"In an apparent context of exit from the economic crisis of 2008, unexpected and surprising economic phenomena appear, unfold and develop, new models of production, organization and exchange of goods and services that in a much more horizontal, communitarian and self-managed way, point to an evolution of the traditional economy, based on the STATE-MARKET binomial, towards a Shared Economy or Common Good. Thus, what has been named Sharing Economy is a new concept that actually houses different concepts and business models and exchange, and that extend the traditional concept of Social Solidarity Economy. These emerging economic initiatives and business models require new skills, both for their development and for their management: renewed management methods, capacities to produce functionality, goods and services focused on the use and needs of people. Evolve the training programs of the Universities to this new business and economic reality, incorporating new content to train and train students capable of developing and managing this new type of business and economic initiatives is the goal to which the INICIA project aims to contribute, through the development of a course of ""Specialization in Management of Collaborative Economic Initiatives and Social Economy"", in order to improve the skills of their human resources and prepare them to face the challenges of these new economic models.The project will be carried out with the support and collaboration of European and Argentine universities that have experience in this subject.The main products of the project will be the creation of a Specialization Course, which will be taught in a first edition to 420 students and will be replicable at a regional level."

HICA, which was driven by university associations, universities and ministries in 6 Central American (CA) countries, aimed to support the reform, innovation and harmonisation of HE curricula. The project further developed/implemented a regional qualifications framework for Central American HE (‘MCESCA’) – proposed by the prior project Alfa PUENTES (2011-14) – that defines what a student should know, understand and be able to do after each HE cycle, in a Central American social and political context. HICA further completed the MCESCA by defining learning outcomes for pre-bachelor, short-cycle programmes. This was done through national focus groups and consultations with academics, students and other social partners in the different CA countries, guided by a Technical Team that was appointed by national university associations. The project also examined time/credits required for the different HE cycles, with the objective of defining credit ranges to achieve the learning outcomes of the MCESCA. The MCESCA was simultaneously 'piloted' in partner universities. CA partner universities selected at least one study programme to revise and reform, defining work-load based learning outcomes that correlate to the MCESCA. European partners shared practice on curricula innovation in support of this, via a training programme that entailed three workshops, webinars and visits of European experts to CA countries. The pilot outcomes and the MCESCA itself were promoted widely to regional and national political bodies, employers, accreditation agencies, etc. via national promotion workshops in April through June 2018, organised by the associations and the ministries. These were used to enrich and validate the MCESCA as a tool in the region. HICA has had diverse impacts: The revised academic programmes have created a catalytic effect, bringing leadership, students and teaching staff together to implement curricula reform. In addition, CA universities have networked and reinforced regional cooperation. National associations and the ministries benefit from a regionally agreed tool that they can use for quality assurance and teaching reforms taking place in their own systems as well as recognition of studies between countries. The European partners benefit from discussions on frameworks for HE reform in CA, which will provide an important mirror for similar reforms that take place in the context of the Bologna Process.