Abstract

The aim of building the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is to promote, on the one hand, education designed according to a knowledge and skills approach and, on the other hand, to improve professional integration of students (Bologna process, 1998). However, European universities often face a high failure rate in bachelor's degrees.

For decades, European educational policies have aimed at improving teaching and learning to encourage academic engagement and integration and the professionalization of teaching staff. Providing better conditions for study, monitoring and a better balance between studies, training and professional careers is a major objective of the reform of universities in Europe to face these challenges. Thus, the organization of the various teachings at the university and their relationship by a skills approach in a transdisciplinary approach is therefore important to question.

In a context of strong professional uncertainties, social and economic changes characterized by restructuring of production sectors, by frequent renewal of professions, by an evolution of the forms and organization of work, the individual is supposed to take initiatives, adapt, be autonomous in carrying out tasks, and often change jobs several times during their professional career. Thus, it is no longer a question of producing reproducible behaviors, but of developing dispositions to generate adapted behaviors in the face of diverse and changing situations (Chauvigné and Coulet, 2010). These new societal requirements question the modalities of higher education and the role of professionalization. Thus, the development of university training focused on professionalization is reaffirmed as one of the joint priorities by the Member States. The university has a role to play in making the link between the provision of training and the needs of the economic world. It is thus a question of accompanying this evolution of the socio-economic world by the teaching and professional skills of the academic staff. How to adapt university teaching systems to serve the socio-economic world? How to support students to build their professional project and reflect on the various experiences acquired in training, in internships, in other contexts of life? Finally, how can the dynamic articulation between training and research support actors to question the meaning of their practices? How to promote the transfer of student skills and knowledge for professional integration?

The TASTstrategy project aims to develop the teaching strategies to combat university failure and to tackle skills mismatches. The strategic partnership project is organized over two years.

First of all, during the first year, it is a question of analyzing the needs of the students and the academic staff concerning the development of competences and more particularly the transferability of competences from one teaching to another (disciplinary courses and more professional courses, internship, training through research, etc.) so that students can mobilize them in their future jobs. The different educational approaches used will also be analyzed. Then, a hybrid-training program will be designed for these multi-category actors of academic staff. The objective of this training is to promote and support the transdisciplinary teaching by a skills approach. Thus the project develops and assesses new practices to meet the learning needs of students. These practices will be based in particular on the links between theory and practice, the development of reflexivity of students, training through research in a transdisciplinary and professionalizing approach.

During the second year, training will be implemented in partner universities. Finally, once trained, the academic staff will implement the training outcomes with the undergraduate students. Its effects will be assessed

This project therefore targets them interdependent public.

Students enrolled in undergraduate studies because the dropout rate is the highest. The objective is on the one hand to develop their skills and the transferability of these and on the other hand, to improve their reflexivity to allow them to build links between practice and theory for ultimately a better professional integration.

The academic staff (teacher, researchers, trainers, professionals) who teach different courses. It is about understanding their professional practice in connection with the skills-based approach and proposing new student-centered teaching strategies.

The project is innovative through three key aspects: development of skills of students transferable in professional contexts, professional development of academic staff and in particular the development of their skills and their capacities to offer innovative pedagogies, its combination between action research -innovation in a higher education environment.

The Partners

Project with multiple beneficiaries under the ERASMUS+ Programme

Université Catholique de l’Ouest

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Universitatea din Bucuresti

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University of Granada

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University of Crete

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