Measuring the impact of mobility abroad on students’ career development remains challenging and the support they receive from universities in identifying and assessing competences is modest. The Erasmus Careers project aims to ensure that the competencies gained on mobility are recognized by students and employers and contribute to the career prospects of Erasmus+ participants.
To accomplish this ambitious goal, the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Tilburg University (TU), Expertise in Labour Mobility (ELM), and The Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP), have launched the Erasmus Careers project.
The objectives of this project are:
Improving and increasing universities’ support for student learning throughout their experience abroad
Ensuring that students and trainees are able to identify the competences gained abroad and translate them into their career development
Ensuring that employers better understand and recognise competences gained during an Erasmus+ exchange
The research gathers literature research, quantitative analysis of student data, and focus group.
This Roadmap will tackle the different stages of student mobility and the support they might need for their learning at specific moments of the exchange. It will also address the validation processes that are connected to formal and non-formal learning and provide tools and case studies on how institutions can apply validation mechanisms to the learning path.
The research report will investigate the competence recognition of employers in recruitment and onboarding processes, while the Employer Manual will improve the value employers give to internationalisation in career paths.
Based on the research on the competences frameworks, a Competence Inventory with the most important competencies in student learning development will be created.
In order to support students' career development, university staff members should be equipped accordingly. Therefore, a Guidebook for Internationalisation in Career Guidance will be developed.
A self-learning digital tool will be developed to help students assess their competences and provide them with tools to improve them.
The training for staff members will build the capacity of universities to support students in their career planning, while the outreach activities will focus on student support on the ground.
University staff members will be trained to better support students in their career planning by using the developed tools, while initiative on the grounds and webinars will make students more aware of the competences gained on exchange
The report will be built upon the analysis of data collected throughout the project, their match with policy priorities related to youth in education and employment agenda, and focus group with European stakeholders.
In this conference, the consortium will present the project results and offer a chance to connect Higher Education stakeholders and employers with students.