Compete Egypt -project is aiming at increasing the capacities of the Egyptian VET institutions to develop competence-based VET in dialogue with labour market. The project is focusing on the following issues:1) To identify development needs in school and curriculum level by benchmarking Finning VET system. 2) To develop framework for quality management in school level. 3) To upskill and reskill teachers & managers to be able to provide high quality TVET and to develop competence-based curriculum.4) To improve employability of students by integrating entrepreneurship into the curriculum and developing entrepreneurship training model.5) To improve career guidance system with anticipation of labour market needs.In a long run project aims at upgrading the Egyptian VET system with European standards by enhancing the quality and innovation capacity and improving the level of competences, skills and employability of VET learners by developing new and innovative VET education programmes. Compete Egypt-project supports the relevance, accessibility and responsiveness of Egyptian VET institutions by tackling the challenges Egypt is currently having.

The main objective of the prodPhD project is to implement innovative social network-based methodologies for teaching and learning entrepreneurship in PhD programmes. The multidisciplinary teaching and learning methodologies to be developed will allow introducing entrepreneurship education in any PhD programme of a higher education institution, providing students with the knowledge, skills and motivation to engage in entrepreneurial activities. The methodology will be conceived to develop experiential knowledge, involving academics, entrepreneurship experts and mentors in its development and implementation. Besides, the exchange of experience, competences and approaches facilitated by social networking will allow crowdsourcing new ideas, improving training methodologies and stimulating entrepreneurial skills of academics. In particular, prodPhD will deliver and demonstrate, through different pilot actions, a social network-based training methodology, which will include the necessary teaching guidelines and specific “learning by doing” materials for entrepreneurship training, as well as the required prodPhD Online Training Environment, integrating customized collaborative work and social network solutions. The outcome of the prodPhD project will be openly offered to the higher education community. The project is built on the collaboration with four running ERASMUS+ and MSCA-ITN projects, involving 20 higher education institutions from nine different EU countries, and more than twenty-five companies and research centres. Besides, four running H2020 running projects and sixteen other European associations and organizations will also collaborate with the project by becoming members of the Expert Advisory Board of prodPhD. This collaboration will be fundamental for the specific requirements analysis and for the development and assessment of the demonstration actions to which all the collaborating institutions will be invited to participate.

<< Background >>PEPAICO has as its goal to provide, students, professionals and entrepreneurs with the necessary and sufficient knowledge and tools to allow them to take on the challenges posed by the emergence of artificial intelligence and exploit the wide range of opportunities offered by this technology, either as novel products or innovative means to upgrade processes.According to International Data Corporation, the global artificial intelligence market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17% to reach 250 billion euros in 2027. The impact of artificial intelligence on employment has been extensively studied over the last ten years, leading to a paradoxical conclusion called ‘job polarisation’. Examining the US, Acemoglu and Autor (2011) came to the same conclusions than Darvas and Wolff (2016) who worked on the French, German, Italian, Swedish and British cases found similar results for the US, while report such developments for a selection of EU countries: in all these countries, the number of middle-education jobs (clerks, machine operators, assemblers) is declining while at the extremes, the number of high-education jobs such as managers, engineers and health professionals and the number of low-education service occupations (e.g. shop workers, deliverers, etc.) that are not worth to replace by automation, are growing. A key conclusion is that the quality of human capital plays a crucial role. The ability of individuals to use the technological advances for the benefit of their work requires developing particular digital skills through well designed policies. This underlines the importance of using appropriate instruments to ensure that workers are well prepared to harness the disruptive forces of digital technologies.Because it creates a wide range of new products and services, artificial intelligence is the very type of technology favouring not only entrepreneurship but also new generations of graduates, professionals, and entrepreneurs.Engineering, life sciences, business, arts, security, and even politics, all sectors use under one form or another. artificial intelligence technology is virtually limitless. J. Boynott provided seven examples spanning from finance, medicine to law to the showing how artificial intelligence can disrupt almost all industries. But artificial intelligence also changes radically the way businesses are run. K. Patel listed five ways AI can bring added value: efficiency, productivity, customer experience, creativity and error avoidance. At the same time, artificial intelligence is increasingly viewed as a threat rather than an opportunity, including youth who is presumably more acquainted with digital skills than their elders. In a study made by Young Enterprise on young people’s view of AI, 76% of respondents said that they think that AI will lead to fewer jobs. The artificial intelligence revolution is nevertheless irreversible. According to a survey performed by IBM and Oxford Economics, 82% of enterprises are now considering AI adoption. What really worries enterprises in implementing AI has nevertheless changed. Instead of the availability of technology, which was seen as the most important obstacle, now, it is the lack of skilled people enterprises consider as the most deterrent barrier.By contributing to the emergence of graduates, professionals, entrepreneurs well aware of the opportunities and threats artificial intelligence is and will be bringing in, the project is expected to: i) lead to business creations and jobs; ii) upgrade the employability of the learners since artificial intelligence is adopted by an increasingly number of companies.<< Objectives >>Spanning over three years, PEPAICO has as overall goal to alleviate this barrier by providing students, professionals and entrepreneurs with the knowledge allowing them to face the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and exploit the opportunities it creates in terms of careers or businesses. To that end, the project will achieve the following objectives:-O1:Characterise the advantages, drawbacks, opportunities and threats brought by each type of technologies on employability, career and business;-O2:Specify and develop a modular methodology blending in-person teaching and distance learning to train students, employed and unemployed professionals and aspiring and confirmed entrepreneurs on artificial intelligence along with tools to monitor and assess the trainees’ progress;-O3:Develop a face-to-face training course on artificial intelligence combining theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and gamification;-O4:Construct a distance learning platform on artificial made up of adapted as well as specifically developed online contents and a micro-learning application;-O5:Promote a generation of graduates, professionals and entrepreneurs well-aware of and well trained on artificial intelligence with the message than well tackled, artificial intelligence can lead to employability improvement, career boosting and business opportunities.<< Implementation >>Lasting 36 months, the project is made up of four intellectual output-producing activities (IOs). There are additionally an activity package (AP) dedicated to the dissemination and exploitation of the project results, and an activity package (AP) devoted to the project implementation and management.-“IO1 – Impacts of artificial intelligence on employability, career, and business” will set the ground for the educational methodology to be adopted by PEPAICO. Its purpose is to investigate the effect of artificial intelligence on each industrial sector and perpendicularly on each job position. IO1 will start by setting up a common terminology since artificial intelligence terminology and meaning are often vague, multi-semantic and intertwined. The results will be combined with existing studies to provide an in-depth insight of the impacts of artificial intelligence on employability, career and business.-“IO2 – Pedagogical methodology” has as its goal to specify the modular blended training programme on artificial intelligence in terms of content as well as format. To that purpose, the project will: i) determine job seekers, employees and entrepreneurs’ needs and expectations regarding training on artificial intelligence by means of quantitative surveys and qualitative semi-structured interviews; ii) use the results in combination with the outputs of IO1 to determine the artificial intelligence knowledge and skills to be acquired by each target groups regarding their backgrounds, professional profiles, and personalities; iii) Specify the formats to be used for the educational materials e.g. in-class theoretical teaching, simulations, coaching, gamification, peer-to-peer assessment, self-evaluation, etc.-“IO3 – Learning content development” will develop the core training content based on the survey, need analysis, and intended learning content specified by IO2. The developed content will be rolled out in face-to-face teaching and training pilot sessions. To that purpose, IO3 will: i) inventory partners’ educational material responding to the specification of IO2; ii) Adapt existing pedagogical material to make it tailored to trainees’ needs; iii) Develop complementary pedagogical material to fully respond to job seekers, employees and entrepreneurs’ expectations; iv) Carry out pilot sessions and refine the content taking into account the collected feedbacks.-“IO4 – Distance learning platform and micro-learning application” will design, develop and deploy the distance learning on artificial intelligence through four components:-The online teaching modules resulting from adaptation of the modules developed by IO3 and complemented with additional modules if necessary-The micro-learning application whose goal is to enhance the training process and create a collaborative network of trainees on artificial intelligence-The library of examples of use of artificial intelligence to enhance careers or businesses to illustrate-“AP5 – Dissemination and exploitation” is aimed at reaching the largest possible audience. For that purpose, it will combine multiplier events and online promotion of the project results, including the development of a website dedicated to the project in particular, and artificial intelligence in general, and participation in all relevant social networks. -“AP6 – Consortium coordination and project management” will put in place a management system be sufficiently flexible to allow the project face unexpected events while strong enough to ensure the project be implemented according to the work plan.<< Results >>PEPAICO will result in:•At the knowledge level,-R1:The project will produce a mapping of the impacts of each artificial intelligence technology on each industrial sector, job and position. This result will be reached by the achievement of the objective O1. It will help companies exploit the opportunities created by artificial intelligence while mitigating the risks it brings in, in terms of business development as well as process improvements. It will also help graduates and professionals identify the levers offered by artificial intelligence to upgrade their employability or promote their careers.-R2:The project will identify produce a pedagogical methodology for modular blended learning aimed at determining the artificial intelligence topic to be taught to students, professionals and entrepreneurs according to their background, industrial sector, situation, and aspiration as well as needs and expectations. R2 will be the result of the achievement.•At the educational level, the project will design, develop and implement a 360° learning approach grounded on the intended learning outcomes specified by the results R1 and R2 and combining face-to-face coaching, distance learning and daily micro learning:-R3:The set of modules to be taught in face-to-face sessions -R4:A distance learning platform aimed at allowing learners to access to a wide range of training contents including among others online courses, market forecasts, business cases, technological trends and best practices-R5:A micro learning application allowing learners to: i) self train on artificial intelligence knowledge and skills; ii) find information with the assistance of artificial intelligence; iii) network with other learners.Altogether, R3 will concretise the achievement of IO3 while R4 and R5 represent the achievement of the objective O4.•At the dissemination level, the project will:-R6: Create a website presenting artificial intelligence issues notably, but not exclusively in terms of business and jobs, the project objectives, content and partners as well as the Erasmus+ programme. The project website will naturally linked to the project distance learning platform as well as its micro learning application. This main communication tool will be supported by hardcopy material including flyers and brochures.-R7: Organise three multiplier events held in Finland, France and Spain to present the project outcomes, discuss their scientific and pedagogical relevance and promote their take-up at the academic as well as business level.Together with R3, R4 and R5, R6 and R7 will accomplish the objective O5.

<< Background >>The 21st of April 2021, the European Commission has adopted a package of measure to help improve the flow of money towards sustainable activities across the European Union. By enabling investors to re-orient investments towards more sustainable technologies and businesses, these measures will be instrumental in making Europe climate neutral by 2050 and will make the EU a global leader in setting standards for sustainable finance.This strategy acknowledges that sustainable finance is a growing trend in the financial field: the latest Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA, 2020) study confirms a very high demand for ESG expertise in financial industry. The client demand as motivator for investment organisations to consider ESG factors grew by 20 percentage points since 2017 in the US and 90% of investment professionals expect their firm’s commitment to ESG will increase further. Moreover, Google Trends recorded an increase in popularity levels for ESG. At the same time, a LinkedIn analysis among 1 million investment professionals found that only 0,7% had disclosed sustainability-related skills. This evidence confirms a growing gap in the way sustainability in general, and ESG data, are understood and addressed by financial and business executives. Moreover, sustainable finance is still a niche topic in business studies, European Higher Education Institutions (HEI) need to propose more courses about this topic to train future executives in this field, in order to accompany the shift of the sector.To bridge this skill gap, this project will offer students a 360-degree panorama of knowledge and competences needed to put sustainability at the core of financial decision making, through a sustainable finance course.Our project will address the following needs: 1.Bridge the gap between high demand in sustainable finance skills and low offer in sustainable finance course in European HEI.2.Permit a dialogue between engineering and business students to develop transdisciplinary skills necessary to solve sustainable finance issues.3.Train students with hands-on activities mentored by expert working in the field of sustainable finance.<< Objectives >>The project will reach the following objectives:1.Thematic objective: Design, develop, test and upscale a course on sustainable finance to prepare the future finance executives and engineers for the challenges of tomorrow.2.Didactic objective: Design, develop and upscale the educational support, including an ESG database for teaching and training purposes in Higher Education, but also for professionals.3.Methodological objective: Promote innovative pedagogies in Higher Education through different teaching modalities: transdisciplinary peer-teaching, virtual mobility and flipped classroom.4.Professionalization objective: Train students’ professional skills and increase their employability through practical case studies, mentored by financial industry representatives.<< Implementation >>The TRUST Finance project brings together 5 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from 5 different EU countries. It aims to design, test, implement and share a transdisciplinary Master-level course in Sustainable Finance divided into 3 parts (with reference to Project Results – PRs):PART 1: Introduction to Sustainability and Finance (PR 1): Students from engineering and business HEIs will share their knowledge through virtual peer-teaching. Depending on their profile, students will learn about sustainable development, climate change issues, acquire the basics of finance and quantitative analysis. They will also participate in the 21-day challenge to understand sustainability issues and change their everyday life habits. PART 2: In-depth focus on Sustainable Finance (PR 2): Students will actively prepare for virtual lectures on sustainable finance delivered by the professors from the partner HEIs, in a flipped-classroom format. Students will study several topics key for understanding sustainable finance: impact on banks and insurance, EU green taxonomy, ESG reporting, market and legal trends, impact investing etc. PART 3: ESG Challenge (PR 4): A practical application where students will have to solve live case studies in teams, using an ESG database developed for the project. This practical hands-on activity will allow students to face professional issues. Two Learning, Teaching and Training Activities will be implemented: 1.A 3-day training for the staff will be organised in Koulova, Finland. Two staff representative of each partner HEI will perform a trial of the course before the pilot.2.The ESG Challenge Finals 2024, which will bring together the best student teams of each partner HEI to present their live case studies results to an expert panel.A series of 9 Multiplier Events are programmed to share and promote the projects results with other HEI, companies and institution in the field of sustainable finance and beyond.<< Results >>The main result of the TRUST Finance project will be a transdisciplinary Master-level course in Sustainable Finance divided into 3 parts:PART 1: Introduction to Sustainability and FinancePART 2: In-depth focus on Sustainable Finance PART 3: ESG Challenge: a practical, hands-on activity involving live case studies and cooperation with the finance expertsMoreover, an ESG Database will be developed for educational purposes and used in the framework of the case studies. All the educational material will be available in open access on the project’s TRUST platform for replication by other institutions: primarily HEIs, but also companies and training organisations. The PRs are expected to provide students knowledge about sustainability, and sustainable finance skills to train future leaders of the European financial industry. They will improve their ESG data literacy: and develop quantitative skills while touching on the methods commonly applied in finance. More specifically, they will improve their knowledge of sustainable finance market, key stakeholders and regulations, strategy, performance measurement, the macro and micro-level sustainability framework, emerging green market: products, including green bonds, green loans, and impact debt, the energy model and the new long-term objectives (market trends and future challenges), aligned with the EU political framework in climate and clean energy and SDGs in general. The practical part of the course, ESG Challenge, will give them a hands-on experience very close to real professional challenges. By working on practical, real-world challenges in a professional context, students are expected to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and link sustainable finance mechanisms with real-life investment case studies in cooperation with professionals from the finance field (mentors). The capacity to debunk companies' greenwashing attempts will be a valuable learning outcome of the course. Networking among interdisciplinary students, industry experts and faculty advisors creates a very special sense of a dedicated community, which will become a source of inspiration, mutual support, job opportunities and potentially business partnerships. Beyond the technical knowledge, students are also expected to develop transversal skills such as problem solving, critical-thinking and presentation skills.The HEI of the consortium and professors participating in the project will propose a new course to their students, about a trending and highly relevant topic. This will help to bridge the gap between the demand in sustainable finance skills in the industry and the actual training offer in finance. The HEIs will have a special link with financial networks and industry.The companies involved in the project as associated partners or as participants of the multiplier Events will have a special link with the academic world which and with students with skills in sustainable finance that match their needs. The course will also be actively promoted to professionals seeking to upskill in sustainable finance through continual development programme.On a larger scale, our project contributes to the global shift of the European financial industry towards a more sustainable investing field. Our project will help to reach the investment objectives in sustainable business to make Europe carbon neutral by 2050.