Displaying items by tag: higher education

The European Digital Learning Network – DLEARN – is a non-profit association aiming to embrace the challenges brought by the digital transformation in terms of digital skills mismatch and digital learning opportunities. The 47% of Europeans is not properly digitally skilled, yet in the near future, 90% of jobs will require some level of digital skills. We believe in the value of SHARING, CONNECTING, MULTIPLYING and ENHANCING the potential of our members, local territories, and people. 

As part of our activities, at DLEARN we undertake research, surveys, studies, and more, with the aim of continuously boosting European education and enhancing the awareness of European citizens towards the impact of digitalisation in their daily life.

The INCOBOTICS: Ready for Industry 5.0 project (2019-2021) unites four EU partners from France, Italy, Greece and Spain in the development of innovative didactic materials in cobotics.

The benefits of the use of digital technology for operations are enormous but also come with new and increased risks. There is a real threat to companies production security, safety and capacity, as well as data privacy, when companies connect to operational technology networks. InCyS 4.0 project (https://incybersecurity.eu/)  offers free access materials to improve competences in cyber security for operational technicians in industrial companies.

VINCE is European funded project that aims at promoting validation of learning in higher education and provide support to HEI staff in order to validate migrants‘ and refugees‘ prior learning.

VINCE so far has developed

• Country reports about the implementation of validation in various European countries,
• Case studies about the impact of validation on inclusion,
• Guidelines and a prototype training course for university staff involved in validation processes to be better prepared when working with newcomer candidates.

Furthermore, policy recommendations are being developed, targeted at EU, national decision makers and institutional learners.

On 4th July 2019 a workshop took place at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, which brought together experts, stakeholders, HEI staff and students in order to discuss the European model of validation of competences in the field of refugees.

In a first step the participants were presented the major pillars of the Lisbon Recognition Convention, which sets out the standards that shall govern validation. While recognition of prior learning refers to the recognition of formal qualifications (prerequisites for entering a higher level of a hierarchical, formal system), validation goes beyond, and also refers to the assessment of competences acquired outside the formal education system. The aim is

• to determine which competences are certifiable at all and, where this is feasible (Information)
• to identify the goals against which competences shall be validated (Identification)
• to create portfolios of supporting documents relevant for validation, such as certificates, test results, work results (Documentation)
• to evaluate the person’s skills and competences (Assessment)

In the second section of the workshop the participants jointly with practitioners from in- and outside HEI discussed the practical implications of the Convention with a view to

• identify changes in current practice necessary to meet the standards of the Lisbon Recognition Convention,
• identify constraints in the recognition of informal learning, such as competences hardly to prove or testify,
• consequences recognition practice in Germany has or can have for universities, students and in the context of the wider society.

Learn more about the project from the VINCE website

The Enter.Mode project aims to take European entrepreneurship education a big step further by developing and testing a state-of-the-art model to entrepreneurship education, that invites different levels of learning. It will stimulate entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills of higher education teaching staff and company staff and develop an entrepreneurial mind-set and related skills to higher education students.

VINCE is an ERASMUS+ project that is developing training materials for university staff working in processes of Validation of Prior Learning (VPL) and Validation of Non-formal and Informal Learning (VNIL) with migrant and/or refugee students. The objective is to provide university staff with tools to be better equipped when working with newcomers who want to access Higher Education (HE) and want to be more aware and integrated in European society.

The 2nd partner meeting took place in Munich, from 9th to 10th October 2017. The event was hosted by the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (Germany). The partner organisations discussed VNIL (validation of non-formal and informal learning outcomes) in Higher Education from different ankles, such as with regard to its meaning for

The number of refugees and new migrants who reach Europe, escaping from wars or critical life conditions and looking for new life opportunities, has increased dramatically in recent years and is likely to continue growing in the coming years. These newcomers face many challenges in settling into Europe and among these are the obstacles to accessing the labour market or continuing their studies.

PROMOTE is a EU-funded project that started in 2014 and will be completed in October 2016. The project aims at promoting and validating social, personal and organisational key competences such as entrepreneurship, civic competences and learning to learn with the help of an innovative, self-directed learning approach at the interface of higher education and business.

The rapid adoption of internet-enabled phone and tablets has revolutionised the way we live and work, but not yet in too many cases the way students are taught in vocational training or higher education. Although digital and mobile resources are proven to increase adult learner engagement and information retention, yet only 1 in 5 students are taught by digitally confident and supportive teachers. This absence of integration of digital learning tools is mainly caused by lack of confidence and training and as a result, very few students across Europe are taught material aided and supported by digital supports.