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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EPICA (EPICA - Strategic partnership for the co-design of an innovative and scalable eportfolio ecosystem to improve the quality and visibility of skills)

Teaser

Summary

The fast-growing population of Africa and notably Eastern Africa raises â€“ among many others - the challenge of employment and especially the employability and visibility of skills of young graduates. A recent trend has been observed within education and employability that actual skills and competencies are more valued by employers over traditional approaches that used to put a single emphasis on the obtained degree and the pertaining institution. In line with said trend, the EPICA project aims at addressing the above-mentioned challenge of the employability and visibility of skills of young Africans by developing an eportfolio allowing graduates to increase their employability.
It has been theorized that African economies will be able to skip some industrial developments by directly adopting the latest technologies; for example, the lack of needing to build landlines when cell phones and data roaming can be set up directly. In line with this example, education and notably online education is developing fast in Africa as more and more Africans are gaining access to the internet and therefore to education. It must also be observed that in Africa - as is worldwide â€“ lifelong learning is developing rapidly, people from any age are now either going back to studies or combining work together with education.
Based on all these above detailed evolutions and trends, the EPICA eportfolio is a response in order to bridge graduates and employers, universities and companies, by allowing graduates/students of all ages to not only better highlight their resume but also to highlight their skills and competencies to potential employers. EPICA is a commercial as well as a Research & Development project that will explore the responsivity of the African market by piloting the eportfolio in three different universities within three countries (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania). In parallel with the legal requirements, the business model, the sustainability and the relevant technology will be researched and studied by the EPICA consortium. The overall objective of the EPICA project is therefore to explore the marketability and set the conditions for the EPICA eportfolio to be adopted by the African market.

Work performed

During the first 18 months of the EPICA project, the core activities consisted of the following:
- The consolidation of a management structure, follow-up methodology (WP1)
- The Appointment of an External Advisory Board, attending the Meeting in M12 in Potsdam, (WP1)
- The elaboration of a data management plan as well as a gender equality management plan, appointment of a Data Protection Officer, of an Exploitation Manager and finally of a Gender Counsellor (WP1)
- The set-up of a business group, analyzing the African market and elaborating the first definition of the exploitation model. An important point was the definition and optimisation of costs and conditions for the partner universities to adopt the eportfolio after the project end (WP2).
- The dissemination activities (WP3) in this first period were mainly focused on the consolidation of the dissemination plan and follow-up methodology, the expansion of the target public and the promotion of the EPICA project. The website and social media were set up, a brochure elaborated. The EPICA newsletter was distributed at a threeâ€“month basis. The success of the first workshops in the three African partner countries was key in this first period: around 300 attendees, mainly policy makers and participants from the scientific community, in the three countries: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
- The definition of the user needs (WP4) was the central work package of the first period. An analysis of the Sub-saharan context was carried out, first collecting information on the skill gap through literature review and direct survey of stakeholders and then gaining an insight into the level of maturity and needs of the partners\' universities in the implementation of the ePortfolio. This first task involved different end-users making possible to analyze their needs from different levels of understanding.
- Pedagogical and technological requirement elicitation for the ePortfolio platform was also carried out through questionnaires, prototyping and scenarios, and document analysis while local workgroups, supported by the legal services in each country, contributed also to define the legal requirements to be fulfilled by the EPICA ePortfolio.
- Contractual, business & sustainability, pedagogical and legal requirements gathered and described within WP4 and WP2 were mapped and then analysed from a technological perspective in WP5, resulting in the development roadmap and the feature report, describing new developments, adaptations and improvements of the technology.
- The integration between the EPICA Eportfolio and the different LMS platforms of the three African partner universities was implemented.
- The project partners had a very positive level of cooperation and collaboration.

Final results

The EPICA Eportfolio, as well as the methodology to be used for competence assessment and validation, will be piloted and validated in the second phase of the project, having an impact on skills development and recognition of the participant universities. Flexibility and scalability will be crucial for the ecosystem.
The Competency-based education model is expected to introduce new learning and teaching methodologies as a new trend of increasing the quality of the education programmes in the participant institutions. Interaction and collaboration between and among students, academic and administrative staff will be also fostered through the ePortfolio.
The EPICA ecosystem is expected to have an impact also on the teachersâ€™ practices that participate in the project as innovators and on the academic staff of the local universities that will be informed by the early adopters of this solution.
The relation of the educational world with workplace representatives and the creation of ad hoc services will be encouraged to operate a real change and have an impact on the educational outcomes. Future actions aim at strengthening the link among these sectors and to promote public-private partnerships. Such actions should lead the participant universities to modernize their curricula and offer an education path closer to the labour market.
In addition, the EPICA outcomes adapted to the African local context, could provide ways to standardise training and teaching throughout urban and rural universities, which would allow all students to receive the same educational opportunities.