The project "Education of Future ICT Experts Based on Smart Society Needs (SmartSoc)" is prepared by the consortium of twelve universities and one registered voluntary organization form nine EU countries, co-ordinated by the University of Žilina. The main objective of the project SmartSoc is to create and implement intensive interdisciplinary study programme in the field of ICT-based entrepreneurship considering transnational and intracultural context. This project will enforce ICT student teams to deal with economic, societal and environmental challenges defined by strategic documents „Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" (UN resolution) and "Horizon Europe" (EU regulation) programs. It will include important message about smart specialisation strategies and their importance for regional development in EU. The advancement of university education in ICT encompasses different aspects such as learning methods, tools, business and social skills and work in an environment as closely as possible to a future workplace in high technology, i.e. in interdisciplinary international team. Therefore the key issue of the project is the collaboration of students from different European universities on a common task related to recognizing needs of society and providing solution by using ICT. Specific case studies form Smart Society domain will be elaborated following principles of project-based learning, student teamwork, blended mobility and intensive study program. International team grouping rule proposed is the following: 4-5 students from different European universities advised by 1-2 lecturers and/or experts from industry collaborating in order to complete a project using offered blended mobility and intensive study program capacities and resources (2 month virtual mobility: social media and online guidance during preparation and execution of the project; 2 weeks physical mobility: face-to-face communication, discussion, workshops and collaboration needed to finalize project, additional lectures). Intercultural skills needed to recognize the importance of understanding the different cultures and customs and effectively communicate and collaborate are covered by the project. Strategic partnership of the universities included in the projects SmartSoc has quite a long and successful history: European Students Meeting (ESM, 2004-2011), Intercultural knowledge transfer in engineering for a sustainable global ICT community (SUSCOMTEC, 2012-2014), Innovative ICT Solutions for the Societal Challenges (INNOSOC, 2016-2017) and The ICT Engineer of 21st Century: Mastering Technical Competencies, Management Skills, and Societal Responsibilities (TEAMSOC21, 2018-2019). All of them, except the first one, are Erasmus Intensive or Erasmus+ projects. All are completed with a great success, with over 600 students included. The project „Innovative ICT Solutions for the Societal Challenges" received a special recognition “Success story” from a panel of experts from the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission in 2018. The project SmartSoc brings novelties regarding topic under consideration, i.e. ICT expertize related to smart society needs, with a special emphasis on entrepreneurship and skills related to evaluation of business perspectives and societal implications of the proposed solution, respecting relevant smart specialisation strategies defined in EU in different geographical levels.
The main objective of our project was to enforce ICT student teams to deal with economic, societal, and environmental challenges by introducing entrepreneurial learning that follows and respects the UN's and EU's current strategic documents. We wanted to prepare and develop training courses covering ICT, new technologies and digital competencies that are important when creating new business plans for ICT students' start-ups. We wanted to give the project participants chance to collaborate with colleagues from different European universities on an entrepreneurial case related to recognising the needs of society and providing a smart solution by using ICT. We wanted to promote internationalisation. We wanted to achieve and push our project participants to "go out of the box" of their traditional education (STEM) by giving them some basic knowledge and experience of project-based learning, student teamwork, and blended mobility through developing specific entrepreneurial cases for Smart Society domain. We wanted to develop educational materials that support additional education in the field of business. These educational materials were prepared for the educational process at HEIs at the ICT-oriented schools and faculties.
ICT curricula at HEIs traditionally have STEM content. There are different options in which direction the “new-born” ICT experts can continue in their careers after graduation. They often become new entrepreneurs. Our primary motivation for applying for our project was tackling skills gaps and creating a new innovative course focused on ICT-based entrepreneurship. Another motivation was implementing an intensive interdisciplinary and intercultural study environment and promoting internationalisation. We wanted to contribute to open education and innovative practices in a digital era by creating a vital extension to the education of future ICT experts. An online survey was conducted in February and March 2019. Two questionnaires were designed - ICT companies and students. Based on the responses of IT companies, it can be noted that when they are recruiting new employees, they attach great importance, in addition to IT skills, to the transfer of skills and business skills. Other factors included digital skills, networking, and language skills. For students, it is crucial to have the possibility to learn Project Management and Planning, Delegation and Time Management, Team Management, Communication and Negotiation skills.