifications structures in the UK with the imminent arrival of the Qualification and Credit Framework, we are waiting to see how the ECC may best fit into the new structure. It is most accurately mapped against the Common Induction Standards in England.
(updated 1/11/2011)