ENGineering and Industry Innovative Training for Engineers Erasmus Project

Project Title

ENGineering and Industry Innovative Training for 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 vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
Current research on the engineering sector showed that different skills and competences such as problem-solving, creativity, innovative thinking, and practical experiences are essential and absolutely required for the Engineers of tomorrow. Unfortunately, this knowledge cannot be developed during the undergraduate’s studies of the Engineers using traditional didactical methods and without the connection with industry and the hands-on-experiences. Therefore, there is an immediate need to transform and reform the engineering education.

OBJECTIVES
ENGINITE aimed at supporting young engineers in acquiring key skills and competences, responding to the current needs of industry, via the use of Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach, as a powerful pedagogy.

PARTICIPANTS
As part of ENGINITE there were two main target groups involved in the project activities:
•Graduate/Junior engineers: This target group included (a) Graduate Engineers who sought for a job and/or who wished to follow a post graduate/vocational training programme; (b) Junior Engineers who were partly-employed and/or working in a different field and wished to follow a post graduate/vocational training programme.
•Industrial partners: The ENGINITE project was also addressed to Industrial Partners in the engineering sector. In particular this target group included: (a) Companies you sought for professional graduate/junior engineers for employment; (b) Companies which experienced lack of innovative ideas and sought for talented engineers who were able to provide solutions to existing problems and/or promote new ideas/products towards helping the companies to enhance their competitiveness and further grow.

UNDERTAKEN ACTIVITIES
The ENGINITE project developed a new industrial-oriented postgraduate vocational training programme which used synchronous methods to set a higher standard level for engineering training aiming to change the way in which engineers were trained and at the same time, industry and economy were benefited. The educational materials emerged during the ENGINITE project had the form of educational resources, under the licence of Creative Commons (.e. Handbook for PBL methodology, Guidebook for trainers, Guidebook for mentors), in order to be adaptable, accessible and widely available to all interested stakeholders. The ENGINITE training programme was delivered via a novel online training platform (https://platform.enginite.eu/), which was developed for the purposes of the project. The ENGINITE training programme and its educational materials were also accompanied by evidence of its effectiveness through two main pilots at Cyprus and Greece. The project and its main outcomes were disseminated though multiple press releases and three newsletters (https://www.enginite.eu/news-events/). Finally, a Facebook page was also created (https://www.facebook.com/EnginiteErasmus/) to contribute to the ENGINITE project’s social media publicity.

RESULTS & IMPACT ATTAINED

Quantitative results:
•39 graduate/junior engineers took part in the project and benefited from the ENGINITE training program at Cyprus and Greece
•22 companies in Cyprus and Greece took part in the ENGINITE training programme and reinforces their staff with the trained young engineers
•414 unique users visited the ENGINITE Online Training Platform and benefited from the available educational materials
•202 interested stakeholders attended the ENGINITE multiplier events which took place at Greece and Cyprus
•More than 450 interested stakeholders liked and followed the ENGINITE Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/EnginiteErasmus/)
•More than 20000 relevant stakeholders were reached through the ENGINITE dissemination activities

Qualitative results:
•There was high interest of relevant stakeholders to join the ENGINITE online training platform.
•There was a high level of satisfaction following the completion of the pilot training programme by all the participants
•The ENGINITE training courses period was ranked highly by the trainees in Greece and in Cyprus
•The participating young engineers developed their technical and entrepreneurial skills
•The feedback received by the company supervisors about the trained young engineers was also relatively high

LONG TERM BENEFITS & IMPACT
After the end of EU funding, the partners will maintain a contact will all stakeholder who attended the multiplier events, participated in the training events and pilots, joined the ENGINITE online training platform, liked our social media channels etc. and use these contacts as liaisons to continue to promote the ENGINITE training programme. The ENGINITE Online Training Platform that was created is expected to continue functioning even after the project is finished by all interested stakeholders (e.g. Graduate/Junior engineers, Industrial partners/Engineering companies, Policy makers & governmental officials, Educators and trainers, Researchers and academics).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 158474,8 Eur

Project Coordinator

TECHNOLOGIKO PANEPISTIMIO KYPROU & Country: CY

Project Partners

• AALBORG UNIVERSITET
• POLYTECHNEIO KRITIS
• LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY LBG
• GRANTXPERT CONSULTING LIMITED
• CUBEIE L.L.C.
• USEFUL SIMPLE PROJECTS LIMITED