Building Up Digital Strategists Erasmus Project

Project Title

Building Up Digital Strategists

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Cooperation between educational institutions and business; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

CONTEXT
All the five participating universities are members of YERUN (Young European Research Universities Network), a network that includes eighteen highly ranked European universities, which are committed to deliver excellence in teaching and learning. Education collaboration and graduate employability – that represent the pillars on which this project is built upon – are among the strategic actions of the network.
The wider context for this project is determined by the large impact digital transformation can have on the economic growth potential of Europe and the relevant role Management Consulting industry is playing as a key enabler of digital transformation processes; in particular, the digital skills gap between the strong demand coming from the job market and the limited availability of training opportunities on digital innovation for students in higher education institutions.
MAIN OBJECTIVE:
This project aims to the design of a blended “e-learning+face-to-face” course able to build up digital skills among higher education students through an in-depth training merging codified knowledge and experiential learning for consulting on digital transformation processes.
PARTICIPANTS
on the partners side: the 5 project partners are all leading institutions at national level with a strong interdisciplinary character and with a flexible structure: University of Antwerp, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, University of Eastern Finland, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Università degli Studi di Roma ‘Tor Vergata’, Key persons have been identified in each institution, in terms of administrative and academic staff. Associated partners will be the overall YERUN network and the Italian Association of Management Consulting Companies (Assoconsult Confindustria). Both associated partners will contribute substantially to the development and to the results of the project.
on the target groups side: 40 students per year in the intensive face-to-face training programme and a growing number of participants to the online courses (up to 500 in the third year). The participation to the face-to-face programme is bounded by the need for a strong interaction among project participants and management consulting companies in working on business cases. Target profiles are: 60% from Management and Economics; 30% from Data Science/Statistics/Informatics; 10% from different backgrounds.
ACTIVITIES
The core activities of the project are the design and delivery of a blended course on digital management consulting made of three self-standing e-learning modules and an experiential-based intensive training programme.
METHODOLOGY
As to the project management, all the activities will be carried out in a collaborative way by clearly identifying the role that each partner will be asked to play. A smooth collaboration will be supported by the past and existing initiatives that these universities are sharing within the YERUN network.
As to the learning process, the course will be designed as blended as to have e-learning modules for reaching a large audience and an experiential learning phase for developing soft skills. This approach aims to establish lasting behaviour change through not only the sharing of codified knowledge but also a process of experience, reflection, conceptualisation and experimentation.
RESULTS
By the end of the third year, the project aims to achieve the following results:
– design course contents and course materials in the interdisciplinary and practice-oriented area of digital management consulting with the focus on how new technologies can be effectively leverage to redesign business processes;
– design and deliver on an open access platform a 3 weeks e-learning course that will have already trained around 1.000 students in area of digital consulting;
– design and deliver a highly interactive experiential intensive training programme developed together with management consulting companies, that will have transmitted both formal knowledge and soft skills to 120 students;
– strengthen further research and teaching collaborations, as part of a network of European universities that since 2015 have started a long term collaboration which will contribute to the creation of the EEA by 2025
IMPACT
The project will have a strong impact on the participants, in terms of learners and project partners, as well as associated partners. It will contribute to equip learners with the digital skills required by the labour market. New teaching contents will be developed in the area of digital management consulting and guidelines for an innovative course design format able to offer experiential learning will be at disposal of higher education educators. Also the professional development of the administrative staff involved in the project will be enhanced.
In the longer term, the project also has the potential to contribute to a new course design approach by blending the two very different approaches of online and experiential learning.

Project Website

https://buds.uniroma2.it/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 310511 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA TOR VERGATA & Country: IT

Project Partners

• ITA-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO
• UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
• UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA
• UNIVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID