Special session: Performance-centered adaptive curriculum for employment needs

Abstract

The global competitive labor market and industrial sectorial trends have demanded new requirements and restructuring in the prevailing engineering curriculum of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in terms of linking the educational contents with the industrial real-world, and, on the other hand, promoting cooperation between universities and enterprises. In response to these needs, the Performance-Centered Adaptive Curriculum for Employment Needs (PAC) project was launched in order to develop business adaptive and employment and labor market oriented master degree programs for computer, electronics, and fiber-optics engineering. The project aims to input business and employment into curriculum development. Likewise, it considers concrete and specific new standards of industry at national and regional level, not only in terms of formal qualifications but also in terms of detailed new skills requirements and competences. Thus, it will be able to foster employment by preparing qualified professional profiles in a particular occupation. The project provides virtual mobility of students and teachers by developing open educational resources on-line within the framework DIPSEIL (Distributed Internet-Based Performance Support Environment for Individualized Learning) which is released in five languages to organize different courses from available modules and tasks for performance according to the needs of a specific job place. These educational resources comprise innovative ICT-based learning content, services, pedagogies and practice for lifelong learning and vocational training. The PAC project is based on a partnership between European universities and enterprises and it supports progress towards European-wide certification of qualifications. In this session, the project is presented outlining the main objectives and the contributions carried out by each partner.