The D-RESKILL@U Project is presented as a response to the challenges that European training institutions are facing, specifically in the field of lifelong learning, in the current context of health, social and environmental crisis. D-RESKILL@U recognizes that the workforce needs effective up/reskilling and career guidance tools to enable them to enhance their employability in a period of rapidly changing work patterns. The solutions envisaged must be as effective and affordable as possible (to increase inclusiveness). Coordinated by Sorbonne Université, the project will provide European higher education institutions with guidelines for an original online lifelong learning offer at the post-bachelors level for the reand/or up-skilling of the workforce. To achieve the most in-depth and at the same time the most practical vision, it brings together a consortium of partners with different profiles, 2 research-intensive universities (Sorbonne Université and Università di Milano), a technical university (Budapest University of Technology and Economics), a distance-learning university (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), together with a leading-edge EdTech company (PIXIS/MeshUp Education) in the field of digital school guidance, and a non-profit foundation (Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme) with expertise in digital transformation of higher education and dissemination.

The D-RESKILL@U project takes the “European Skills Agenda” head on by prioritizing equity and inclusivity as a key instrument of socioeconomic development and excellence. It postulates that public universities can play a pivotal role in providing innovative lifelong learning formulae. D-RESKILL@U is vital in this regard, by providing the strategy for a lifelong learning approach that is accessible, readily applicable, and responsive, thanks to its compliance with the European Skills/Competences, Qualifications, and Occupations (ESCO) database and its use of advanced digital tools for career guidance.

The 3 following points illustrate the highlights of the project and its strengths:

1. The use of digital technology to make the provision of lifelong learning as inclusive as possible, in the context of the current socio-economic crisis triggered by the health crisis and its aftermath.

2. The proposal of an innovative learner-centred curriculum plan linked to the evolution of the European labour market, and providing the methodological, technical, and strategic guidelines for implementing it.

3. The maximization of impact via an active dissemination plan to ensure visibility and continued sustainability.

The following activities will be implemented :

1. Anatomizing lifelong learning offers into “blocks of skills” (BOS) following the ESCO database ontologies and data sets credentialing under the Bologna format, (ECTS). The constitution of an ESCO-compatible “smart” catalogue of offers will renew, streamline, and enhance the effectiveness of lifelong learning planning for individuals plotting their career paths, as well as the lifelong learning programs of our universities. DRESKILL@U also recognizes and anticipates the future directions of the job market, and for the purposes of this pilot project the BOS and corresponding catalogues will be initially outlined for data sciences and chemistry.

2. Designing a digital career guidance software allowing lifelong learners to build curricula from the indexed portfolio of courses that exploits machine-learning applications through its synergistic self-positioning capabilities. D-RESKILL@U will provide the dynamic prototype (mock-up) of this learner-centred career guidance software (with user interface/user experience mockups and wireframes), and the precise description of the interfaces and functional requirements for software development.

3. Designing training activities on innovations in lifelong learning and carreer guidance. These training activities will both situate and operationalize the results of the project within the framework of digital transformation strategies of higher education institutions. to address the methodological and technical concepts and issues resulting from the endeavors of the D-RESKILL@U working groups.

4. Planning the dissemination of the D-RESKILL@U outcomes. It will target a diverse audience (universities, Ministries of Education and Labour, Chambers of Commerce, employment agencies, among others) at the national and European level via a series of in-person and online events. These dissemination activities will lead to fundraising strategies aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the project after the end of this EU funding context.