Precious Professional Resources in Early Childhood Intervention: Online Tools and Standards

Within the European Lifelong learning Project PRECIOUS (www.precious.at) a Master curriculum towards the training of professionals in Early Childhood was developed. Precious is based on increased empirical data, that a) ECI requires an academic professional training and b) that specific professional trainings are correlated with better effects. This 2-year training (120 ECTS) within the 1^st year deepens the scientific aspect of ECI (Scientific Research in ECI: 15 ECTS; Recognition and Detection: 10 ECTS; Working together with Families: 10 ECTS; Working in Teams: 10 ETCS; Individual Intervention: 10 ECTS, Personal Competences: 5 ECTS). Within the 2^nd year 3 possible “specialised strands” are available, focussing on diverse needs of professionals:Specialisation A: “Management, Research and Quality Control in ECI” (60 ECTS, Specialisation B: “Resilient Families” focusing on the needs of socially disadvantaged families, and Specialisation C: “Inclusive support” focusing on specific syndromes (autism, complex learning difficulties, low birth weight babies). The Master Courses will be implemented in Germany (Gera, Nordhausen, Hamburg) and – in future – will enable international European courses, supported by specifically developed e-learning-tools and online-resources.