Erasmus Mobility as Micro-credential

ongoing

Every year about 300.000 students, staff members and other beneficiaries participate to Erasmus mobility programs and have the opportunity to live a life changing experience. Erasmus is one of the most successful European funded programs as per the impact on higher education integration across Europe, language skills development, and the spirit of a common European citizenship among young people. Recent researches have shown how the Erasmus program enhances the personal growth of participants by fostering a range of soft skills such as openness to diversity, tolerance, resilience, teamwork, empathy and more. Despite the high level of integration among the universities on formal mutual recognition of exams and studies abroad, after more then 35 years of the Erasmus program any official recognition yet is released to students or staff members after an Erasmus experience. On the other hand, recruiters and organizations are more likely to hire people with study mobility and Erasmus experience in their resumés. This project aims to clarify a common framework of soft skills acquired during an Erasmus experience and define a possible and viable process for all universities and organizations, part of the Erasmus+ program, to release one or several kind of digital microcredentials related to these skills. The project will pilot the new credentialing system within the partnering universities and will evaluate the outcomes for a possible scalability in the whole system.