Europäisches Gütesiegel - European Quality Label for Early Childhood Educational Institutions Project

The project, supported by the Erasmus+ Programme, developed a scientifically validated and tested European-level certification label for early childhood education and care institutions. The aim was to use this label to measure and improve the quality of early childhood education and care.

The project, which durated from 01 October 2017 to 30 September 2019, had three core outputs:

1. Developing a Catalogue of Validated Criterias with pedagogical quality criteria at four different levels (structural, orientation, process and family relationship quality). In order to compile the Catalogue, 68 kindergartens and nurseries in Vas County were contacted. A total of 1209 questionnaires were sent out, of which 968 were returned completed.
2. Developing a European Quality Label Manual containing information on the criterias, the overall assessment and the procedure for obtaining a quality label for institutions operated in the field of early childhood care and education.
3. Developing a Policy Recommendation document containing recommendations for the policy stakeholders on ensuring and improving pedagogical quality in the early years of the education and care.

As part of the project, a one-week training course was held in Austria with the participation of two Vas county kindergarten teachers, who - after the training course - carried out pilot audits in 20 groups of 10 Vas county kindergartens based on the developed manual.