The fundamental competence of ECEC (early childhood education and care) professionals is the learning competence, which implies openness, readiness and the ability of life-long learning. Therefore, the ECEC professional has to be open for new knowledge, continuous professional training and development and continuous professional advancement. In addition, ECEC professionals are expected to cooperate with different range of professionals (i.e. primary school teachers) and parents to ensure children well being. It is challenge to ensure smoothly transition from one educational setting to another. Partner countries have different education systems (obligation to include children in ECE, age of children starting primary school). Although the difference in the traditions of transition could be understood as a challenge, it actually contributed to an understanding of the possibilities that different practices offer. This project started from the perspectives of all involved, analyzing the obstacles and advantages of different transition experiences in order to create training for professionals based on them. The project was based on the professional responsibility and competencies of educators, so the emphasis was on strengthening those competencies that can contribute to facilitating the transition between educational institutions.Innovation of the project is to incorporate multiple perspective – children, parents, ECEC professionals and primary school teachers.
However, to enhance transition processes early childhood education is one of the most important period. Hence ECEC professionals need to be able to understand and acknowledge transition process, different practices and procedures as a foundation for a quality fulfillment of educational tasks. The materials developed during the project provide significant support to educators in their lifelong learning and the transformation of existing experiences into new, more child-friendly, more understandable to parents and more innovative for educational institutions.

The immediate project participants were 30 early childhood teachers and 10 primary school teachers who were participating in project activities. Their participation had an effect on more than 40 other educators to whom they shared experiences from the project, and at least 350 children attending classes in which educators work. It is assumed that the effect is visible in an equal number (350) families of children whose educators were in the project. Since some of the members of the project team (6 of them) work at the university, the indirect participants were also ECE students and primary school teachers. Based on the starting points and outcomes of the project, an elective course “Processes of transition from ECE institutions to primary education” was launched at the University of Zagreb, which was attended by 120 students during two academic years.