The European Union is particularly concerned in developing a strategy for ‘smart’ urban growth for the EU cities. More and more numerous examples of Smart City pilot projects are developed in cities in collaboration with companies that implement innovative solutions to improve the quality of life and sustainability of the urban environments. The multidisciplinary concept of Smart Cities, together with the high demand of innovation in this sector, poses a challenge in the field of higher education. There is a need of closer collaboration between these companies working for the innovation and generation of Smart Cities projects, and the higher education, that should provide them with staff with the skills and competences demanded in this sector. For graduates it is necessary they have the right mix of skills: transversal competences, e-skills for the digital era, creativity and flexibility and a solid understanding of their chosen field. Some of these skills are provided by the universities, but the transversal competences as innovation, team work, organization and planning, analytical thinking, creativity, etc. are not covered by the official degrees and are becoming really relevant in the field of Smart Cities. There is a need to develop a common training program, designed by relevant institutions in the Smart Cities sector, in order to meet the industry needs that should be put in practice in the form of internships in a collaborative way between higher education and the rest of stakeholders. The aim of SCALE project is to design, develop and validate a training program on Smart Cities related competences, common to all disciplines that this concept includes, including a mobility programme to support the acquisition of competences of interns in the area of Smart Cities as well as to promote the collaboration of the business world and the higher education and training. The methodology to achieve this objective starts from a research on competences on Smart Cities, common to all disciplines and fields. A training program on these competences will be elaborated and will be open to students and staff in universities and companies, partners or not in the project, always they study or work in the Smart Cities field. At the same time Smart Cities innovative projects will be identified in order to be transferred and put in practice in other context, in other cities and in other countries. These projects will be implemented by a student in the form of a collaborative internship in a partner country, in order they can put in practice the competences on Smart Cities acquired. SCALE project will increase the job placements of students of degrees and master degrees related to Smart Cities because their acquisition of necessary competences in the field, companies will be more competitive because they will have better prepared staff, and cities and companies will implement successful innovative projects on Smart Cities with the help of the students during their internships.
The SCALE project has achieved the objectives proposed in the project, developing and implementing an online training programme for the acquisition of transversal competences in the field of Smart Cities previously identified. This training programme consists of two clearly differentiated modules, the first one contains some theoretical topics that will facilitate the student the acquisition of the mentioned competences. The second module implements a project-based learning methodology (taking as a basis and example different real projects, which were previously selected), in itself, this module is innovative because it is implemented online; on the other hand, students were organised in international and interdisciplinary teams and the evaluation of the same was carried out through a video that each team had to develop. The elaboration, structuring, approach and application of the teaching methodologies in this training programme were innovative and novel, which allowed it to be published in a high impact journal. This training programme is designed for university students and recent graduates as well as for students participating in continuing education programmes. To date, two editions of this training programme have been held, with a total of almost 800 students from 25 different countries and from the three profiles mentioned above. Just under a third of the students enrolled successfully completed the programme. The student mobility programme foreseen in the project has also been successfully completed. These students have spent their internship period working on one of the selected projects (which were used in the second module of the training programme), selecting those who have obtained the best marks in the first edition of the training programme.