Creating competences for a circular economy Erasmus Project

Project Title

Creating competences for a circular economy

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 addressing more than one field

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

The project THREE C has aimed at integrating the concept of the Circular Economy as an attractive new learning field in European school education.
The “Circular Economy” refers to the concept of saving natural resources and to reuse and recycle them. It is a more profound approach than the solely technical (end-of pipe) concepts of waste management sector (like the German Kreislaufwirtschaft) and focuses on the active participation and capacity building of citizens.
It is an increasingly relevant, popular and attractive theme that is being boosted by major economic, ecological and political stakeholders worldwide. Young people need to acquire skills to be able to contribute to and work in a circular economy.
In the THREE C project 8 project partners from 7 EU member states collaborated in a multi-stakeholder partnership:
The lead partner, Landkreis Kassel(1) is a regional authority which has been active in environmental protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation and in the circular economy since several decades.
Q21 (2) has been developing full time qualifications in environmental and climate change management. It is member of REVEAL, the European network for promoting and validating informal learning and it’s unique competence oriented learning and validation system
Tallinn University(3). Centre for Educational Technology (CET, established in 1998) is a department within TLU’s Institute of Informatics, being one of the leading R&D centres in the field of eLearning within Baltic countries. It is part of the EMMA (European Multiple MOOC Aggregator )project.
Euneos (4)has been involved in European projects, organisation of KA1 courses and international networking since 2005.
Fontys(5) is one of the leading teachers’ training institutes in the Netherlands and developed, together with Q21 the holistic didactic and validation approach
Sint-Lambertus 4 (6) has experience with European projects since 2000: LLP Comenius and Vetpro. The school has general education, technical and vocational training.
IES Las Indias (7)is very much oriented to international projects since 2010. The school has an extented network of companies for internships.
Universidade portucalense infante d. henrique porto (8). This institution has a network of schools and companies and promoted the THREE C MOOC and post graduate course.
Results and impact attained
THREE C achieved the following results:
• A framework of competences related to circular economy was set up. The competences were thoroughly described and converted in so called reference systems (3 competence dimensions (knowledge, skills and attitudes and 5 competence levels), based on the LEVEL5 holistic competence oriented learning and validation approach.
• A didactical approach with teaching and assessment strategies was developed to enable teachers to teach their pupils skills in the context of a circular economy and to equip this approach with a inventories (growing catalogues) for informal learning and assessment methods)
• A competence oriented assessment and validation approach was set up including a catalogue of suitable assessment methods and a link to a THREE C-validation tool.
• An interactive and holistic learning environment for teachers that receive training on THREE C (on how to teach Circular Economy) was developed including practical projects on competence based learning in internships (guidelines) and links to the validation environment
• Diverse learning resources for teachers and educational staff were developed including
o A MOOC on how to teach Circular Economy
o A Training module for teachers (blended learning), which was piloted with 20 teachers
o A KA1 Erasmus course concept was derived from the pilot course
• An active conferencing format programme for teachers on circular economy was developed and delivered during the multiplier event.
• A proposal of a post-graduation course with an academic degree (ECTS) on competences for a circular economy degree with teachers as target group was developed, approved by the scientific board of the PT University
Long term benefits
The project team intensively disseminated and valorised the THREE C concept. The course has been officially accredited in the German state of Hesse which makes it an official CPD for teachers. The THREE approach has been introduced as officially accepted concept in 3 teacher training centres in the Netherlands. A master course will be developed in the FONTYS University in 2017. The THREE C community has become part of the European REVEAL network which cares for the maintenance of the connected learning technologies and supports the marketing and distribution of the project products such as the KA1 course and the Post Graduate Course.
The availability of the project’s materials beyond the project lifetime and the visibility for policy makers, other teachers and school managers is secured both by the project website (www.threec.eu) and the e-Learning platform (threec.my-VITA.eu).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 270215 Eur

Project Coordinator

LANDKREIS KASSEL & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Q21 – Agentur für Qualifizierungs und Transfermanagement GmbH
• Centro Integrado de Formación Profesional Las Indias
• Euneos Oy
• TALLINN UNIVERSITY
• Sint-Lambertus 4
• UNIVERSIDADE PORTUCALENSE INFANTE D.HENRIQUE-COOPERATIVA DE ENSINO SUPERIOR CRL
• STICHTING FONTYS