ErasmusJobs – Bridging the skills gap of the Erasmus Generation Erasmus Project

Project Title

ErasmusJobs – Bridging the skills gap of the Erasmus Generation

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: Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Cooperation between educational institutions and business; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

According to the Erasmus Impact Study 2014, participating in a mobility experience increases the long term employability of students. At the same time young people who actively engage in student societies or other types of associations develop various transferable/non-formal skills, which are highly valued in a workplace. In spite of this, most young people in Europe are facing important challenges to find a job right after graduation due to the challenging labour market, the lack of skills and working experience. For employers, a mobility experience is generally considered an asset as 64% believe an international experience is important, but eventually, the obtained transversal skills and knowledge are the aspects that matter the most (92%). Why are the skills gained through a mobility experience not clear and why does this lack of recognition still exist?

The ErasmusJobs project aims to bring various stakeholders together to increase the understanding of the skills gap among employers, students and universities and work towards the creation of synergies. In order to do so, the project will involve the three biggest stakeholder groups (students, universities and employers) aiming to jointly improve the transition from higher education to the labour market. Building on a mobility experience, the project aims to clearly outline the obtained skills and make those understandable for employers.

Breaking down the main objective, the project aims to identify obtained skills and translate these to the CV and labour market. It aims to create tools to identify such skills and work on the recognition of skills with employers and the industry to create understanding. Finally, the project aims to create a common understanding of how these skills can be mapped and raise awareness among employers. The work will lead to the creation of a comprehensive report, and followed by a competence profile and skills mapping, available to the public.

Building on that, the project aims to create a tool for all involved stakeholders to advertise, recognise and recruit for specific transversal key competences. The tool, a job platform for the Erasmus Generation, will help Erasmus+ Alumni to better advertise skills gained through a mobility experience, volunteering, or other non-formal learning. At the same time, the platform would allow employers to recruit internationally-minded talent based on such skills, improving the transition from university to the labour market.

The Job Platform would specifically target Erasmus+ alumni (seeking a job between 0-5 years after obtaining the degree). Building on the research conducted, the job platform aims to highlight the competence profile of the students, hereby providing a more comprehensive overview of the students’ knowledge and skills than a traditional CV would do. In addition, the platform will place emphasis on mobility experience, languages, volunteering and the informal and non-formal learning that such experiences teach and transversal skills gained through both the academic experience, as well as the mobility experience as such.

Additionally, a graduate tracking element will be introduced in the platform to provide career offices with metrics on the success of their students. These metrics will provide a form of feedback to the course content and allow the universities and policy makers to implement changes for future students. This goes hand in hand with the EC’s efforts to conduct graduate tracking and will allow to highlight the successes of the Erasmus+ programme.

Further aiming to increase the impact, the project will implement a training toolkit for the various stakeholders involved. The toolkit will further ensure that students are aware of their skills, raise awareness in the industry, support career offices and promote the various outcomes of the project through training content. It will contain methodologies and training outlines for participants to be able to replicate the different workshops and multiply the effects and impact of this training.

Finally the project will work to translate all the outcomes of the research, competencence profile and skills mapping, to easy understandable and implementable best practices. Primarily aiming to increase the reach and impact of the project, these best practices will be used in two campaigns targeting students and employers around the European continent.

The project will bring together 9 partners from Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Czech Republic to tackle the outlined problems on a transnational scale and introduce solutions scalable to the wider European dimension. The consortium consists of multiple universities with a geographical spread around Europe, multiple university networks, a network of businesses, an organisation focussing on labour mobility and Europe’s largest student organisation.

Project Website

http://project.erasmusjobs.org

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 242317,6 Eur

Project Coordinator

ERASMUS STUDENT NETWORK AISBL & Country: BE

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITE DE MONS
• Masarykova univerzita
• EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION-CAMPUS EUROPAE
• European Institute for Industrial Leadership
• LEO-NET
• UNIVERSIDAD DE ALCALA
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA TOR VERGATA