The 3Economy+ project (3E+) was an innovative educational project, developed in the context of the European Higher Education Area, which main aim was to develop and implement innovative teaching and learning practices, with a view to improving the academic training of students in the areas of Economics, Tourism, Marketing and Languages and it also offered complementary international training designed to improve employment prospects and foster the acquisition of core competencies for effective professional development. The partners who participated in the project are the University of Granada (Spain), the University of Malta and the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (Portugal). The main objectives of the training proposal were: • To promote a better academic training for students from disadvantaged European areas, seeking international excellence in the fields of Economics, enhancing their international competences that allow them to improve their professional and linguistic skills, attitudes and abilities. • To improve their employability and labour insertion, not only in the national or European scenario, but also worldwide. The activities carried out to achieve these objectives are summarised in three main blocks: 1) Development of professional skills. Online courses were offered through a learning management system (LMS). In this platform, it has been promoted an open access to materials, documents and media for improving learning, and work opportunities within the fields of business, marketing and tourism and within multilingual environments. They were carried out and implemented simultaneously in the three participating institutions during the three years of the project. 2) Promotion of multilingualism and multiculturalism. Within a global context, the development of a plurilingual profile among higher education students is more than an objective, it is a social demand. Therefore, in the project, there was an attempt to empower students with the necessary linguistic skills to face the challenges that will be presented in their professional and personal future. For that reason, three cross curricular modules were created in the online platform to foster communicative competence in the three languages of the consortium: English, Spanish and Portuguese. Moreover, such language courses were combined with on-line lessons with face-to-face lessons developed in the different intensive programmes carried out. In addition, some students carried out parallel Erasmus exchanges. 3) International internships. Students have carried out external internships in international companies for 60 days, following the guidelines of the Erasmus programme (internships). In addition, in the third year of the project, due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, some of the students carried out online internships, which was very well received by students and companies. The intellectual products derived from the project were: 1. A handbook about an economic regional study focused in the three peripheral European territories of the consortium (IO1) which serves as methodological guidance for studies of other regions. 2. Four tools created to improve the CV of the 3Economy+ students so as to make it more attractive to stakeholders (IO2). 3. Short videos on topics related to the three areas abovementioned (IO3). 4. Economic case studies on the three territories under study (IO4), which help to better understand their realities, given the scarcity of information on these subjects. 5. Online didactic material repository (IO5) created for the development of LMS courses and later transformed into Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs). 6. A multilingual glossary of terminology (IO6), including the most commonly used terms in the three areas of knowledge under study, translated into the three languages and with recommendations for their use. 7. Publication of best practices (IO7). In addition, three Intensive Programmes (IP) were carried out one in each of the countries of the three partners. Particular emphasis should be given on the fact that formal learning is not the only key for an effective professional development and this project has certainly contributed to complement the formal learning of the students. Also, by bringing together experts in each of the areas, and inviting international stakeholders of each of the regions, quality control measures such as viability and quality required have been ensured. Also, different aspects on management, budget and timetable have been respected. This proposal brings added value at EU level, as one country on its own would not have achieved the expected results.
The 3Economy+ project emerged as the need to optimize the academic training of university students from three peripheral and disadvantaged territories such as Melilla, Portalegre and Malta to develop their skills and increase their employment prospects. Due to the geographical location of their regions and the social and economic development ratios that are far from the average in their countries, make it difficult for them to enter the labour market under equal conditions. Those socioeconomic peculiarities may imply a constrained professional career, limited to students’ surrounding context. In order to provide wider professional opportunities, the 3Economy+ project will attempt to provide an international perspective to students’ bachelor degree, while promoting the internationalization of the academic institution and its surrounding community. These actions will ensure the implicit growth of their local and regional economies. To this end, the University of Granada, on its campus in Melilla, together with the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre and the Institute for Tourism Travel & Culture of the University of Malta agreed to work on a methodological basis to implement a training programme that enhances the international profile of its students. The project is structured around the following activities: 1) Strengthening professional skills. Through a training programme with a wide range of actions, all aimed at achieving excellence within the areas of business, marketing, tourism, ICT, multilingualism and, finally, putting into practice skills such as teamwork in intercultural environments. To this end, various online courses have been developed (using a Learning Management System such as Moodle) consisting of the resolution of tasks on materials and documents produced by teachers and adapted to their regions, with a special focus on their digitalisation needs (see https://3economyplus.ugr.es/eplatform/). 2) Promotion of multilingualism, through courses in Spanish, Portuguese and English. Numerous learning activities have been carried out to promote multilingualism and interculturality among the participants. Moreover, a guide to improve their CV and enhance their professional profile has been created, and a glossary of 200 terms of use in the 3 languages of the subjects studied in the project has been generated. 3) International practices. The students have improved their training with international internships, which have allowed them to apply the knowledge acquired, increasing their skills for employability and labour insertion in the field. We would also like to highlight that, due to the global pandemic that began in March 2020, some internships were adapted to the virtual option. Despite the problems we faced, this modality promoted other qualities of the students that are increasingly demanded by organisations and companies such as skills in teleworking through collaborative platforms. As a second objective, the international profile of the participating institutions has been promoted, as without the participation of different countries it would not have been possible to fulfil the objectives of exchanging differentiated cultural aspects. The main results obtained can be summarised as follows: -Publication of a handbook on the studies-analysis of regional economic activities and financial analyses of local companies, regional tourism policies and marketing studies corresponding to three regions of the consortium-IO1. -Determination of the competencies that graduates should have, according to the needs of job offers and employers-IO2 -Production of short videos collected in an open-access institutional repository on the themes of the project-IO3 -Preparation of 18 case studies related to the 3 areas of knowledge, but with themes from the regions of the consortium-IO4 -Design of online training materials-IO5 - Publication of a multilingual terminology glossary of 200 terms referenced in these subjects-IO6 -Publication of a manual with proposals for best practices in project management, blended learning in general and in the specific training developed in the project-IO7. As a sustainability plan, or a follow-up activity of the project, the 3 universities of the consortium will attempt to include the innovative knowledge generated in the project in the educational plans of the degree courses related to the areas of knowledge of the project, or at least as optional subjects, seminars or other training actions. It could also be used as reference material or case studies in the subjects related to the project. These training actions could also be completed or supported through an online training with the use of the Moodle platform of the project since teleworking and lifelong learning are already realities in our society. Moreover, studies and applications that are useful for public administrations, organisations and collaborating companies have been prepared and made available to them.