CRE8 Europe seeks to produce a transnationally-informed workshop model to enhance graduate employability. The need for graduates to make an effective contribution to the labour market has been made explicit at a governmental level across Europe since at least the 1960s. National and transnational bodies, both within and beyond Europe, have stressed the importance of education for employability, and highlighted the value of work experience and skills development in enhancing students’ potential for meaningful employment. Historically, a key skill cited by employers for potential graduate employees has been a strong problem-solving capability. This is confirmed by the current CRAC-Vitae EURAXIND project investigating employer needs at the European level, which has identified a developed capacity to solve problems as employers' top-ranked desirable trait. The CRE8 Europe project proposes to take a model for enhancing this key skill – CRE8® workshops, which have already been successfully trialled with students and companies in Sweden – and to work with European partners to further develop and disseminate the model, and to use their input to increase its international relevance. The methodology for the programme of workshops at partner institutions is creative problem-solving, developing skills and expanding students' professional networks. Equal numbers of students are drawn from each partner, with a good mix of institutions and disciplines represented in each team. Four teams of five students are given a scenario with which to demonstrate their problem-solving skills. The teams have a set time to develop and pitch their solution to a jury. These are ‘real world’ scenarios, sourced from partner alumni in companies and the public sector, who also sit on the jury. The jury provides feedback on the pitches and chooses a winning team. During each training visit, multiple workshops are held at each partner institution over several days, each covering different employment sectors and scenario types. If the employer representatives wish to follow up one or more ideas from the workshops, further contacts take place directly between them and the students, facilitated by support staff at the partner institutions. The rationale for the project being undertaken as a transnational enterprise is to gain a more complete, European, view of best practice on student skills support. While there are shared challenges around graduate employability across Europe, the precise focus varies between countries, and so different areas of national expertise develop. A transnational project allows the sharing of best practice in these areas, with the creation of a programme stronger than one based on a single national experience. The intention is that the CRE8 Europe programme would be embedded in the training provision of the partner institutions and be reproducible at other universities after the project’s end, through the dissemination of high-quality course materials. The project’s key objectives would be threefold, to: i. create a relevant, effective, and reproducible student skills development programme for universities; ii. disseminate knowledge of this resource as widely as possible; ii. enhance the national and international competitiveness of participating students.
Recent years have seen profound and enduring changes to the global labour market. It has never been more important for graduates to be prepared for diverse careers, or for university support staff to be ready to advise and guide them as they transition into employment. Numerous reports and studies highlight the importance for employers of entrepreneurial and creativity competences among the graduate population from which they recruit. There is a growing requirement, beyond the technical knowledge gleaned from education, that graduates bring a range of ‘soft skills’ to bear on workplace challenges, chief among which is the capacity for creative problem-solving. At the same time, the number of graduates entering the labour market remains high across Europe. To navigate this highly competitive environment successfully, students need to understand the context in which employers operate, to learn how to shape their skill-sets to meet employer needs, and to communicate their skills and the value of their experiences to an array of employers, potentially across multiple sectors. The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership KA2 project ‘CRE8® Europe’ (2018 - 21) was formed with the aim of developing a transnational event programme to address these issues around student employability and competence development. Led by Karlstad University, the project consortium comprised Inland Norway University, Jaume I University and Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu. The methodology for the programme produced in the project is creative problem-solving in a workshop format, with additional activities to develop complementary skills and expand participants' professional networks. In the pilot delivery, equal numbers of undergraduate and master's students were drawn from each partner, with a good mix of institutions and disciplines represented in the cohort. Four teams of five students were given a scenario with which to demonstrate their problem-solving skills. The teams had a set time to develop and pitch their solution to a jury. These were ‘real world’ scenarios, sourced from partner alumni in companies and the public sector, who also sat on the jury. The jury provided feedback on the pitches and chose a winning team. During each of the four week-long events, multiple CRE8® workshops were held at partner institutions, each covering different employment sectors and scenario types. These were complemented by ancillary activities, such as creativity development exercises and pitch training. The rationale for the project being undertaken as a transnational enterprise was to gain a more complete, European, view of good practice on student skills support. While there are shared challenges around graduate employability across Europe, the precise focus varies between countries, and so different areas of national expertise develop. A transnational project allowed the sharing of good practice in these areas, with the creation of a programme stronger than one based on a single national experience. The materials produced during the project may be found, together with other resources and outputs, on the project website (https://www.kau.se/en/cre8-europe). The intention is that the programme will be embedded in the training provision of the CRE8 Europe® partner universities, and all materials have been made available for it to be fully reproducible at other universities now that the project has concluded. A range of ongoing career-tracking surveys will add to the continuous improvement and evaluation of the CRE8 Europe® model post-project.