Country: EU

Use of the EDCI Issuer to issue micro-credentials

Best practices Use of the EDCI Issuer to issue micro-credentials Users: Training Providers (Private), Training Providers (Public) | Theme: Accreditation and certification | Action: Fremework/methodology | Beneficiaries: Training Providers (Private), Training Providers (Public), Learners (STEM background), Learners (Non-STEM background). DIS4SME DIS4SME Lisa Bilotti  Giacomo Martirano Across Europe, there is a rapidly growing demand for digital skills and for mechanisms that formally recognise competences achieved through both formal and non‑formal education. Within this context, the DIS4SME (Data Interoperability Skills for SMEs) project contributes to the upskilling and reskilling of small and medium‑sized enterprises through targeted training on location data interoperability.As a consortium member, Epsilon Italia aimed to ensure that the learning outcomes achieved by participants in its courses were recognisable, verifiable, and aligned with EU policy frameworks for micro‑credentials. The challenge? The main challenge was to identify a cost‑effective and reliable system for issuing digital micro‑credentials compliant with the EU Recommendation on Micro‑Credentials.Most commercially available badge platforms were found to be limited in one or more of the following ways:Non‑compliance with the EU micro‑credentials frameworkRequirement for expensive licences or annual feesDependence on restrictive national accreditation or proprietary systemsThese limitations hindered training providers from adopting micro‑credentials effectively and consistently across European contexts. Our solution Secure, authentic, EU‑compliant credentials: the Digital badges issued via the EDCI Issuer are fully aligned with the EU micro‑credentials framework and guaranteed by a qualified e‑seal.Interoperability and transparency: Credentials can be embedded directly in the Europass CV, enhancing recognition of skills across Europe.Cost‑effectiveness: Epsilon Italia achieved credential issuance without paying licence fees or using proprietary systems.Scalability: The organisation plans to issue at least 100 digital credentials during the first year of implementation. Outcomes The membership to the EFMD Global Network, and the eligibility to EQUIS accreditation were the first steps achieved in the process of EQUIS accreditation. The achievement of these milestones resulted in a set of outcomes: 15% increase in recruitment of international students; 1 new international exchange program with an EQUIS internationally accredited HEI; International recognition in accreditation of educational offer in advanced digital skills, with one new co-funded project with other EQUIS accredited HEIs; Improvement in national and international ranking for master programs Integration of EQUIS methodology with European approach to micro-credentials to further increase the quality level of educational offer. Key takeaways Integrate a qualified e‑seal, as required by the EDCI Issuer, to ensure legal authenticity and integrity. Update internal processes early to guarantee smooth technical integration with the EU’s credential infrastructure. Invest in staff training for managing digital credentialing workflows and maintaining compliance with EU standards. Avoid dependence on commercial badge platforms by adopting open EU‑provided tools that foster transparency and trust. Embed credentials within the Europass CV to enhance learners’ employability and cross‑sector recognition. Build long‑term collaboration with technical partners to sustain e‑seal management and alignment with evolving EU frameworks. Learn more here

Evaluating micro-credential-readiness level of the provided courses

Best practices Evaluating micro-credential-readiness level of the provided courses Users: Training Providers (Private), Training Providers (Public) | Theme: Accreditation and certification | Action: Framework/methodology | Beneficiaries: Training Providers (Private), Training Providers (Public). BioNT BioNT Tanja Ninkovic In 2022, the Council of Europe recommended the adoption of micro-credentials as a way of certifying small, high-quality learning units. Designing a course that qualifies for a micro-credential requires rigorous quality assurance, systematic record keeping, and clear assessment of learners’ knowledge. These features make micro-credential-bearing courses especially valuable for first-time job seekers and professionals seeking a career change.BioNT is a Digital Europe funded project which develops and delivers online training for job seekers and SME members, in order to equip them with new skills required for their career progression. For this, certificates of the taken courses, which have strong quality control mechanisms, are more beneficial than of the courses without such structured quality control. Micro-credentials regulations by the Council of Europe in 2022 provide a clear and streamlined list of requirements that when followed ensure quality of the courses and of the certificate. The impact of this regulation is twofold: It strengthens the interconnectedness of educational systems and supports greater learner mobility. It establishes micro-credentials as a trusted quality-control tool that, when widely applied, ensures lifelong learning courses are consistent in their content, preparation, promotion, and documentation. This, in turn, increases trust in the certificates issued and supports more reliable hiring processes.  BioNT courses were not initially planned with the micro-credentials in mind (as the project was written before the Recommendations for the European approach to micro-credentials was published), but the consortium worked extensively to ensure good quality of the courses. During the project lifetime, the micro-credentials approach for the existing training framework and already developed courses was assessed. Here, the BioNT project describes the assessment of the planned and delivered courses and their fulfilment of micro-credential requirements, and identifies what would need to be changed in order to formally issue them. The challenge? For many training providers who wish to implement micro-credentials for their existing courses, including BioNT, the main challenge lies in determining how well existing courses align with the formal requirements for issuing micro-credentials. While the courses may already follow strong quality standards, it is often unclear which aspects fully meet the criteria and which fall short. Therefore, a practical tool to support training developers and providers in the evaluation of the level of course readiness was needed. This tool would help to identify eventual gaps in compliance, and to understand precisely which elements of the course design, delivery, and documentation would need to be adapted. The Recommendation by the Council is a legal document which does list requirements, but does not provide guidelines on their practical meaning and is therefore difficult to implement for many training developers who are not dealing with policy or legal documents on a regular basis. Organisation providing lifelong learning directed courses as a main or side activity invest substantial effort in designing and delivering training, training materials, information, and documentation. To prove the training quality, these organisation could highly benefit from applying the micro-credentials framework and for this, they need to understand how much their offers already align with the requirements, and identify the gaps and aspects they need to improve. Our solution To solve these challenges, BIoNT created a practical evaluation form which lists mandatory and recommended elements of the micro-credential requirements, and guides the form users to evaluate their course against these elements. Specifically, the form prompts to: Check whether the courses meet all mandatory elements required for issuing a micro-credential. Identify gaps that prevent compliance. Collect structured information on course design, delivery, and quality assurance procedures. Plan the structure, dissemination, documentation and delivery of courses in alignment with the micro-credentials requirements for lifelong learning courses. The form is implemented as an Excel sheet containing a checklist of required tasks based on the Council of Europe recommendations. Each question is supported by definitions, examples, and fields where training developers and providers can add concrete information alongside checking compliance.The form is freely available for download here: https://biont-training.eu/training.html. Outcomes The BioNT consortium used the form the form to assess all the training offers. This provided a highly valuable comparative overview of the structural differences between courses and highlighted which quality elements needed strengthening to meet the micro-credential standards.Even if a course organiser chooses not to pursue full micro-credential certification—for example, in the BioNT case, where some courses cannot include learner identification or formal assessment for confidentiality reasons—the form still adds value. It helps clarify which elements prevent compliance and whether adjustments are possible or even desirable.The form has already gained recognition: it was selected through a competitive process for presentation at the European core facilities meeting organised by the CTLS association, where it attracted strong interest from peers. Key takeaways Anyone interested in evaluating their own courses can download the form from the BioNT website (https://biont-training.eu/training.html). Completing it requires approximately 15 minutes per training offer.We recommend answering all questions: Multiple-choice options are based directly on the Council of Europe’s micro-credential recommendations. When a mandatory element is missing, the corresponding field automatically turns red. Text boxes allow organisers to document additional information; when this field is mandatory, it is written in the column on the right. At the end of the form, users will also find supporting resources, including:o A learning objectives ontology based on Bloom’s taxonomy.o A description of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) levels and their meaning. Learn more here

Privacy-Preserving Training Format for Live and Self-Paced Learning

Best practices Privacy-Preserving Training Format for Live and Self-Paced Learning Users: Training Providers (Private), Training Providers (Public) | Theme: Programme development | Action: Education programmes/courses | Beneficiaries: Training Providers (Private), Training Providers (Public), Learners (STEM background), Learners (non-STEM background). BioNT BioNT Isabela Paredes Cisneros  Silvia Di Giorgio BioNT (Bio Network for Training) is a consortium of nine European partners, including academic institutions and SMEs, funded by the Digital Europe Programme. The project aims to deliver high-quality training on digital skills relevant to the biotechnology and biomedical sectors, targeting both job-seekers and employees looking to enhance their skills. The primary audience includes participants who may be in vulnerable situations (job-seekers) or require heightened privacy (industry professionals handling sensitive information). The consortium needed to develop a format that would respect privacy concerns while enabling the creation of reusable content from live sessions. The challenge? Our project faced three interconnected challenges: Many participants, particularly job-seekers and industry professionals from SMEs, expressed reluctance to fully engage in training sessions if they might be recorded or identified. Job-seekers feared this could negatively impact their future job prospects, whilst industry professionals were hesitant to disclose their affiliation or display their faces, as this could reveal competitive information or interest in upskilling that they preferred to keep confidential. Creating high-quality, reusable self-paced learning materials from live training sessions typically requires capturing live discussions and interactions, which conflicts with participants’ privacy requirements. Traditional recording approaches that include participant faces, names, and verbal questions would have required extensive post-production video editing to anonymise content before publishing as self-paced learning materials. This would have significantly increased production costs and time requirements, potentially making the creation of such resources unsustainable within our project constraints. Without addressing these challenges, we risked low enrolment numbers from our target audience and would have significantly limited our ability to create valuable, cost-effective self-paced learning materials for broader impact. Our solution We developed and refined a hybrid training delivery format that prioritises participant privacy whilst enabling the creation of reusable content: Restrictive participation format: We used a delivery format that restricted trainee participation to viewing only, without the ability to speak, share video, or use chat functions. This ensured that recordings captured only the instructor’s content without any participant information. Text-based interaction system: We implemented a collaborative document platform (HedgeDoc) hosted on our own servers where participants could anonymously ask questions and provide feedback during the session. Participants were able to interact without providing any personal data. Carefully structured recording approach: Training sessions were recorded to capture only the instructor’s screen, voice, and presentation materials. The collaborative document was monitored and cleaned of any potentially identifying information before being included in recordings. Helper system: We assigned dedicated helpers who monitored the collaborative document in real-time, answering questions and providing support without disrupting the flow of the training or revealing participant identities. Outcomes The implementation of this privacy-preserving format yielded several positive outcomes: Efficient creation of self-paced learning materials: The format allowed us to produce high-quality recordings without any post-production editing to remove participant information, significantly reducing resource requirements for creating self-paced learning materials. Positive trainer adaptation: Despite initial hesitation from trainers who were accustomed to fully interactive live sessions, we received positive feedback about the format’s effectiveness. Participant comfort: Feedback indicated that participants appreciated the anonymity provided, with many noting they felt more comfortable asking questions in a text-based format without revealing their identity. This format also gives room to the participants who would usually not ask questions live, making the format more inclusive. Sustainable model for future training: The format has been successfully replicated across all our training workshops, providing a proven template for future initiatives that can be implemented with minimal resources. Key takeaways Based on our experience, organisations implementing similar training formats should consider: Balance privacy with interaction: While restricting traditional participation methods, ensure alternative channels for meaningful interaction that preserve anonymity. Prepare trainers adequately: Provide proper orientation for trainers who may be accustomed to seeing and hearing participants, helping them adapt to text-based interaction systems. Establish clear helper protocols: Define specific roles for helpers monitoring the text-based interaction system, including guidelines for anonymising questions before addressing them. Design for direct recording use: Structure training sessions assuming that recordings will be used as-is without editing, including careful planning of screen sharing and demonstration segments. Create trainer-helper communication channels: Establish private communication methods between trainers and helpers to coordinate responses and manage participant questions efficiently. Test thoroughly before implementation: Conduct pilot sessions to identify potential privacy risks or technical issues with your chosen platforms and tools. Document the process: Create clear documentation of your approach to make it easily replicable across different training topics and by different training teams. Learn more here

Creating Blockchain Training for the Food Supply Chain utilising End-user Engagement

Best practices Creating blockchain training for the food supply chain utilising end-user engagement Users: Policymakers (EU), Training Providers (Public) | Theme: Programme development | Action: Education programmes/courses | Beneficiaries:Training Providers (Private), Training Providers (Public) TRUSTFOOD TRUSTFOOD Anastasia Vlachou The TRUST-FOOD project aims to upskill SMEs and job seekers in the food supply chain (FSC) with advanced digital competencies in blockchain technology. Recognising the diverse needs across this sector, the consortium prioritised tailoring training programmes to ensure practical impact and uptake. As student mobility and such types of degrees are on the rise, there is a need to refine common assessment criteria. In collaboration with accreditation agencies, ministries, and employers, JEDI explores the feasibility and impact of this label and promotes innovative learning methodologies that highlight European values in joint programmes. The challenge? A key challenge was designing training content that is both technically advanced and practically applicable to professionals with varied digital literacy. Without early engagement, content risked being misaligned with learners’ needs and industry contexts. Our solution A key success factor in the TRUST-FOOD project was the early and structured engagement of trainees before developing educational content. Under Task 3.1 (“Probing Trainees”), potential learners were consulted to assess their familiarity, needs, and interest in blockchain technologies through surveys. This feedback directly informed the design of the educational ecosystem, ensuring relevance, practicality, and learner-centered outcomes. This proactive involvement of end-users is a replicable best practice that enhances training relevance and effectiveness. Outcomes Strategic Value The proactive involvement of trainees helped uncover unexpected learning gaps, allowing the team to tailor content with greater precision. The approach fostered stronger alignment between learner needs and training objectives, enhancing the perceived value of the programme. Process and Efficiency Gains Course development was faster and more focused, as insights from trainees eliminated guesswork. The initiative benefited from fewer mismatches between expectations and delivery, improving resource efficiency. Key takeaways Engaging learners early in the design process builds trust and ensures training is tailored to their real needs. In the TRUST-FOOD project, conducting surveys was only the first step; the real value came from thoroughly analysing the data and being flexible enough to adapt course plans based on the findings—even when they challenged initial assumptions. We also learned that simple, well-designed feedback tools are key to maximising participation and collecting actionable insights. For similar initiatives, it’s essential to allocate enough time and resources not just for consultation, but for interpreting and applying the feedback effectively. Learn more here

From Classroom to Collaboratorium: Rethinking Learning Spaces in European Joint Masters

Best practices From Classroom to Collaboratorium: Rethinking Learning Spaces in European Joint Masters Users: Training Providers (Private), Training Providers (Public) | Theme: Programme Development | Action: Education programme/course | Beneficiaries: Learners (STEM background), Learners (Non-STEM background). EURIDICE EURIDICE Emiliano Grimaldi Pietro Nunziante Contr: Anna Bon, Hans Akkermans In international joint master studies, students/learners and educators are inherently spread over different locations and countries. Only remote/online teaching is not a good educational approach. Community formation through in-person and face-to-face contact and collaborative work are also needed, and must be blended with remote virtual components.Students with different educational backgrounds, from different institutions, countries and cultures, collaborate in challenge-based master-level research and educational projects for societal impact. Building a community of learners is key to successful learning. The challenge? How can we build and educate young professionals to be both skilled and reflective for the Digital Society? How should these innovative curricula look like? How can we give our students a sense of belonging to a group, in an international, digitally connected context? How can we avoid that every student is working together while being alone behind their computer screen? Our solution Our proposed solution was coined: Collaboratorium. This is both a hybrid digital/physical interconnected workspace, and an educational concept. It combines onsite in-presence classrooms and workspaces, connected via digital collaboration bridges. In a Collaboratorium approach students tackle real-world “wicked” problems and work in small interdisciplinary, and often transdisciplinary teams, in the design of socio-technical solutions, through user-centered and community-centered approaches. Outcomes What have we already achieved through the implementation of the educational concept of the Collaboratorium? To gain and share experiences with this innovative educational concept, EURIDICE partners have implemented a series of pilots, through master projects. All projects embody the societally-oriented ambitions and are related to the Sustainable Development Goals. The idea is to co-design and build digital, socio-technical solutions for real world problems formulated with partners in the Global South. Our SME consortium partners are co-supervising a number of these projects, related to food security, health and wellbeing, and adaptation to climate change. Preliminary outcomes, as of 1 February 2025: 15 master theses, produced through this educational concept. Key takeaways Virtual education is efficient to train people remotely, however, presential collaboration is important for human well-being and enhances learning capacity and creativity. We advise to design your education such that groups are together in one space, while virtually communicating with other groups who are remote. A Collaboratorium requires a careful design of both physical spaces, digital international collaboration tools, and virtual spaces in an integrated whole. Learn more here

The Master of Professional Practice

The Master of Professional Practice is the Ireland’s first interdisciplinary stackable Master’s degree. It addresses the SDG of quality
further education.

A Joint European Degree label in Engineering to facilitate accreditation

Best practices A Joint European Degree label in Engineering to facilitate accreditation Users: Policymakers (EU), Training Providers (Public) | Theme: Accreditation & Certification | Action: Framework/Methodology | Beneficiaries:Training Providers (Private), Training Providers (Public) JEDI jedilabel Lucía Linares, Project Manager, UPMRamón Martínez, Project Coordinator, UPM The JEDI project, coordinated by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), brought together sixteen educational institutions from eleven countries to explore and develop a European label for joint degree programmes in engineering. As student mobility and such types of degrees are on the rise, there is a need to refine common assessment criteria. In collaboration with accreditation agencies, ministries, and employers, JEDI explores the feasibility and impact of this label and promotes innovative learning methodologies that highlight European values in joint programmes. The challenge? The JEDI project was tasked with developing a label under which recognised joint degrees could be delivered across Europe. This included acceptance by employers, as well as compatibility with national legislations. However, the lack of harmonised regulations for joint degrees created obstacles in their recognition across different countries. National engineering professional associations were also hesitant to recognise foreign programmes, making it difficult to integrate these degrees into the broader European engineering, technology, and science sectors. Our solution JEDI established a structured framework to guarantee consistency and quality, align curricula in terms of learning outomes, and establish quality assurance and accreditation criteria. It then developed a prototype label based on common criteria and made the label widely accepted and credible at the European level. JEDI tested the prototype label on selected joint degree programmes and gathered feedback from students, academic institutions, and employers to assess its impact and refine its applicability and effectiveness. Key takeaways Stakeholder-Driven Evaluation Process: Actively collect feedback from universities, employers, and accreditation bodies to ensure the joint degree label meets both academic and industry needs, ensuring relevance and sustainability. Leveraging Existing Accreditation Frameworks: Incorporate insights from established accreditation systems such as EUR-ACE, aligning joint degrees with industry standards and ensuring they meet the specific requirements of European engineering and technology programmes. Learn more here