Education-Enterprises-Engagement-Employability through Experience
Project objectives
The Univ-5 E project aims to strengthen cooperation between universities and companies in the region in order to meet the changing needs of the labour market through an educational innovation: Service-Learning.
Service-Learning enables students to develop professional and cross-disciplinary skills sought by local businesses through hands-on involvement with local players (businesses/civil society).
Eurasia net will be working on this project with 5 partner universities from the CIVIS European University Alliance:
- University of Aix-Marseille (France),
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece),
- University of Bucharest (Romania),
- Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain),
- Sapienza University, Rome (Italy).
Project content
Eurasia net is coordinating the Erasmus+ SL-ICP project to disseminate Service-Learning as an innovative teaching and learning practice, to implement Service-Learning in European universities and to support stakeholders (students, lecturers, teaching and administrative staff, civil society organisations).
Univ-5 E will enable to open SL-ICP project to cooperation with companies. Thanks to this new project dimension, students’ skills developed through service-learning innovation will echo the need for innovation in companies’ recruitment practices.
Who is it for?
The project’s target audience falls into three categories:
- university communities in French Southern Region and in Europe;
- civil society organisations in French Southern Region;
- Companies in French Southern Region.
Project stages
Cooperation with universities is planned in 3 steps:
- Identifying companies, in cooperation with the departments of the Southern Region and the University of Aix-Marseille, to associate them to the event to promote students involved in Service-Learning projects in Spring 2024 (date to be determined),
- transferring European innovations and best practice for students’ professional insertion to French Southern region,
- dissemination of a guide among regional universities for the implementation of experiential learning approaches for students’ improved employability.
Univ-5 E and environmental challenges
Univ 5 E contributes to the objectives of the Climate Plan “Gardons une COP d’avance” via the following two axes:
- opening up dialogue between the academic world and business, through the prism of Corporate Social Responsibility,
- cooperation with Natural solutions; a company based in Marseille that aims to use computational intelligence to address environmental and biodiversity issues.
Activities implemented
EXCHANGE OF BEST UNIVERSITY PRACTICES FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION OF STUDENTS
Eurasia Net field trip to the University of Bucharest and the “La Sapienza” university in Roma
In March 2024, Eurasia net carried out a field study mission at the University of Bucharest and the “La Sapienza” university in Roma. The aim of this activity was to exchange on the practices put in place by this university to facilitate the professional integration of students.
Three interviews were conducted with the following members of the pedagogical team and a student association of the university of Bucharest:
- Nicolae-Marius Jula (Dean of the Faculty of Business and Administration at the University of Bucharest) and Camelia Cojocaru (Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Business and Administration at the UB and President of the Bucharest Student Entrepreneurs Association);
- Marian Craciun (Doctor of Education, Director of the Career Guidance Department at the University of Bucharest);
- Rebecca Maria DOGARU (President of the Student Union).
Regarding the “La Sapienza” university in Roma, the interviews were conducted with the following members of pedagogical team:
- Silvia Massimi – Responsible Traineeship Office – Sapienza University Career service;
- Assunta Musto D’Amore – Responsible du Job Placement Office – Sapienza University Career service.
March 6 – From right to left: Nicolae-Marius Jula, Camelia Cojocaru, Marielle DUPONT, Olivia ZONGO
Lastly, these two field visits led to the drafting of “Transferable Practices to support university students’ socio professional integration”.
- PARTICIPATION OF LOCAL COMPANIES/ENTREPRENEURSHIP FACILITATORS IN AN EVENT TO PROMOTE STUDENTS INVOLVED IN SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECTS
On April 8, 2024, the Aix-Marseille University Service Learning Award was organized in conjunction with Eurasia Net. Natural Solutions, RisingSUD and CEA Cadarache participated in this event, bringing together the academic and socio-economic communities. They shared their areas of expertise: “Putting computer intelligence at the service of environmental issues, and the importance of training the younger generation to collaborate with living organisms” (Olivier ROVELLOTTI – Founder and Managing Director of the Marseille-based company Natural Solutions); “CEA Cadarache with CSR policy” (Olivier PROVITINA – Responsible for coordinating regional actions and academic partnerships);”Presentation of Rising SUD and the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program” (Margaux SOMMIER – Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Project Manager / Europe Network advisor).
New initiatives of cooperation will certainly emerge via service-learning or any other initiative that may emerge! The students were able to pitch their project and present the skills they had developed to local actors looking to recruit and keep young talent with them.
Writing and disseminating a Guide on strengthening experiential approaches as sources of employability for students – September 2024 – November 2024
At the end of the European Forum on Service-Learning, held from 25th to 28th June 2024 in Bucharest, Romania, a guide for the ‘implementation of Service-Learning including the “companies” prism as end employer’ was written and disseminated. This guide highlights skills acquired by students and looked after by employers. This guide is the achievement of various stakeholders’ objectives:
- Teachers: involving their students in Service-Learning activities, cooperating with civil society organisations and including companies’ constraints and expectations as employers (links between soft skills and employability);
- Students: successful involvement in Service-Learning projects;
- academic staff: understanding the steps to be taken with administrative staff to implement such an innovation;
- civil society organisations: cooperation with students and teachers,
Thanks to the financial support of the “region SUD”, this guide has been disseminated to universities and companies in “region SUD” and to universities in the CIVIS network and their partners, so that methodological innovations through Service-Learning can be incorporated into other regional universities.
Find out more
Are you a local company interested in finding out more?
This is your contact:
Project manager – Marielle DUPONT – cooperation@eurasianet.eu