Bridging the skills gap for graduates is a key challenge globally and has a detrimental effect on both individual employability, local, national and regional growth and development. Both the EU and ASEAN are putting significant resources towards addressing the issue. Partner institutions have expressed a need for the activities planned in this project. In spite of the focus on development of professional skills development for employability in recent years nationally, regionally and locally (including several EU funded projects), the penetration rate remains low, particularly in STEM education.EASTEM will facilitate employability of STEM gradutes and enhance the quality of STEM education by bridging the skills gap through student centered competence development approaches, increase visibility and sustainability for institutional STEM education activities through the creation of 10 STEM Education centers and a sustainable STEM Education network. The project will also facilitate competence orientation of educational programs and increase university industry engagement Staff development in cascade format is used to address lecturer and student competence development. Sharing of good practices provide collaborative insights into partner institution contexts. All major teaching and learning materials will be made available in four languages (English, Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese)Outputs includeChange in attitude (Lecturers, students, institution)Inclusion of industry-based problems in teaching, Asian staff development sessions in student centered competence developmentAsian partners having developed and lead student focused test bed moduleFunctioning centers of Excellence in STEM education Increased visibility of STEM educationActive engagement with industry partnersAS partners staff development sessions for external partnersnational/international network of STEM Education centersUniversity strategy plans updated with focus on competence development