WHY?

Increasing employability and mobility of young graduates is a clear priority for the European Commission, as well as for European business, higher education institutions, and many other organizations which support and foster schemes with this objective in mind.

• The 2020 Strategy has set a target of 20% mobility of skilled workers for the year 2020.
   

• The Lisbon Pact invites social agents to actively foster the employability of young graduates.
   

• The Lifelong Learning Programme seeks to facilitate paths for the acquisition of skills and competences for new jobs.

However, there are many barriers that hinder full development of “total mobility” of EU
postgraduate students wishing to undergo transnational training or work programmes.

WHAT?

The EU-GRAD project aims to deliver an important contribution to the realisation of the European
Commission’s priorities on the issues of employability and mobility by:

• identifying the existing barriers to “total mobility” of EU postgraduate students wishing to undergo transnational training or work programmes
   
• providing conclusions and making recommendations on how to overcome or alleviate these obstacles
   
• proposing a transferable and sustainable model for a transnational postgraduate training and internship programme based on strong university-business cooperation

WHEN?

The project is funded under the European Union Lifelong Learning Programme and will run from
October 2010 until September 2012.

HOW?

• Implementation of an online community.
   
• Identification and assessment of the barriers and obstacles that hinder “total mobility” of EU postgraduate students wishing to undergo transnational training or work programmes (legal, fiscal, qualifications and certifications, language skills, etc.).
   
• Setting up National Work Groups: project partners, companies, HEIs.
   
• Elaboration of National Case Studies, based on quantitative and qualitative research in the 5 participating countries.
   
• Elaboration of Final Report on barriers to total mobility of postgraduate students across the EU, to be presented at an international Conference in Brussels.
   
• Elaboration of guidelines for companies and procedures for HEIs regarding postgraduate student mobility.
   
• Design of a EU-GRAD transnational postgraduate training + internship programme.
   
• Elaboration of a Final Project Report, to be presented to a larger audience at a dissemination event in September 2012.

WHO?

EU-GRAD will be carried out by a consortium formed by 7 partner institutions from 5 countries:

• P1.- Fundación Universidad-Empresa (Spain)  leader
  37 years experience in university-business cooperation, with a strong focus on student and graduate training + internship programmes, career guidance, job placement for qualified and highly qualified graduates, etc.
   
• P2.- Instituto de Formación Integral – IFI (Spain)  technical coordinator
  Main line of activities is project consultancy, with a strong focus on evaluation and assessment of policies & occupational training. Long experience in EU projects, EU methodologies, applications, processes and language.
   
• P3.- Fundación CIFF (Spain)
  Higher education institution with ample experience in designing postgraduate programmes. Partner with FUE in the international graduate internship programme GAIA, which is at the core of EU-GRAD project conception as it has brought out many of the barriers and obstacles to total mobility which will be addressed throughout EU-GRAD.
   
• P4.- Universidade Catòlica Portuguesa – Oporto (Portugal)
  Carries out research and consulting activities for enterprises. Agreements with 40 universities worldwide. Special interest in the development of content for advanced education programmes better valued by businesses.
   
• P5.- Universitá degli Studi di Padova (Italy)
  Broad experience in career guidance, project management, job and internship placements (13.000 internships/year, and agreements with 18.000 companies). Member of the European placement offices network.
   
• P6.- Cap Ulysse (France)
  Main focus on mobility projects mostly targeted to recent graduates.
   
• P7.- Fundacja Rozwoju Przedsiebiorczosci (Poland)
  Information, advisory and training centre with 20 years experience in European projects, as well as in fostering university-business cooperation

National Work Groups (NWG), coordinated by project partners, will be set up in each country with
the participation of at least:

• 10-15 companies
   
• 5 higher education institutions (HEI)

The role of NWG members will be absolutely vital in order to identify the barriers to be tackled and
the needs that shall be addressed along the lifecycle of the project.

Their contributions will be made through short online questionnaires accessible on the project
website. NWG coordinators may also organize focus groups, stakeholders consultation meetings or
skype conferences.
 

With the support of Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission