Integrating Entrepreneurship and Work Experience into Higher Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Integrating Entrepreneurship and Work Experience into Higher Education

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 : Knowledge Alliances for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics:

Project Summary

The project responds to the concerns expressed by stakeholders on the shortcomings in the labour market orientation of Higher Education (HE), focusing on the balance between practical and theoretical learning in HE and to mismatches between the skills sets of graduates and the skills they require during their early careers. EU countries have experienced a substantial increase in graduate unemployment and a decrease of quality of their employment. European students and graduates report continuously that they are worried about their careers. At the same time employers and employers’ organisations report they are having increasing difficulties in finding graduates with matching skills.In this Knowledge Alliance, Integrating Entrepreneurship and Work Experience into Higher Education (WEXHE), enterprises, associations and HEIs have come together to identify and analyse current provision of work experience in HEIs in 7 different EU countries, generating 75 case studies of work-based learning (WBL) involving all four types of disciplinary sectors (hard-pure, e.g. natural sciences; soft-pure, e.g. humanities and social sciences; hard-applied, e.g. medicine and soft-applied, e.g. social work) covering work placements, traineeships and entrepreneurships. Working with practitioners, it has created 9 comprehensive Packages of WBL, together with guidance on management, quality assurance, learning outcomes, funding and accreditation, as well as 3 Summary Reports covering the identified three modes of WBL: work placements, traineeships and entrepreneurship. These cover and support the 4 sectors and allow for tailoring to national contexts. The project aims to:• increase capacity of HE staff and enterprises to provide high quality work experience and entrepreneurship• identify what kind of WBL leads to high quality jobs• support the accreditation of WBL through ECTS and effective Quality Assurance• ensure that skills needs of employers are understood

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 999821 Eur

Project Coordinator

RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN & Country: NL

Project Partners

• UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI
• ASSOCIATION EUROPEENNE D’INSTITUTIONS DE L’ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR
• NOVATEX SOLUTIONS LTD
• CAMARA OFICIAL DE COMERCIO, INDUSTRIA, SERVICIOS Y NAVEGACION DE ESPANA
• KRAJOWA IZBA GOSPODARCZA
• EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION AISBL
• THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK