INTEC

Early childhood education and care should be at the centre of a radically new approach to continuing training with a stronger European dimension. Contrary to teachers belonging to higher educational levels (primary and secondary), the training of teaching staff in ECEC is to a great extent linked to local or national offer based on clear cut separation between initial education and in-service training.

As highlighted in European Education and Training 2020 “participation of all ECEC staff in high quality initial education and training, and continuing professional development (CPD) programmes is key to improving the quality in ECEC provision” however, most of the offer has mainly a local dimension and focus on the way in which they are designed.

The consortium believes there is need of radically new approach putting the European dimension of continuing professional development of ECEC staff at the centre.  There is the need to rethink in-service training paths of ECEC staff in a European perspective where knowledge and experiential learning for the improvement of their professional skills are acquired not only locally but rather in a combination with a set of high-quality activities tailored at European level.