The European childminders training to support inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorder (ChildIN) project focuses developing a training for European childminders to foster inclusion of children on the autism spectrum. Running from November 2018 to October 2020, the project is funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Programme.

In recent decades, there has been a growing interest on the availability and the quality of early education and care (ECEC) in the European Union: this is due both for an increased understanding about the role played by early years in children’s development, and to the need of supporting women’s labour force participation.

Currently available competence frameworks for childminders don’t include specific learning for children with special needs as separated and full developed modules, but integrated in general modules of care. This has a direct impact both on their employability opportunities, and on the availability of skilled workers for families. However, some short lifelong learning modules are available for some of the most common disabilities. These are largely inadequate to address the need of skilled caretakers of families dealing with children on the autism spectrum. In this context, the ChildIN project aims at providing specific blended training for childminders focusing on autism spectrum disorders.

Erasmus+ is the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. Its budget of €14.7 billion will provide opportunities for over 4 million Europeans to study, train, gain experience, and volunteer abroad.