ProSkill Development of a Skill Ecosystem in the Visegrád Four countries

The employees of the future will have to adapt to new challenges and possess multidisciplinary skills. They have to have in-depth knowledge in one area, but also be able to speak the language of business and social sides. In ProSkill a skill ecosystem strategy is developed to reduce the negative effects of skill problems. To implement it a pilot project is launched with the direct and active participation of colleges for advanced studies. 

Popular Project Description: 

The European Union puts an emphasis on raising productivity as an important factor in maintaining economic growth. In order to improve productivity, it is vital to offer products and services with a high added value, and for that purpose highly qualified employees are required. Companies and professional organisations in the RM industries have stressed the need to improve the soft skills of students in order to meet the requirements of the labour market. The engineers of the future have to accept that engineering problems – as well as their solutions – are embedded in complex social, cultural, political, environmental, and economic contexts. Engineers have to access, understand, evaluate, synthesise, and apply information and knowledge from engineering as well from as other fields of study. They have to find and achieve a synergy between technical and social systems. 

ProSkill has a double purpose. From the one side it adopts a ‘skill ecosystem’ concept, looking at what (hard and soft) skills are missing in raw materials sector, which areas are affected by skill problems (shortages, mismatches and gaps) and what strategies can work. A high-skill ecosystem strategy supplemented with an action plan is developed. To ensure sustainability, the project focuses on the lecturers (‘train the trainer’). The main goal is to develop their knowledge about new and innovative educational techniques and to reshape the outdated curricula. On the other side, a pilot project is launched involving the colleges for advanced studies in partner HEIs. Short-term and long- term programmes help to implement the strategy with the targeted development of selected soft skills.