The "Digital-Reskilling at Universities (D-Reskill@U)" project, coordinated by Sorbonne University and of which the FMSH is a partner member, is presented as a response to the challenges that European training institutions are facing, specifically in the field of lifelong learning, in the current context of health, social and environmental crisis
D-Reskill@U recognizes that the workforce needs effective up/reskilling and career guidance tools to enable them to enhance their employability in a period of rapidly changing work patterns. The solutions envisaged must be as effective and affordable as possible (to increase inclusiveness). The project will provide European higher education institutions with guidelines for an original online lifelong learning offer at the post-bachelors level for the reand/or up-skilling of the workforce. To achieve the most in-depth and at the same time the most practical vision, it brings together a consortium of partners with different profiles, 2 research-intensive universities (Sorbonne Université and Università di Milano), a technical university (Budapest University of Technology and Economics), a distance-learning university (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), together with a leading-edge EdTech company (PIXIS/MeshUp Education) in the field of digital school guidance, and a non-profit foundation (Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme) with expertise in digital transformation of higher education and dissemination.
Objectives
The D-Reskill@U project takes the “European Skills Agenda” head on by prioritizing equity and inclusivity as a key instrument of socioeconomic development and excellence. It postulates that public universities can play a pivotal role in providing innovative lifelong learning formulae. D-RESKILL@U is vital in this regard, by providing the strategy for a lifelong learning approach that is accessible, readily applicable, and responsive, thanks to its compliance with the European Skills/Competences, Qualifications, and Occupations (ESCO) database and its use of advanced digital tools for career guidance.
The 3 following points illustrate the highlights of the project and its strengths:
The use of digital technology to make the provision of lifelong learning as inclusive as possible, in the context of the current socio-economic crisis triggered by the health crisis and its aftermath.
The proposal of an innovative learner-centred curriculum plan linked to the evolution of the European labour market, and providing the methodological, technical, and strategic guidelines for implementing it.
The maximization of impact via an active dissemination plan to ensure visibility and continued sustainability.
Project results and other outcome expected
The production of guidelines aiming at defining "Block of Skills" contents and defining (micro-) credits according to the Block of Skills. As an application, a "smart" catalogue of online offers will be produced in the fields of data sciences and chemistry;
The production of the dynamic mock-up of the career guidance software, consisting in the digital implementation of the smart catalogue, the specifications of the career guidance software (dynamic modelling and interfaces designing);
The training program on "Innovations in digital Lifelong Learning and career guidance" that will take the form of two workshops aimed at university staffs and their governance, as well as alumni associations and corporate representatives;
Other outcomes resulting from the project are the continued dissemination of the D-RESKILL@U methodologies at the global level, the creation of an online kit describing the methodologies, and the implementation of the career guidance software and its testing when supplementary fundings are raised in the post-Erasmus+ period.
