Pixel International Conferences

In recent decades, higher education institutions have expanded at the doctoral level, yet we behold a growing generation with doctoral degrees in Europe. However, studies show that most doctorate holders work in the public sector and particularly in higher education institutions, with few exceptions in Europe such as Belgium and Finland where the distribution of PhDs between higher education institutions and business is more balanced.

In fact, many countries emphasize the importance on achieve high indices of doctorate holders in order to become competitive in the global economy; nevertheless, there still exists a mismatch between formal education and labour needs, that are not fulfilled by higher education curricula.

iSkills project supports the effectiveness of programs from the European Commission and induces the employability opportunities of doctoral holders in European SMEs by developing an e-assessment methodology (immersive game) that can be implemented at formal, no formal and informal learning contexts.

The idea of the project was based on the partners´ experience with university students and graduates, business context and consultancy, which clearly identified a gap in the innovation skills in PhD students and doctoral holders that limit their opportunities of employability in the private sector as well as the lack of ICT based innovative learning and assessment methods to effectively deliver innovation skills at formal, no formal and informal contexts.

Thus, a common framework will identify and organize skills that PhD students and researchers need to acquire to promote their innovative talent in SMEs, promoting the exchange of innovative pedagogies based on ICT to foster each one of these skills for innovation.