"<< Background >>Achieving inclusion, both social and professional, is a complex goal requiring complementary and concrete actions to bring down barriers, especially those related to knowledge and skills development and recognition. The current pandemic context and its impact on a changing labour market urges to develop new initiatives and tools, building as much as possible on the existing ones, to ensure no one is left behind.The PHS sector represents more than 8 million employees (4% of total employment in the EU), and due to the current demographic trends (mainly ageing), it could offer up to 5 million more in the next years (EFSI, 2018). As regards the demand side, the Covid-19 crisis has rapidly increased unemployment rates, reaching 8,1% in January 2021 in the eurozone (Eurostat, 2021). Considering employment as a key driver for social inclusion, PHS can be a key sector to preserve both the EU economy and society.Besides, even if PHS cover a wide range of hard and soft specific skills, often transversal and applicable to several sectors, they are underestimated and unrecognised. In addition, some workers come from disadvantaged groups (such as long-term unemployed and some jobseekers) and lack official qualifications. The validation of skills acquired through non-formal and informal learning (as defined by the Council Recommendation of 20 December 2012) can be an effective leverage, specially combined with micro-credentials, which can be a relevant form of standalone certification, facilitating tailored upskilling pathways and skills recognition, as well as employability and social inclusion. As stated by the Communication COM(2020) 274 final, “micro-credentials can be defined as documented statements that acknowledge a person’s learning outcomes, which are related to small volumes of learning and that for the user are made visible in a certificate, badge, or endorsement (issued in a digital or paper format)”. Therefore, they may refer both to learning outcomes acquired via training but also via validation. In this sense, this definition is still under development at EU level: as one of the key actions of the European Education Area and the European Skills Agenda, the EC has launched a consultation, currently ongoing, for a non-legislative initiative (“European approach for micro-credentials”), and the Cedefop has mandated a study (“The Role of Micro-credentials in Facilitating Learning for Employment”) which will be available in 2023. As regards practitioners' side, there are several initiatives using badges for IT skills recognition and some EU projects and EU initiatives, but they are all addressed to the higher education level andl linked to training, not validation.<< Objectives >>MyCred4Home intends to promote social and professional inclusion for low qualified profiles by combining two EU tools, one new, still under development, micro-credentials, and one to be soon renewed, the validation of non-formal and informal learning. Their common aim is to help individuals to get their skills recognised and valued more easily and quickly, and transform them into better employment opportunities, and therefore into inclusion. The personal and household services (PHS) sector has been chosen as particularly propitious for this purpose, since it combines several facilitating features: first fo all, this sector requires a wire range of basic, hard, soft and transversal skills, which can be largely applicable to other sectors; secondly, despite all this set or rich skills, PHS professionals often lack of sufficient recognition and a targeted tool like micro-credentials, combined with validation, could offer them promising perspectives; lastly, the current demographic trends are driving an increasing demand of these services resulting into a growing demand of qualified workers, which can turn into a powerful leverage for raising awareness and spreading micro-credentials.The project partners will jointly work to reach 3 main objectives:• To contribute to the definition of standards for micro-credentials for lower qualification levels,• To explore the potential of micro-credentials via validation of non-formal and informal learning,• To promote the employability and social inclusion of disadvantaged groups thanks to micro-credentials.The first objective will be reached thanks to a benchmarking report who will bring further development to the preliminary researches carried out by the project in the field of micro-credentials, mainly as regards the specific target group, low qualified profiles, and the specific method, validation of non-formal and informal learning. On the basis of the report findings, the partners will develop standards for key competences in the PHS sector, as well as evaluation and validation tools. These standards and tools will make it possible to reach the second objective, this is to say, to explore the potential of validation of non-formal and informal learning for micro-credentials. A report on the results and conclusions, as well as detailed guidelines, will provide useful insights on the implementation of micro-credentials and could serve as inspiration for other target groups and sectors. Lastly, a policy brief will aim to promote micro-credentials within the PHS sector as a promising tool to boost employability and social inclusion, especially for disadvantaged groups. In parallel, a tailored communication plan, combined with several national events and a final conference, will ensure an effective dissemination and raising awareness campaign involving all the key stakeholders, such as certification authorities, social partners, decision makers and public administrations, and public and private employment services.<< Implementation >>The aforementioned ambitious objectives require a complementary consortium, composed by 5 partners from 5 member states, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Italy and Spain, selected according to their expertise in the relevant fields: • IPERIA(French platform for the professionalisation of home employment), France, lead partner• STePS (Research center on learning), Italy,• UCY (Software Engineering and Internet Technologies Laboratory, University of Cyprus), Cyprus,• CFB (Association delivering care services and training provider), Belgium,• GDOCE (VET provider specialised on disadvantaged groups), Spain.The MyCred4Home project will start with a collection of good practices and interviews (5-10 good practices) mapped on micro-credentials and a set of 5-10 interviews conducted with good practices' owners. Once the outcomes will be collected, a benchmarking report will be completed and translated in the partner languages (PR1). Then 25-40 interviews will be conducted with potential users of micro-credentials (PHS professionals, jobseekers, etc.) and employers on the skills to be recognised via micro-credentials and the evaluation methods. 5 Focus Groups on first version of standards and evaluation methods will be organised with 6-8 stakeholders, and after consultation with experts, the standards and evaluation methods will be defined, finalised, and translated in the partners languages (PR2). The PR3 will include the definition of the methodology of the testing, as well as the development of evaluation and validation tools for the implementation of micro-credentials, before the pilot phase with potential users in France, Belgium, Spain (PHS professionals, jobseekers, etc.), who will participate in the implementation of micro-credentials. National reports on implementation will be then carried out, and a general report finalised and translated. Within the PR4 the Guidelines for micro-credentials within the PHS sector will be structured and validated by external reviewer. All the partners will translate the final version. Finally, the policy Brief ""Promoting micro-credentials within the PHS sector at EU level"" will be proposed, developed and validated to be published at the end of the project (PR5).<< Results >>Key project results (PR) developed to be transferable, reusable and transdisciplinary:• PR1 Benchmarking report, a comparative report about the existing initiatives on micro-credentials, specially for low qualified profiles, if any, delivering an overview on the situation in the partner countries regarding the validation and certification of small volumes of learning outcomes.• PR2 Micro-credentials standards for key competences in the PHS sector, covering the learning outcomes and assessment tools to achieve the described basic, hard, soft and transversal skills included on it.• PR3 Report on micro-credentials' implementation through validation of non-formal and informal learning, providing concrete evaluation data and conclusions.• PR4 Guidelines for micro-credentials within PHS on how to use tools and materials provided by the project, in order to support usage of results by other certification players in Europe.• PR5 Policy Brief ""Promoting micro-credentials within the PHS sector at EU level""that on the basis of the experience of the project in the field, will provide useful insights for policy planning, contributing then to the improvement of the validation and certification offer for low qualified profiles and their employability.Expected outcomes:• Raised awareness on validation of non-formal and informal learning as full-fledged way for obtaining micro-credentials,• Development of innovative practices in terms of quality, transparency, cross-border comparability, recognition and portability of micro-credentials• Improvements on the validation and certification’ offer available for low qualified profiles• Enhanced competences and peer-learning of validators in terms of assessment of prior knowledge and skills of adults,• Reinforced networking between the partner organisations and the respective national and regional certification authorities, social partners, decision makers and public administrations, public and private employment services, etc.• Boosted internationalisation of partner organisations through exchanging and developing new practices and methods, as well as sharing and confronting ideas, in the field of micro-credentials. Internal Documents (ID) that will be produced to support the project implementation:• ID1 Project management handbook, stating the cooperation arrangements within the consortium;• ID2 Evaluation and Quality Plan, stating the reference criteria, the adopted procedures and the tools that will be used for formative evaluation, quality control and quality assurance;• ID3 Dissemination and exploitation plan, stating the channels, the media and the tools used to disseminate the project and its results and to promote the use of them by furtherorganisations in Europe.• ID4 Sustainability plan, stating the strategy to be developed for ensuring the sustainability of the project and its main results during its lifetime and beyond."

"The MiCare project strongly encourages migrant women's integration into the job market. According to the European Economic and Social Committee, participating in the labour market is one of the most effective and practical ways of integrating migrant women into society. On the other hand, the EU researches shows that migrant women represent an untapped and under-utilised source of skills, and that their potential is not fully exploited. The gap between the share of employed non-EU-28-born women and native women is 8 percentage points larger than the gap among men. Data confirms that migrant women face double disadvantage as as both migrants and women. They often have limited language proficiency and do not benefit as frequently from skills assessment, re-training measures and other integration programmes. Moreover the recent arrival of large refugee populations in Europe adds to the urgency of integrating migrant woman, who receive less integration support than men, both in terms of language training and active labour market measures. Cedefop Skills Panorama highlighted that caregivers will be called to respond to opportunities for new services that an older society will create. There is a rising need of such soft skills as: communication skills, active listening, clear speaking, tact, empathy and negotiation skills. Personal carers will also need observation skills to check physical and mental health on a daily basis, and the “ability to follow set rules"" in order to avoid potential risks for the older people.The MiCare project focuses on the empowerment of female migrants as well as their integration into the labour market. Project's comprehensive approach fosters the access to employment, including training and assessment of (formal and informal) skills. Health care, services to families and domestic work - these sectors are considered as an opportunity to integrate migrant women in the labour market by policy makers. The current demographic trend implies that more and more older people will need assistance and home care to facilitate their life during the day, to keep them company or to help them in life inside and outside the home. What is most needed is training professionals who take care of older people at home. These professionals require as any others specific training as a caregiver on the fundamental aspects of assistance, such as day-to-day support (meal preparation, shopping, cooking, cleaning, going to external appointments, etc.) and active ageing support (good health routines, physical and social activities, etc.). On the other hand, it is also important that those professionals own the necessary soft skills to develop their job – especially considering that the most of them come from foreign countries, with a different culture, language, habits, etc. Households are a particular workplace and the personal contact with the older person is a key factor.Moreover, as a matter of fact, the migrant workers have sometimes a limited knowledge about the country, language and culture they are hosted in, mainly as regards specific situations linked to home care and home employment.In this context, the project intends to pursue the following objectives and activities:•Development of a European benchmark research to understand how migrant home caregivers are provided with basic and personal skills•Identification of the needs of migrant caregivers, especially those who just arrived in a foreign country and require some basic training to start working •Recognition of the elder’s needs: which are the challenges that families usually face as regards day-to-day support and soft skills? For instance, in terms of language skills, cultural knowledge, personal capacities, home management (meal preparation, shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry care, personal and hygiene support), but also empathy, creation of mutual trust, communication, listening skills, etc.•Facilitation of the migrant workers integration in the hosting country by upskilling their hard and soft skills related to homecare, helping them to find an employment in the Personal and Household Service sector•Recognition of workers’ skills and competencies with self-evaluation tools – and also the self-recognition of their skills and capacities, as well as professionalisation•Development and adaptation of learning modules to improve workers’ homecare hard and soft skills•Meeting the French National priorities about “development of competences (transversal and key competences) and prevention of illiteracy”.The MiCare project meets the Council Recommendation on key competences for lifelong learning: ""Europe should address the challenges in implementing competence-orientedtraining and learning. Supporting people across Europe in gaining the skills and competences needed for personal fulfilment, health, employability and social inclusion helps tostrengthen Europe’s resilience in a time of rapid and profound change""."

The availability and the quality of early education and care (ECEC) in the European Union is a growing concern due to an increased understanding about the role played by early years in children’s development, and to the need to support parents work-life balance. However, childminding offer in Europe is still highly fragmented, and especially domiciliary childminding, which is often not or not enough regulated, neither in terms of labour conditions nor professionalisation despite its high demand. Indeed, there is a wide range of professional profiles covered by childminding, as the ESCO profile 5311 « Childcare worker » confirms it: babysitter, crèche and kindergarten professionals, family day care worker, nanny, out of school hours care worker, etc.). In addition, the training offer for those profiles is highly heterogeneous, especially as regards children with special needs, not addressed in separate and specifically developed modules, but integrated in general modules of care. This is the case for autism. Within this context, ChildIN aims to improve the well-being of autistic children and their families, as well as the professionalisation of childminders. This main goal required a complementary consortium, composed by 6 partners from 4 member states:• IPERIA, the French platform for the professionalisation of home employment, lead partner,• The Conseil départemental de la Nièvre, a regional public authority, France,• Cooperativa COMENIUS (VET provider), Portugal,• APPDA (Association for Developmental Disorders and Autism), Portugal,• TECHPAL (VET provider), Poland,• Autism Europe (international non-profit organisation representing autistic people), Belgium.In order to reach this double goal, 2 main objectives were defined:1. The development of a specific training programme in “blended format” (including both face-to-face and distance learning) for childminders taking care of children with autism,2. The elaboration of a policy brief to promote the professionalisation of childminding for autistic children. To do so, a competence framework and a learning architecture (intellectual output 1) for childminders taking care of children with autism was developed, with a 3 EQF level and a total length of 35 hours. The research carried out for this purpose made it possible to create a data base on autism (intellectual output 2), gathering more than 200 resources in 4 languages (English, French, Portuguese and Polish).On this double basis, a training programme and specific training materials were developed also in 4 languages (intellectual output 3): a training kit with learning contents for trainers and learning materials for trainees, including practical exercises, case studies, quiz and satisfaction questionnaires. Given the Covid-19 crisis, the training was practically delivered 100% on distance learning, as well as almost of the events planned for the launching and closure of the training. Despite these difficulties, a total of 53 childminders completed the training programme, from which 16 in France, 21 in Portugal and 16 in Poland (65% of the enrolled participants), with high satisfaction rate of 76%. In order to facilitate the replication and to ensure the sustainability of the training, practical guidelines (intellectual output 4) were developed, including concrete recommendations and suggestions.Lastly, a policy brief (intellectual output 5) for policy and decision makers was elaborated and presented during the final conference of the project, initially planned in Brussels, but organised online in April 2021 due to the pandemics. More than 150 participants attended it, among which different stakeholders, experts on autism and childminding, as well as representatives of the European Commission and members of the European Parliament.

Child care is an area that includes practitioners who have been trained in a formal setting, or have learned by experience or through a planned setting with no learning objectives. Informal childcare plays an important role in European countries, as parents increasingly use it, sometimes in combination with formal care. Nevertheless, child care provisions in the EU differ substantially regarding existing structures and systems, workforce qualifications, and as a result in childcare coverage rates and quality.VALCHILD aimed to tackle this deficit/challenge by assessing informal childminders’ prior learning against pre-set guidelines through a purpose-made and scientifically grounded validation scheme that can be adopted in a European context. Further to this, the project also aimed to facilitate the training provision for childminders by enabling VET providers to improve and customize training programs that match the learners’ different levels of learning. In particular, project objectives involved: 1) developing a validation mechanism, including a toolbox and a recommendation & certification scheme for childminders to make their knowledge, skills, and competences recognised and visible, 2) supporting low-skilled childminders to seek personalised learning pathways for further training and qualifications, and 3) supporting the integration of harmonised validation practices by relevant stakeholders across the EU, by anchoring the VALCHILD validation framework to existing best practices and EU priorities.The partnership comprised 5 partners with complementary skills and long experience and expertise in the childminding sector and in recognition of skills. ECI, IPERIA, ESEIMU, ISPA hold a long-standing expertise in the childminding sector, practices, training, education and support of occupational interests for informal childminders. EC-VPL has significant experience in the Validation of Non-formal and Informal Learning, and lifelong learning-strategies. PROMEA brought significant Research and Development capacities and experience in the implementation of training activities and the delivery of innovative learning methodologies.Main project activities involved: a) setting evidence-based criteria and requirements for the validation of informal and non-formal learning in the wider area of childcare, based on extended research on existing validation practices, b) developing an assessment toolbox for assessing and validating childminders’ prior learning, c) delivering recommendations and a certification scheme to provide learners with feedback and guidance on further learning and/ or certification, d) carrying out pilot sessions to evaluate VALCHILD outputs & assessment material, e) involving key policy makers and stakeholders in the (social) recognition and mainstreaming of project results, and f) sharing and validating outputs with multiplier events, inviting target groups to uptake VALCHILD results and to act as further disseminators.•Criteria and requirements for the validation of informal and non-formal learning in the childcare field.•A toolbox with evaluation materials, examination processes and documentation methods for the recognition of childminders' previously acquired skills and knowledge.•A recommendations and certification scheme to supplement the validation toolbox, providing guidance to informal child-minders on further learning and certification (O3).•A handbook on the use of the VALCHILD framework by validation practitioners (toolbox and recommendations/certification scheme) •A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a position paper to influence and support policy making to further simplifying the transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications across Europe (O4). •Three workshops in Ireland, France, and Portugal to run a pilot test of the VALCHILD assessment & validation framework (E1-E2-E3)•Two national information days in Greece, and the Netherlands to share and disseminate project results (E4-E5).Finally, the project’s long-term benefits: -Raised awareness and improved childminders’ capacity, especially the low-skilled, for validation and/or certification through VALCHILD assessment and validation mechanism.-Informed and enabled VET providers, career-related stakeholders and other educational & training entities to connect childminders with the labour market by integrating VALCHILD validation materials and tools in their existing practices and by cooperating with public and private sector stakeholders to promote transparency, social inclusion and better employability for childminders.-Social partners, sector representative and VET national and EU authorities benefited from VALCHILD framework for the recognition of childminding skills in line with European reference tools (EQF, ECVET, and ESCO).