ERASMUS Jean Monnet

Project summary

European integration and the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement opened new job opportunities for graduating students to operate in Europe and to promote active European values in Ukraine. The employers’ feedback and job search challenges of Sumy State University (SumDU) graduates demonstrated the steady need to enhance their market oriented (applied) practical skills for additional cross-sectoral job opportunities in companies operating under EU standards. This is especially relevant to the graduates of COVID-19 times who are forced to search for job opportunities in a more steady environment of international companies and especially abroad. The comparison of SumDU and selected EU countries’ curricula has revealed that there was a special need for non-traditional for Ukrainian HEIs modules that would provide integral skills and knowledge about: EU grant opportunities for personal and business growth, grants and public reporting according to the EU standards – as an extra competences requested by the modern business market; profession-related soft skills for an international team-player, abilities to find own professional place within the EU job market via the use of job credentials known to the EU employers.

The project “EU Experiences for Enhancing Youth Employability through Professional Skills Development” (SKILLS4JOB) is designed to promote the EU studies as a tool for enhancing the employability of graduates in the EU market or in companies operating under EU standards and values systems. For this, the project offers an interdisciplinary MOOC built of the components that will be incorporated into courses at SumDU. The topic and project results dissemination will be supported by summer schools for students and a winter school for teaching colleagues, a number of research and publicistic papers, and a monograph. Additional and actual material will be pilot-tested during the regular workshops and seminars open for all students within the “Laboratory of Ideas”.

Project aim: Enhancing the employability potential of the graduating students via strengthening their cross-sectoral market-oriented skills relevant to the EU job market, standards and values.

Objectives:

Objective 1. To improve the curricula of 4 existing courses of bachelor, master’s and PhD programs by including 1 ECTS credit of 4 EU-related modules aimed at comprehensively enhancing their professional market-oriented skills.

Objective 2. To pilot-test the newly designed modules within 2022/2024 years at the SumDU and during 2 summer and 1 winter schools and a Laboratory of Ideas workshops and lectures open for students and university teachers of Sumy during all years of the project.

Objective 3. To promote innovation in teaching, as well as the gained experiences and designed modules via launching a MOOC and publishing a manual for teaching stuff.

Objective 4. To promote the EU business standards and values to a wider audience in Ukraine via 4 research and 12 publicistic articles during 3 years of the project, a monograph and 2 final events.