eLene4Life supports curriculum innovation in higher education (HE) through the development of active learning approaches for transversal skills, with the ultimate aim of improving students' employability. According to the 2018 World Economic Forum Report 'Towards a Reskilling Revolution: A Future of Jobs for All', the rise of artificial intelligence, robotics and other digital developments is upending the primacy of human expertise in the economy. The individuals who will succeed in the economy of the future will be those who can complement the work done by mechanical or algorithmic technologies, and ‘work with the machines’. The 2018 European Commission Proposal on Key Competences also draws attention to these disruptions affecting European societies and economies, stating that “Skills such as creativity, critical thinking, taking initiative and problem solving play an important role in coping with complexity and change in today's society." In a previous Erasmus+ project, eLene4work, the development of HE students' (digital) soft skills was experimented through the use of MOOCs and OERs. The results showed that, while autonomous learning indeed played a significant role, real impact would only come from fully integrating these into the curriculum. The project also found a mismatch between employers' expectations and students' perceptions of the labour market with respect to these transversal skills. The main objectives of eLene4life are thus to: 1) overcome skills mismatches with respect to transversal skills; 2) develop new innovative curricula and educational methods integrating active learning, at the same time addressing commonly encountered barriers such as large class sizes and physical spaces. 3) improve the relevance of HE curricula in Partner Countries in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world. eLene4life will involve over 2500 participants from the HE and corporate sectors. Teachers will receive support in curriculum innovation and the transformation of teaching practices, with the ultimate aim of improving the learning experience of their students. 12 teachers and 1200 students will participate in piloting these approaches, and a further 500 teachers in wider professional development activities. Trainers, human resources and recruitment managers from the corporate sector will be involved throughout the project, contributing to the foresight analysis phase and participating in a cross-sectoral Community of Practice (CoP), which should itself count around 500 members by the end of the project. Concretely, eLene4life will develop a series of outputs and related activities to achieve the aforementioned objectives. Two parallel Foresight Analyses will gather examples of active learning approaches in HE (O1) and the corporate sector (O2). These will serve as input to a Dynamic Toolkit (O3), implemented and tested in Pilot Projects (O4) in 5 countries (DE, FR, IT, PL, UK). O5, a discussion-based MOOC, offers professional development opportunities to the wider community of HE teachers. Cross-sectoral collaboration runs throughout the project, supported by a University-Corporate Community of Practice (O6). Finally, the lessons learned during the project will be compiled into three attractive publications (O7: LLK) to support decision-making and the wider uptake of active learning for transversal skills development. National events will take place in all 6 partner countries to disseminate the results and involve external stakeholders in eLene4Life activities, supported by publications, an online hub and social media. The project thus takes on an 'hourglass' shape, with a widely-sourced body of knowledge and experience feeding in to a concise toolkit and tested in pilots before involving the wider community through the MOOC and the CoP, reaching further stakeholders through the LLK. The expected outcome for HE teachers will be a heightened awareness of needs and practices in the corporate sector as well as access to human and digital resources in order to bring about curriculum innovation. Similarly, corporate representatives will gain a better understanding of HE practices, with the opportunity to engage in dialogue. Ultimately, the impact for students will be a more relevant learning experience, offering them the chance to develop contextualised transversal skills during the course of their studies and thus be better prepared for the workforce and society in general, as competent and confident 21st century citizens.
eLene4Life supports curriculum innovation in higher education (HE) through the development of active learning for soft skills, with the ultimate aim of improving students' employability. Much has been written about the need for soft skills to complement the disciplinary knowledge and specialist competences learners acquire through their studies, for example the 2018 European Commission Proposal on Key Competences which states that “Skills such as creativity, critical thinking, taking initiative and problem solving play an important role in coping with complexity and change in today's society." Active learning is a proven pedagogical approach to support the development of such skills, enabling learners to demonstrate these skills in simulated or authentic contexts. eLene4Life built on the results of a previous project, eLene4work, which concluded the need for a full integration of soft skills in the curriculum, and consequently for teachers to become better equipped to do this. The main objectives of eLene4life were to: 1) overcome skills mismatches with respect to soft skills; 2) develop new innovative curricula and educational methods integrating active learning, addressing commonly encountered barriers such as large class sizes and physical spaces. 3) improve the relevance of HE curricula in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world. eLene4Life reached over 9000 stakeholders from the HE and corporate sectors. Over 40 teachers were interviewed for the transnational analysis of active learning for soft skills development in HE, and an equivalent number of corporate stakeholders contributed to the parallel analysis. The combined results of these two studies were transformed into a practical, easy-to-use collection of 30 active learning methods, the Dynamic Toolkit, consulted by over 4000 individuals. Fifteen teachers received direct support in curriculum innovation and the transformation of teaching practices, improving the learning experience of their 850 students, and almost 500 participants benefited from the wider professional development opportunity run by eLene4Life in the form of a discussion-based MOOC. Trainers, human resources and recruitment managers were involved throughout the project, contributing to several of the Multiplier Events, and participating in the cross-sectoral Community of Practice (CoP), which counts around 1000 members across LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. The results and lessons learned from the project outputs and activities are brought together in a series of three Lessons Learned Kits, including a comprehensive collection of ‘10 eLene4Life takeaways’ summarising key points and resources for the different stakeholder groups. The project results were disseminated widely through presentations at national and international events, newsletters and web publications. The eLene4Life partners ran a total of seven Multiplier Events throughout the project, involving nearly 300 HE and corporate stakeholders. Six of these events were held online due to the covid-19 pandemic, including the final eLene4Life international knowledge exchange run as a full day online conference. The pandemic represented both a challenge and an opportunity for the project. The most significant evolution came from the need to promote and support active *online* learning in a context where many teachers unused to the online modality were simply reproducing lectures for want of training in alternative approaches. The eLene4Life partners thus contributed to the introduction of active online learning in several of the pilot projects and widened the reach by publishing a blog series on the topic. Over and above the planned outputs and activities, elene4Life also used this opportunity to create additional high added-value resources to meet the needs expressed by stakeholders, notably a micro-learning course on active learning for companies, further enriched the Dynamic Toolkit by integrating resources from the MOOC and Pilot Projects, and contributed to DigiEduHack 2020 by organising an international challenge, the winners of which went on to feature among the 12 global finalists. Through this rich collection of high-quality and easy-to-use resources and the growing Community of Practice, eLene4Life has contributed to raising awareness among HE teachers of the needs and practices in the corporate sector in order to support curriculum innovation. Similarly, corporate representatives have gained a better understanding of HE practices. Ultimately, the impact for students will be a more relevant learning experience, offering them the chance to develop contextualised transversal skills during the course of their studies and thus be better prepared for the workforce and society in general, as competent and confident 21st century citizens.