FICE Bulgaria realized the “Quality4Care” project

FICE Bulgaria realized the “Quality4Care” project in the period from 1 June 2020 to 31May 2021.

The aim of this project was increasing the capacity of FICE-Bulgaria to provide trainings for adults on the topic of quality in social services to the professionals working in the field.

The objectives were as follows:

• To increase the knowledge, skills and competences of the trainers of FICE-Bulgaria in order to be able to provide training on the topic of quality of social services.

• To increase the foreign language skills of the trainers of FICE-Bulgaria

• To increase the level of internationalization of the Association.

The main activity in the project was the training course “Quality of social services - theory and practice. Development of a quality management program for social services“. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the course could not be realized in Mainz, Germany, as planned. The partners realized the structured course online via Zoom from 19 to 23 April 2021.

During the first training day the trainers and participants spoke about the social welfare systems in the two countries and the significance of the topic of quality in both of them. The main trainer was TImo Hermann, quality expert at IKJ. Other experts from IKJ also joined the training in the next days.

The topics in the next days included: The social welfare system in Germany and Bulgaria; The quality of social services and its impact in the two countries; The practical understanding of quality in social care in the two countries; The education in the field of social work in the two countries; The lifelong learning possibilities for social workers and social pedagogues in the field of quality in social care in the two countries; Quality assessment and quality evaluation - how to explain it to social workers and social pedagogues; The main tools and products of IKJ; Electronic documentation and how to explain it to social workers and social pedagogues and many more.

At the end of the project the learning outcomes for the participants were realized in:

• increased knowledge about the quality of social services;

• improved knowledge and understanding about effectiveess and efficiency of social services;

• improved abilities to measure the effectiveness and efficiency;

• mproved abilities to develop a quality management program for social services;

• broadened understanding the quality assurance practices in the the hosting country;

• knowledge of good practices developed by the hosting country;

• improved career opportunities;

• improved foreign language competences in practice;

• Improved cooperation skills and exchanged knowledge and ideas with colleagues from Germany;

• Improved professional motivation.

For the participating organizations, the results were realized in: improved capacity for carrying out high quality continous training for adults; built up trust and strong partnership relations; common understanding and vision related to adult training and common plans for future collaboration; enhanced professional qualities of the staff of the sending organization; increased capacity of FICE-Bulgaria for provision of adult training related to the quality of social services; exchanged experience and good practices in the field of social work and its quality.