Masters Programme Focused on the Practical Application of Advanced Digital Skills Within European Companies: DIGITAL4Business

Programme(s): Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL)-DIGITAL-1

Topic(s): DIGITAL-2021-SKILLS-01-SPECIALISED

Type of action: DIGITAL Simple Grants

Project ID: 101084013

Objective:
The DIGITAL4Business European Masters Programme aims to design and implement a highly innovative, effective, and sustainable European Masters Programme in Advanced Digital Skills. This contributes to the overall objectives of the DIGITAL Europe Programme by fast-tracking a high number of graduates through a dynamic panEuropean stakeholder ecosystem. In the latter, HEIs, Research Centres, Employment Services, and Industry work together to design, promote, deliver and improve an innovative Masters Programme. It will focus on the practical application of Advanced Digital Skills within European Business, an entirely market-led academic programme driven and designed to meet the current and future (up)-skill needs of SMEs and Companies. The Master's Course(s) will focus on the practical application of advanced Digital Skills within Business, including topics such as AI, cybersecurity, and the cloud. The latter skills are pivotal to European businesses' ongoing competitiveness and growth. Courses will blend academic and industry content to ensure that graduates are equipped with theoretical and employment-ready digital skills that will undoubtedly ensure career success for the candidates. Their degrees will be academically accredited by the hosting institutions and comprise industry certification through the key IT leading sector partners. DIGITAL4Business fosters the industry-recognized certifications as a critical element of the learning pathway. Online teaching and learning environments will be used, combining in-house tools of the participating universities and a new 'Masters as a Service' central online platform to enhance learning opportunities for part time students and professionals already in employment. In addition, mentoring programmes with industry partners, hackathons, industry-focused project-based learning, and coaching on soft skills and job profiles will be offered during the programme. The programme will be provided in two different formats to appeal to different cohorts of students, (1) A 3-year part time programme that will deliver 120 ECTS-CPs across 10 trimesters. (2) A 2-year full time programme that will deliver 120 ECTS-CPs across 6 core trimesters. We will aim to launch 2 part time and 3 full time masters programmes within the 4-year project duration, with 1 part time and 2 full time programmes fully completed by Year 4 and a total of 1,100 students enrolled.