The CEF Professional Profiles for the Field of Health Care

Aims of the work package: To find out by interviewing companies in the field of health care about the language and communication competencies needs of the professionals working in this field. The interviews will form a basis of the CEF Professionals profiles (see Appendix 1 for a raw version) The field of health care included in the project is dental assistant studies (secondary vocational education), oral hygiene (higher education).

Start: As the project starts, i.e. 10/05
The first version: completed 02/06
Comments: completed 03/06
The improved second version: completed based on the comments received in cross-evaluation of the profiles 04/06
Testing the profile: in course and curriculum planning 05/06-12/06
Finish: as the tested version is completed 12/06

Partners involved: Heidelberg Pädagogische Hochschule (secondary education); Helsinki Polytechnic, (higher education aspect of the profiles) and Rakom Consultants and EAPLA (cross-evaluation of the profile)

Indirect partners involved: Companies and organizations operating in the field of health care in Germany and Finland
Roles of partners: The language and communication competencies profile (products as a result of interviews with hospitals and service organisations operating in the field) in the health care field forms a continuum where both the needs of the secondary vocational education as well as those of the higher education are taken into consideration. Based on this procedure Heidelberg Pädagogische Hochschule works on the secondary education descriptions of the health care profile conducting the interviews with companies on the language and communication competencies needs, the same is completed for the higher education by Helsinki Polytechnic. The communication competencies needs are analysed and these are translated into CEF professional profile in the work package.

Expected outcomes: A profile that describes the language and communication competencies needs in the chosen field of health care and thus completes the first step of the project for this field. One profile in the field of health care will be completed. It is to function as a base on VOLL / LSP curriculum planning and course implementation in the English language education in the participating countries.

Input Requirements: Completing the CEF professional profile requires an input of 15 days of labour (calculated as full working days, 8 hrs per day) from the secondary education and the equal amount (15 days, 8 hrs per day) from the higher education. The evaluation of a profile is worth an input of three 8-hour work days.