Advancing Cloud and Edge Computing Education in Western Balkans

ongoing

Cloud computing technologies are revolutionizing labor market scalability, with edge computing being a crucial complementary component for enhancing information transfer. Despite Albania and Kosovo having the youngest population in Europe and a rapidly growing ICT sector, there is no single national Higher Education Institution offering tailored cloud-based curricula. Local businesses are seeking cloud-based solutions, but high European prices leave them with outdated technologies. The WeB-Nimbus project aims to address this gap in cloud technology education, increase the digital readiness of ICT professionals, reduce skills mismatch and meet the demands of the local labor market by developing and implementation an MSc in Cloud and Edge Computing (EQF 7/ECTS 60) equivalent and a LMS that will host Online Specialized Stand-Alone Courses (WP3, WP4). To standardize the tech advancements, partners -with the engagement of cloud-computing businesses and guest HEI experts- will set the foundation for curriculum development, and through policy advocacy reports lay ground for GDPR enhancement in e-data management (WP2). The project also facilitates the establishment of HEI-labor market relationships in targeted countries with the introduction of Work-Based Learning &Employer Engagement Methodology (WP4). Academic staff in targeted countries will enhance their competences through EU HEI study visits and cloud computing capacity building. This will enable them to deliver the MSc to 120 students and the online courses to 300 learners, during pilot (WP5). To increase recognition, the MSc will be accredited by national authorities, enabling Albanian and Kosovar partner to deliver it at a Joint level (WP5). WeB-Nimbus contributes to the Digital Transformation overarching priority of the call by addressing gaps in advanced digital education and industry-academia collaboration in cloud computing in Albania and Kosovo that will act as a precedent for the rest Western Balkan countries