This situation has some consequences: the impossibility for workers to move from one member state to another as well as within the same country, as is the case in Italy; a significant regional difference in the quality offered by ECEC services; a lack of in-service training for educators regarding the skills required in the workplace.

It is then of the utmost importance to stimulate a EU debate on the profile of the educator in ECEC services and on the continuing training. Therefore, the GENERAL OBJECTIVE of Sprout is to develop a strategic partnership between actors of ECEC European system to contribute to the professional development of those working in education of children enhancing the quality of initial and ongoing training through the use of EQF language and developing an experimentation of guidelines for in-service training activities.

The project will be implemented by a partnership made up of four actors: P1, instrumental body of the Autonomous Province of Trento, who has been working in the training of the educators since 2001; P2, who provides a national view at the Italian territory; P3, a children's center who has innovative ECEC services regarding pedagogical model; P4, an NGO that serves as the international coordinator for the services of the Swedish welfare of childhood.

The strategic partnership has 2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: developing and disseminating at (inter)national level the qualification of childhood educator using the EQF; working out, testing and spreading guidelines and a model of continuous training for educators connected with the EQF system and aligned with the training needs and the opportunities of the job market.

The most significant activities related to the first objective will be: a desk research to decline the professional qualification in the language of European Qualification Framework and to assign the appropriate level; participatory planning methodologies for the selection and evaluation of workers of the ECEC services based on the use of the behavioral event interview and the situational interview; training and advice activities on the use of the professional qualification and of the assessment tools.

The most significant activities related to the second objective will be: research aimed to highlight the impact that socio - economic progress have on ECEC services in terms of skills required to operators, to the service organization and to the support of parents; processing of the document "Guidelines for Lifelong Learning of childhood educator" in which we will present the results of the researches and included a structured model of modular training; realization of regional dissemination events and events of in service training.

The project will be implemented with a participatory methodology: all outputs will be subjected to a double evaluation process. The first within the consortium and the second done by the external actors involved in the activities and other potential users of the products of the project. The most relevant expected results of the project are the professional qualification of childhood educator declined in EQF and a proposal for a modular in service training coherent with the current developments of ECEC services. The expected impact is to create a critical debate on the importance of standardize the professional profile of this figure in both Italian and international level, and operationally influence the definition of the national repertoire of qualifications giving an operational tool for the recognition of learning. In addition, if the Italian trend is the integration of education for children from 0 to 6 years, Sprout is the precursor of the model that will outline. In the long term, the project will be expanded and the network of associated partners will be the basis to build more strategic partnerships within the ECEC and its operators.

http://sproutplus.net/