The growing demand for skilled employees within the European Software Sector cannot be met by current education and training programmes. Europe needs an innovative new Software Skills Strategy that can fast-track the upskilling and reskilling of Europe’s workforce to address this ever-increasing skills gap. Technology innovation has changed the paradigm of the way software and IT infrastructure are being designed, delivered and managed (vide: automation, instant availability of services, growing software support functions), allowing for shorter and more efficient education cycles. Vocational education is considered as an applicable format, which enables better alignment with industry and employers real time needs and more flexible learning pathways.The European Software Skills Alliance led by DIGITALEUROPE brings together key Industry and Education stakeholders from across the domain to design and implement a highly innovative, effective and sustainable Software Skills Strategy for Europe that will ensure the skills needs of the rapidly expanding and evolving Software Sector can be met in the short, medium and long term. The Alliance will work together to develop, implement and disseminate a new Software Skills Strategy that will tackle the current and future skills shortages in the European Software Sector, enabling continuous development, innovation and competitiveness within the industry.The project includes:- the establishment of a long-term partnership between The European Software Skills Alliance members; - the design of an innovative and sustainable Software Skills Strategy;- development, testing and roll-out of VET training curricula for VET and higher VET;- VET training programmes and qualifications in line with latest market needs and consistently linked with EU instruments and tools enabling professional skills and career development in general and empowering ICT Professionalism and digital competences in particular.

Background The growing demand for skilled employees within the Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot be met by current education and training programmes. Europe needs an innovative European AI Strategy that can fast-track the upskilling and of the EU’s workforce to meet this ever-increasing demand.ObjectiveThe project will support the implementation of the Pact for Skills by developing a sectoral skills strategy on AI. This strategy aims to lead to systemic and structural impact on reducing skills shortages, gaps, and mismatches, as well as ensure appropriate quality and levels of skillsParticipants The ARISA project configurating the European AI Skills Alliance, sets up a consortium of 16 partners and 4 associated partners led by DIGITALEUROPE, brings together key Industry and Education stakeholders from across the domain.Activities The ARISA consortium will work together to develop, implement and disseminate an AI European Strategy that will tackle the current and future skills shortages in the AI Sector, enabling continuous development, innovation and competitiveness within the industry. Methodology The project will be implemented in 9 work packages as follows: WP 1 – Project managementWP 2 - Needs analysisWP 3 – AI Skills StrategyWP 4 - Development of an innovative curricula and training program WP 5 - Development of a certification systemWP 6 – Piloting in different EU countriesWP 7 – Dissemination and communicationWP 8 – Long term sustainabilityWP 9 – Quality assuranceExpected results and impact The project includes the establishment of a long-term partnership for an innovative European Artificial Intelligence Skills Alliance; the design of an innovative and sustainable short term and long term Strategy; the development, testing and roll-out of VET and HE training curricula in 8 pilot sites (5 universities and 3 VET providers), the adaptation of programmes and qualifications in line with latest market needs and consistently linked withaaaa

The project builds on an existing community linked to ISPIM Society focused on innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) – a theme of central interest in EU as a source of employment and growth. The consortium consists of industrial partners (Nokia Networks, Lufthansa, Torbay Hospital, AachenMuenchener, BMW, Lego) and academics who share a concern with the question:How do we improve on current I&E teaching, coaching and training?While many organizations offer courses that focus on I&E we know these often fail to stimulate a step change in student abilities. Learners know they should act, but training does not enable this and whilst they gain considerable ‘explicit’ knowledge, they fail with ‘TACIT’ element that helps them to apply it. We suggest this is partly due to the mode of delivery and there is a need for new and innovative approaches that embrace learning as a generative iteration of knowledge and knowing through doing, making and relating:• recognise different modes of learning; for many practitioners classroom style approaches do not work effectively• promote experiential learning offering different ways of closing the learning cycle between theory and practice• create skills-based learning placing emphasis on what individuals in organizations can actually do rather than focusing only on structures and processes to enable innovation• assure practice-based learning: allowing capability development through experimentation and prototyping• build on core I&E principles around which individuals configure solutions to work in their own corporate contextThe objective of this project is to combine the efforts of business and university educators to create new learner-centred teaching methods, open up new learning opportunities and develop the practical application of entrepreneurial skills. This will be framed as an innovative teaching module to be embedded in the existing curricula of higher education institutions and in the corporate training programs.

IMPACT is a practice-based, sustainability-oriented, and result-driven project aiming to advance Europe’s capacity and effectiveness in training and teaching sustainability-oriented innovation and entrepreneurship (SOIE). The ambition of the project is to drive innovation and entrepreneurship based on values of corporate sustainability, and to facilitate organisation-wide cultural change toward more sustainable innovation processes. With its explicit focus on sustainability, IMPACT makes a unique contribution to effectively translating Europe’s new growth strategy presented in the “Green Deal” into an innovative educational program and business practice.More specifically, IMPACT brings together leaders from industry, academia and innovation ecosystems to:I. empirically generate, aggregate, exchange and disseminate knowledge about good practices and methods in SOIEII. facilitate values-based and sustainability-oriented innovation and entrepreneurship practices and methods that help to establish a sustainability-oriented innovation culture III. create advanced education methods and real problem-based materials to teach and learn SOIE IMPACT builds on the results of previous projects and draws on the experience of innovation scholars and practitioners to generate actionable insights for students, young entrepreneurs and industrial partners striving to make a positive impact on society as a whole. The main outcomes of the project are: I) a database of concrete examples and best practices for enhancing sustainability; II) facilitation methods toolkit for enabling the effective involvement of internal and external stakeholders in innovation-related activities, as well as the collaborative review and redefinition of cultural routines, implicit values and hidden assumptions; and III) methods for teaching and coaching SOIE toolkit, which includes a module on Sustainable Innovation Practices (12 ECTS) for professional development and elective university courses.

The project was aimed at contribution to current reform of Ukrainian Higher Education particular to design and implement internal and external system of quality assurance in higher education. The scope of the project was targeted at two major levels – the level of HEIs (internal QA system) and the level of national evaluation bodies (external QA system). The logical framework of the project was built in such a way that, especially at preparation and development stages, some activities related to both levels were carried-out in parallel. The consortium started preparation to design internal quality assurance system based on ESG2015 from trainings of representatives of HEIs in quality assurance mechanisms and in parallel from analysis of extant state of QA mechanisms in the country (survey for Ukrainian HEIs). The training was delivered in two stages. Classical training in the framework of Koblenz Summer Academy, than special workshop – case study of quality assurance system of Wrocław University of Science and Technology. Trainings build capacity of HEIs staff to execute SWOT analysis in terms of implementation ESG2015 in each HEIs. Every HEIs prepared own analysis. The analysis was used as a basis to design the core of internal QA system - the list of accreditation criteria for HEIs. The general decision about the approach (institutional vs. programme evaluation) was taken with respect to requirements of Ministry of Science and Education of Ukraine, legal environment in the country, opinions of elected members of National Quality Assurance in Higher Education Agency of Ukraine and in accordance to ESG2015. Consortium decided to design the system of quality assurance as adoption of the requirements of ESG2015 to programme evaluation procedures with special attention paid for evaluation of quality assurance system (in order to create a basis ready to be modified into classical institutional accreditation system). The list of internal accreditation criteria was prepared in cooperation with members of National QA Agency. The list of criteria let piloting HEIs to start design internal QA system and implement the systems in piloting HEIs. The special role in quality assurance system is playing by self-assessment mechanisms. In parallel consortium started preparation to design external QA system. Consortium organized the external evaluation of piloting HEIs based on prepared and delivered self-assessment reports. The external evaluation created great opportunity to organize practical training in external evaluation by involvement of representatives of stakeholders in the evaluation procedures. The site visits (in total 8) were organized in classical accreditation manner, however because of participation of regular accreditation experts from EU it was considered as special training (learning by doing) for representatives of stakeholders (two representatives of HEIs and two representatives of Ukrainian Association of Students). The process of design internal QA system, implementation, self-assessment, external evaluation, preparation of evaluation report was conducted in each Ukrainian HEIs from consortium. This activity build capacity of Ukrainian partners in terms of preparation the general model of internal quality assurance system for Ukrainian HEIs, in terms of elaboration rules (including templates of supporting documents) for external quality assurance. In this stage National Quality Assurance in Higher Education of Ukraine was dismissed. In order to assure quality of results consortium cooperated with national experts. The external evaluation procedure conducted by consortium let consider the main results – designed models for internal and external quality assurance systems as fully adopted for Ukrainian specifics of higher education system, tested in various types of Ukrainian HEIs (technical, humanitarian, classical, big, medium size, small etc.) and ready to use on the country level.