Building Blocks and
Skills Ecosystems,
a new way of Education

P4ELECS addresses a specific need in the smart energy transition to provide more flexible learning paths especially between EQF 5 and 7 in order to complement both VET and Higher Education with missing skills and competences across all phases from ideation, to design, planning and implementation with shorter time from research to application, so that single learners can move to more quality employment positions within fast changing innovation ecosystems.

P4ELECS focuses on electrification, the corner stone of the energy transition, involving partners from 5 countries (BE, NL, IT, LT, DE) from Higher Education and VET sectors, Industry and innovation support organisations, Public Authorities responsible for education, accreditation and employment at regional and national levels, to work in a twofold direction and contribute to both VET excellence and INNOVATION support. Targeting VETs, HEIs, enterprises, Industry-related training providers, engineers and technicians, P4ELECS will focus on:

1. Creating a flexible training offer (with more than 200 modules, 24 courses and 500 participants) at the highest Quality and European standards via a user-centric platform as well as practical international experiences based on skills needs intelligence, that can be adapted to the specific educational paths of learners both for initial training and up-skilling and re-skilling of adults and including key competences in order to integrate the whole cycle of production from ideation to implementation responding to innovation needs in terms of competences, from EQF 5 to 7.
2. Developing long-term local skills ecosystems (involving over 100 stakeholders) through system mapping and change coordinated by the P4ELECS CoVE i) based on VET provision as a driving force for life-long learning and closely collaborating with the Higher Education and Research system ii) strictly linked to the local innovation ecosystems ii) with a strong international dimension, including with other CoVEs, both in the share of knowledge, development of content and training experience.

Educational material will be provided in an innovative way. “Building blocks” (BBs) with a dedicated part of knowledge will be developed and then combined in a project-based, CDIO compatible manner, to cover the Conceiving, Design/Engineering, Implementation and Operating phases of a project (“CDIO-spider”).

The BBs will be hosted in a “Building Block Platform (BBP)” where BBs can be combined to tailor made courses for individuals or classes. To guarantee high quality adequate requirements and procedures to post a BB on the platform will be implemented.

A team of experts and users will test the quality and usefulness of these BBs combined with adequate infrastructure/lab setups in international courses/curricula, in train the trainer and in company programs, for LLL (upskilling, reskilling) and last but not least to be eligible and accepted for micro-credentials.

P4ELECS will function as a gate to new knowledge with a focus on required competences and practical skills. The BBP allows to combine the knowledge of all the experts from PhDs to technicians from  EU and beyond and offers the flexibility to meet the needs of individual learners/teachers now and in the future. It implies a strong collaboration between the stakeholders of skill ecosystems on local and international level  to develop BBs of added value for the specific regions.