Master’s Degree Program Early Life Care
Program structure & Content

The Master’s Degree Program in Early Life Care, offered by Paracelsus Medical Private University in joint sponsorship with St. Virgil Salzburg, is a unique part-time educational program in Europe.

All professional groups working in the field of Early Childhood Support — around pregnancy, birth, and the first years of life — study together over seven semesters. Interprofessional, joint learning is an essential experience for effective collaboration in everyday professional practice.

Graduates of the Master’s Program in Early Life Care bring comprehensive knowledge and interdisciplinary competencies into the institutions where they work. Through innovative approaches and methods, they enhance daily practice with families and children. They are exceptionally well qualified to design and promote optimal healthcare and health promotion during the first years of life.

Our graduates are characterized by strong practical competence, application-oriented thinking, and social responsibility. Problem-oriented approaches, problem-solving strategies, professional communication, and client-centered counseling skills are therefore key elements of the curriculum, alongside the study of ethical and social foundations of professional practice.

The Master’s Program in Early Life Care is a part-time, modular course of study:

In the first two semesters, the focus is on healthy child development, while the third and fourth semesters are dedicated to interventions. This phase concludes with the certificate “Academic Expert in Early Life Care.” The first four semesters may also be completed independently as a scientific continuing education program (university program).

Semesters five to seven deepen knowledge in project and organizational development, qualify students for leadership roles in the health and social sectors, and include completion of the Master’s thesis. This phase concludes with the academic degree “Master of Science (Continuing Education)” (MSc (CE)).

• Duration: 7 semesters
• Scope: 120 ECTS credits
• 2 degrees: Academic Expert in Early Life Care (after 4 semesters) and
  Master of Science (Continuing Education) / MSc (CE) (after 7 semesters)
• Cohort size: maximum of 30 participants per year

The program is designed to be completed alongside professional employment. To ensure compatibility between work, studies, and private life, schedules are announced well in advance. On-site teaching, online sessions, and self-study alternate throughout the program.

Classes take place during four block weekends per semester (Friday–Sunday), supplemented by self-study and structured learning periods.

Breaks: Christmas/New Year, Easter, and summer (July and August).

On-site phases focus on collaborative engagement with course content. Thorough preparation by students ensures optimal use of classroom time. Contemporary didactics, varied teaching methods, and structured assignments between in-person sessions ensure strong practical transfer.

• Foundations & Professional Attitude in Early Life Care: Professional stance and biopsychosocial model – attachment – salutogenesis, health promotion and prevention – attachment- and relationship-oriented practice – early support systems
• Becoming Parents – Being Born: Pregnancy – fetal programming and epigenetics – birth – postpartum period – cooperation and communication with other professions
• Child Development and Counseling Methods: Developmental psychology of early childhood – early education and care – counseling/methodology/communication – handling counseling – gender and cultural sensitivity and engagement with value pluralism
• Professional Practice Competence: Behavioral observation – nutrition and breastfeeding – psychotraumatology
• Ethically Reflective Practice and Academic Research: Ethical reflection – academic writing – case reports – expert/literature review – analysis of current studies – grant writing
• Challenges in Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum: Fertility and reproductive medicine – pregnancy conflicts and counseling – perinatal and postnatal counseling methods – birth interventions – prematurity and NIDCAP – postpartum challenges
• Regulatory Disorders and Highly Stressed Parents: Counseling for regulatory disorders – stress factors such as teenage pregnancy, mental illness, addiction, and others – attachment-oriented practice in high-risk contexts (e.g., GrowTogether) – interaction screening in high-risk contexts (e.g., Care Index)
• Structured Support Systems: Developmental diagnostics – chronically ill children and palliative care – complementary medicine – child protection – developmental support (parent-child groups) – educational support services
• Counseling and Supervision: Peer consultation – supervision/coaching – self-reflection – internship
• Ethics and Policy: Ethics transfer at the organizational level – health policy and health economics – ecology and sustainability
• Organizational Development: Developing and leading Early Life Care initiatives and organizations – project management and financing – social marketing and public relations in healthcare – implementation of Early Life Care quality standards
• Professional Practice Competence: Crisis intervention and counseling – case management
• Master’s Phase: Master’s colloquium – Master’s thesis

The objectives of this part-time continuing education program and Master’s degree are interdisciplinary knowledge transfer, promotion of multiprofessional collaboration, and qualification for leadership roles in the development of comprehensive support, counseling, and treatment services. Particular emphasis is placed on innovation and research for the advancement of practice.

Professional Practice Objectives

• Further qualification (especially in multiprofessional communication) of various professional groups — so-called support systems — enabling them to play a key role in the field of early childhood, early intervention services, and high-risk family contexts in Austria.

Socio-Political Objectives

• Improvement of support services in high-risk areas
• Strengthening of primary prevention
• Needs-based support for pregnant women, parents, and families to close gaps in perinatal healthcare
• Development of perspectives that anchor cooperative, interdisciplinary support systems and thereby improve Early Life Care services
• Support for the development and networking of tiered local, regional, and supra-regional systems of mobile services and competence centers equipped with multiprofessional and interdisciplinary teams
• Establishment of Early Life Care quality standards for institutions

Academic Objectives

• Knowledge transfer between participating disciplines
• Interdisciplinary exchange (research, practical experience, media resources)
• Advancement of research and teaching

Learning in a place that strengthens and inspires - Our Master’s program takes place at St. Virgil Salzburg:

Modern seminar rooms, comfortable hotel accommodations surrounded by greenery, and sustainable gastronomy. This unique learning environment combines focus, relaxation, and a conscious lifestyle.

Students benefit from reduced rates (for 2026: single room including breakfast €72.00; sustainable regional lunch buffet €14.50; dinner buffet €13.50), free parking, and excellent public transport connections.

More information: www.virgil.at