EBIFF

EBIFF EUROPEAN PASSPORT ON PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN EARLY INTERVENTION

Early support (IFF) for disabled children (400.000 children in the EU) is a holistic method of early intervention and prevention of long term impediment. (Age: 0-6 years) IFF was implemented in the late 70ies in whole of Europe – with a variety of legal, organisational and educational approaches. The persons working in early intervention are coming from different fields, such as e.g. therapeutic pedagogy, (AT, DE), Medicine (LT, IT, EE) or are working in combination with psychosocial services (NO). There is no single European country having a standardized training for this profession.

Aim and Product

EBIFF has two major goals:

<> to make formal and informal national training systems (IFF) comparable.

<> and to improve the access to professional training.

Both goals should be reached by the following products:

<> European Educational Passport “Early Intervention” (EBIFF) on an ECTS basis

<> Online Self-Assessment-Instrument for the evaluation of formal and informal learning for professionals in early intervention and for educational institutions.

<> Temporary certification commissions, consisting of representatives from educational institutions, from educational planning, from professional organizations, and of users (parents). Their task is to evaluate educational careers on the basis of EBIFF.

Process

1) EBIFF analyses formal and informal education opportunities (questionnaire) and
2) defines job specifications (IFF) regarding necessary curricular contents.
3) The ECTS System will be introduced and will enable an ECTS translation of formal or informal educational routes in early intervention.
4) The use of ECTS within a pilot project in the partner countries, will enable comparability and transferability of acquired qualifications.
5) The establishment of temporary certification commissions will enable the accreditation of both formal and informal training programs on the basis of a European Educational Passport for the first time.
6) Sustainability will be achieved through dissemination strategies.

Partnership:

There are four central aspects:

a) Maximum geographical inclusion in order to comprise formal and informal educational programs on a Europe-wide scale AT, BE, CZ, EE, ES, GR, IE, IT, LT, NL, NO, PL, RO)..
b) Identification of relevant expert knowledge by involving institutions representing best practice examples in early intervention.
c) Maximum involvement of different sectors: (1) beneficiaries (professionals and parents) (2) educational institutions, (3) research institutions (universities), educational planning (educational ministry CZ).
d) Maximum dissemination through the European dimension (European Association) and through the involvement of existing networks from the start of the project.

Target groups:

Primary target group:

Experts in early intervention, i.e. in care, therapy of handicapped or endangered (small) children and their parents (risk group of 2,6 to 7 % of an age group).

Secondary target group:

Attended families (1,6 to 3% European–agency.org), or about 400.000 families (Age group between 0 and 6): No other job is as complex as IFF (Speck), because the work is done inside families, is based on unclear prognoses, operates with a diversity of methods (e.g. dependent on the age of the children, on the kind of handicap, on motivation).

The comparability of educational careers enables a joint European concept of necessary basic qualifications regarding IFF. IFF requires lifelong individual learning and further education, because of the individual needs of the families and because of the continuous increase of knowledge (neuro-science, systems, developmental psychology, genetics,..). A European Educational Passport systemizes and complements individual forms of access to training and necessary qualifications.