STEM skills and competences for the new generation of Nordic engineers Erasmus Project

Project Title

STEM skills and competences for the new generation of Nordic engineers

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project has been built upon three pillars. The project first received initial funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers, which allowed the initiators to contact various partners and also take the time to put together an application to Erasmus+. Once the partners were assembled, the five participating universities decided that each would contribute 50 days of working time per year to get the collaboration off the ground. Once this Erasmus project was approved, the project could start up for real, with four studies on STEM skills and competences needed for future engineers. Nordplus also contributed with extra funds during the project, which enabled the Norwegian partner to participate in all the meetings and studies even though they were not part of the Erasmus application.

Four studies was conducted during the project time, studies that will now serve as the base for the next phase of this knowledge hub. The actual hub consisted of about 10-15 representatives from the partner organisations who conducted the studies and established the network.

Study 1: A mapping study was conducted aiming at comparing the educational systems for the five different Nordic countries. The result from this study also contains a comparison with the Baltic states. This result is now both a report and a digital version. The digital version has been piloted and will be continuously updated.

Study 2: The Nordic knowledge hub is presenting a vision of tomorrow’s engineering education program, as experts in the Nordic countries would design it. In the first sub-study professors from five Nordic universities representing four different engineering disciplines were asked about the future, especially when it comes to the integration of digitalization and sustainability in the engineering education programs. In a second sub-study representatives from industry were interviewed on the same topics. The study has identified current gaps and propose solutions how to close them. The results (www.nordenhub.org), for example testify to the desire for future engineers to be able to work interdisciplinary, but with a strong foundation in their own discipline. The results from this rather scientific study has been and will be published in the scientific community before spreading the results as policy documentation.

Study 3: As another product, the knowledge hub has looked at different strategies, practices and trends for universities’ continuous education. 10 universities strategies have been scrutinized and the result show that there is not yet a common strategy for this type of activities.

Study 4: The project present strategies on how to increase the performance and interest in STEM. By interviewing managers from successful Outreach activities in all Nordic countries, the project has developed a model based on a framework on how to motivate young people. The model can be used when others want to design an activity with the aim of attracting young people to STEM education. Five videos are produced that can be used when describing strategies for developing new initiatives or redeveloping already existing initiatives of increasing STEM interest.

The project’s goal was to reach and support decision makers and change agents as authorities, politicians. Due to the pandemic this was not done to the same extent as planned. Instead, the project focused on finding a sustainable organisation for further developing its interests. The knowledge hub is now a branch of the network NORDTEK, consisting of about 30 Nordic technical universities, at the moment it is named the NEE focus area.
The exact number of participants reached is difficult to determine, but the project have hosted one online conference for its target group, where two hundred participants attended online. This conference where financed by NORDTEK, the host of the knowledge hub. In addition, the target group will be reached through the reports written and the articles as soon as they are published.

As part of NORDTEK, the knowledge hub will receive annual funding that will enable it to keep the network alive and update the mapping studies that have been initiated. Of course, new funding will be required to do new studies and also to disseminate what has come out of this study, we hope and believe that it is possible.

Project Website

http://nordenhub.org

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 331513 Eur

Project Coordinator

KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLAN & Country: SE

Project Partners

• Danish Society of Engineers/Association of Nordic Engineers
• NORDTEK
• HASKOLINN I REYKJAVIK EHF
• AALBORG UNIVERSITET
• AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR