European cross-border skills Erasmus Project

Project Title

European cross-border skills

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Regional dimension and cooperation; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Recognition, transparency, certification

Project Summary

CONTEXT

Cross-border territories are unique platforms for exchange and laboratories for genuine learning. They provide the possibility opening up to others, and discovering new languages and cultures. Universities play a key role in terms of enhancing the value of skills acquired through formal or informal learning.

THE PROJECT’S HISTORY

At the end of a seminar between cross-border academic actors at the UPPA in 2015, some questions emerged. How can students or university staff working in a cross-border context enhance their skills? Which programmes can be used to prove these skills’ worth? These issues are the basis of the ECBS project, which brings together four cross-border partner universities (Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Universidad de Zaragoza, Universidad del País Vasco-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Université Savoie Mont-Blanc, Università della Valle d’Aosta, EUCOR, UniGR, Universität des Saarlandes) and one non-academic partner (VMPS Corporation) specialised in educational engineering and development of AI-based teaching solutions.

OBJECTIVES

ECBS partners have the goal of setting up a common framework for “cross-border skills” materialised through a certificate and/or Open Badges. These certifications are open to the entire academic community (students, PhD students, and staff) and seek to highlight the skills acquired in the context of a cross-border experience. This has been developed through the following steps: identification of programmes set up in each cross-border area; definition of useful skills in a cross-border environment and development of a framework; establishment of the platform to promote these devices and to issue certifications; deployment of certifications to the entire academic community.

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION

Most of the project activities concern intellectual work, resulting in several outputs. The first output consists of a catalogue of programmes which enable users to acquire skills. This catalogue was proposed by the partners in their cross-border cooperation. The second output is a cross-border skill framework. This framework is common to all academic partners of the project, and is made up of fifteen skills. The last output is a platform designed to meet several goals: for users, to explore the catalogue of programmes developed in a cross-border area, to relate to the skills acquired during a cross-border experience and to apply for a certification; for partners, to highlight cross-border programmes and to have a tool for managing certification applications.

RESULTS

The ECBS Catalogue lists the programmes set up in the context of cross-border cooperation. Its aim is to promote these devices and to offer an opportunity to share these experiences with other universities located in cross-border areas. This catalogue will result in the deployment of new programmes in cross-border institutions, whether they are linked or not to the ECBS project. The ECBS framework is the key element for the recognition of skills acquired after a cross-border experience. Based on this framework and use-cases, the user can have a self feedback on his/her own experience. The development of a platform is an essential tool in order to facilitate the recognition of the acquired skills, both for the user and for evaluator.

LONG-TERM BENEFITS

The recognition of these skills makes a major contribution to boosting cross-border exchanges, thus opening up new professional prospects for the holders of the certifications. Project partners will ensure that it becomes, as far as possible, the reference tool in terms of cross-border skill enhancement. It will be integrated as a supplement to the academic diploma and will serve as a certificate for future employers located in a cross-border area. Partners aim to obtain support and recognition for this certification, not only from the users of the platform, but also from socio-economic actors in cross-border territories and from European institutions.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 361953,97 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITE DE PAU ET DES PAYS DE L’ADOUR & Country: FR

Project Partners

• VMPS Corporation
• UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO/ EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA
• UNIVERSIDAD DE ZARAGOZA
• UniGR a.s.b.l.
• UNIVERSITAT DES SAARLANDES
• EUCOR – THE EUROPEAN CAMPUS
• UNIVERSITA DELLA VALLE D’AOSTA