Empowering Migrants for Employment EME

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Best practices

A study visit as a part of Culturally sensitive care ambassador training

#method #workculture #indirectlearning #communication

The good practice in a nutshell

To create an open and active learning environment, different elements are integrated into the Culturally sensitive care ambassador training. Study visits are one of these integrated elements. During the training, participants go on two types of study visits. This enables the participants to have real-world context for the concepts and ideas discussed in class. Furthermore, participants can exchange and discuss their thoughts and opinions with the staff of the organisations they visit.

Firstly, the participants visit various projects and organisations that work with seniors – residential care centres, day centres, home-care organisations, community centres, informal care groups, etc. This way, the participants are engaged in activities that are directly related to the application of learning. They get a better understanding of the various occupations within the care sector and with its context.

Secondly, the participants take part in learning activities outside the classroom that stimulate their indirect learning process, such as going to the cinema and the theatre. Thus, the learner’s knowledge and skills are indirectly challenged during the activities (their language skills, reflection on the learning, etc.). Furthermore, the participants gain new insights into the society.

After every study trip, group reflection takes place. The participants can develop their thinking and construct new knowledge by discussing their experiences with the other group members.

Developer or user

EVA bxl, Belgium

Target group

Job-seekers with a migration background

Why it is needed

The target group often are very distanced from the employment market and are unfamiliar with the diversity of care services. Furthermore, they often don’t have good experiences with the education system. Therefore, creative and open methods are essential, and these succeed in creating a safe, active, and open learning environment. The participants enhance their professional, creative, social, and language skills. The training enables participants to put the concepts and ideas discussed in class into real-world context.

Resources

The good practice requires:

  • teachers
  • planning of the visits

Expected outcomes

The participants

  • have a better and more practical understanding of the care sector.
  • gain a clearer picture of the workplaces and various jobs in the care sector.
  • can evaluate the accessibility of a care organisation.
  • can give their opinion about the initiatives visited and can discuss them.
  • can link theory to practice.
  • participate actively during the visits.
  • engage in conversations with the staff of the organisations or projects.
  • enhance their professional, creative, social, and language skills.

 

‘Do’s and ‘don’t’s

  • Make sure that the teacher stimulates interaction and discussion between the participants and the organisations/projects by preparing questions beforehand (What is the aim? What happens here? How does it happen?) and by giving each participant an assignment for the visit (talk to a nurse, have a conversation with a senior, etc.).
  • Make sure participants process the visit, by reflecting on it in class: What was your impression? What did you find positive? What was new? What did you learn?

Applicability

These methods are easy to integrate into orientation training.

Quotes from users

‘The field trips really made an impression on me because I didn’t know a lot of places.’

‘For example, a day-care centre: many people don’t know about it. I did not know about it either. Thanks to the training we had, we could visit it.’