The EC Communication on "Rethinking Education: Investing in Skills for Better socio-economic outcomes" highlights significant discrepancies between countries across Europe in their development of VET and PHE. It specifically points out that while some European countries have world-class VET and PHE systems (Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands), many others, typically in souther Europe, lag behind in terms of participation, quality outcomes and attractiveness. In countries with developed PHE systems, professional education is characterised by dual systems which have a high proportion of work-based learning, apprenticeships and other models which facilitate transition from learning to work. The communication further points out that excellence in PHE comes from systematically renewed curricula, constantly modernised delivery, and, crucially active involvement of businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The differences in development of PHE across Europe is due to differences in socio-cultural traditions and perceptions, diverse structures of education and training systems and of the economy and labour market, reforms undertaken, the extent of involvement of social partners as well as the employment prospects of PHE graduates, and the preferences of individuals. The objectives of this project are to: • encourage institutions of professional HE to analyse their internal policies for cooperation between education, research and business • implement improvements and reforms to policies and practices as regards cooperation with the world of work • support the sharing of best practices with respect to interventions for strengthening the knowledge triangle • design a set of supporting tools, in particular framework policies and/or implementation guides, to strengthen active cooperation between HEIs and partners from outside academia The project involves policy- and decision- makers from 15 institutions of Professional Higher Education, who will collaborate within the structures set up by their national associations for PHE, who are members of the consortium. Through their participation in the project, each of these institutions will analyse their overall connection with the world of work, formulate improvements with the help of best practice in the field and mainstream these practices into institutional strategy. The project proposed uses a definition of PHE, and additionally determined a set of core quality characteristics for Professional HEIs, based around three areas, developed during the Initiative on Harmonising Approaches to PHE in Europe (http://haphe.eurashe.eu): • Policy & Strategy – PHE and the connection with the WoW embedded and represented in the overall strategic framework and policies of higher education institutions? • Teaching & Learning - How is teaching and learning influenced through specific characteristics of PHE, in particular the connection with the WoW? • Research, Development and Innovation – How is Research conducted in collaboration with the WoW integrated as part of a sustainable PHE, recognising that it might differ from level to level and is not implemented in all institutions yet? The main outputs of the project will be: • Self-Assessment Reports produced by 15 institutions, describing the extent and quality of their connections with the world of work • Implementation Plans describing proposed improvements to policies and strategies to better cooperate with the world of work created and endorsed • A Peer-Learning Event bringing together representatives from Institutions around Europe • 70 best-practice cases collected and published, with at least 5 cases published under each HAPHE-criterion • A set of supporting tools for PHE-business cooperation, in particular, framework policies, published as a best-practice implementation guide for Higher Education institutions At local and regional level, the project will: • foster improved collaboration between PHEIs and enterprises • increase the choice of learning pathways available to students, in particular strengthening 'dual' options involving a mixture of studies and work experience such as apprenticeships • contribute towards addressing skill-shortages in key technical areas of employment • enhance the quality of the 'professional' experiences offered by PHEIs At national level, the project will make recommendations to policy-makers as to measures to improve and enhance cooperation between academia and enterprises. Adoption of such recommendations should primarily facilitate the provision of apprenticeships by enterprises. Evidence suggests that this in turn would lead to lower levels of youth unemployment. At EU level, the project will facilitate exchange of practice and increased cooperation between Institutions and Associations of Professional Higher Education.
The project aimed to increase the quality of the connection of Professional Higher Education (PHE) with the World of Work (WoW). The main objectives were to encourage Professional Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) to analyze their internal policies for cooperation between education, research and business, implement improvements and reforms to policies and practices as regards cooperation with the WoW, support the sharing of best practices for strengthening the knowledge triangle, design a set of supporting tools, such as framework policies and implementation guides, to strengthen active cooperation between HEIs and external stakeholders. The project consortium consisted of two PHEIs (PWSZTAR, (PL) and TTK (EE)), three national associations of PHE (AZVO (HR), CASPHE (CZ) and VIVIS (SI)), EURASHE as the European umbrella organization for PHE and Knowledge Innovation Centre (MT). All partners were involved in former EURASHE projects and initiatives. Besides PWSZTAR and TTK, thirteen other PHE institutions from PL, CZ, HR, SI and EE were also involved in piloting. PHE associations from PL and EE were taking part in dissemination activities. Two sets of activities were running in parallel during the project and informing each other: 1: Development of self-assessment and improvement methodology for PHEIs (data-collection framework, methodology for identifying improvement strategies to policies for cooperation with the WoW) and running self-assessment and improvement processes within pilot PHEIs (self-improvement cycles, creation of self-assessment reports and improvement plans). 2: Collection of best practices, and design of tools to stimulate best practice. The framework policies were created in the form of a checklist which can be used by institutional leaders to assess their compliance with each of the criteria of the PHE Quality Framework. An online self-assessment and benchmarking tool was developed and made available at https://buildphe.eu/assessment/. The main results of the project are: Methodological framework and set of self-assessment tools, Database of best practice cases, Publication “Tools to Support Quality in Professional Higher Education“. Additionally, on the basis of project outputs, Self-Assessment Reports were produced by pilot and Implementation Plans describing proposed improvements to policies and strategies to better cooperate with the world of work were formulated. The most important immaterial output are new competences of staff acquired during a peer-learning training event and later developed in the framework of project activities: an international group of “PHE agents of change” was created. At local and regional level, the project fostered collaboration between PHEIs and enterprises, strengthening 'dual' options involving a mixture of studies and work experience such as apprenticeships, contributed towards addressing skill-shortages in key technical areas of employment and enhanced the quality of the 'professional' experiences offered by PHEIs. At national level, the project made recommendations to policy-makers as to measures to improve and enhance cooperation between academia and enterprises. At EU level, the project facilitated exchange of practice and increased cooperation between Institutions and Associations of PHE, with EURASHE WG Quality as a platform to support such cooperation. The project promoted a holistic approach to considering quality of all activities and processes within PHE institutions and from this perspective fed into a strategic priorities of EURASHE. The findings and experience from the project served also for policy discussion on the development of PHE across Europe, its quality assurance and enhancement as reflected in EURASHE contributions to EC policies or EHEA documents. From this view a synergy effect with the EQUIP project, mapping implementation of European Standards and Guidelines was quite beneficial. The most important longer-term benefit of the project is the possibility to use optimized tools and methodology in self-assessment processes by a wide range of PHEIs in Europe and beyond. HEIs from Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and Latin America have already expressed their interest in adopting BuildPHE tools in their national environments and two EPP CB projects were just submitted. The fact that the master version of tools is elaborated in English brings supplementary added value to institutions in non-English speaking countries – international dimension of internal QA (possibilities of comparison and benchmarking) and thus better preparation for external QA (in many national regulations international dimension of QA is appreciated by accreditation bodies). The international experience will likely enhance readiness of PHEIs to engage in cross-border activities, should it be joint programmes or benefitting from cross-border QA, both being strongly supported by European policies as a tool of strengthening European added-value and identity.