Swiss Circular Economy of Skills and Competences (SCESC)

Learning at the cutting edge - for advanced training

Lifelong learning and acquiring the latest professional skills based on the circular economy model: this is what the new continuing education platform “Swiss Circular Economy of Skills and Competences” (SCESC) aims to make possible. Five Swiss universities have been working on the implementation of the Innosuisse flagship project since February 2022. Innovative learning concepts are more in demand than ever. Advanced vocational training in particular should be even more accessible to everyone in Switzerland. This is the aim of the Swiss Circular of Skills and Competences project. In response to a call for proposals from Innosuisse, a cooperative network of five Swiss universities - SFIVET, EPFL, UZH, ZHAW and HSG - launched the idea of the “Swiss Circular Economy of Skills and Competences” (SCESC) in March 2021 - an extension of a continuing education platform whose development is to incorporate university research findings and expertise from the fields of technology, market architecture, vocational training, motivational design and the behavioral sciences as well as the use of artificial intelligence. The funding application in the area of “Education and Learning” was approved in August 2021. The funding was granted for the period from 2022 to 2025. Andreas Göldi, Alexander Meier, Dr. Roman Rietsche (project management) and Prof. Dr. Ivo Blohm, Institute for Information Systems (IWI-HSG), as well as Marco Strate and Prof. Dr. Bernadette Dilger, Institute for Business Education (IWP-HSG), are involved on the HSG side.

Expanding skills

The developed elements of a “Swiss Circular Economy of Skills and Competences” will be integrated into the existing platform of the Swiss company “X28”. This was developed in 2020 by Felix Schmid and René Beeler and works in a similar way to the Airbnb principle, connecting the demand and supply sides and allowing dynamic two-way matching via algorithms. In the field of continuing education, the approach makes a triage between the future training needs of companies and the skills and competencies required on the labor market, the individuals with individual skills profiles and skills development needs and the education providers who develop formal and non-formal programs.

SCESC bridges the gap between the various players in the cycle. Thanks to algorithm-based scanning of various elements such as job announcements, job profiles, courses offered by training providers and CVs, extensive data is evaluated and patterns are displayed with the help of artificial intelligence. Which skills are sought, how can they be described and bundled - what can a person already do and how can they acquire missing and required skills? This data provides companies with information about skill gaps, helps training providers to align themselves sustainably with appropriate programs and supports platform users in their training decisions - the main objective of the project. The matching of demand, profile and supply is key: the right continuing education training therefore closes the skills gap.

From further education qualifications to competence modules

The Swiss vocational education and training system is generally based on three years of basic training in various occupational fields. Advanced training is possible at different levels, but traditionally only in predefined professions or occupational fields. The SCESC platform complements this by also opening up new career paths for people who have been working for years, even between different professions - so that a change of perspective from advanced training qualifications to competence modules in advanced training is strengthened throughout Switzerland. The latest focus is on the enrichment of specific skills and a learner-centered approach. In this way, there is a decoupling from the diploma and certificate fixation common in the German-speaking training culture. In the future, traditional job profiles will change and a certificate or diploma will no longer be the only proof of having learned something. Competencies acquired non-formally or informally through work experience or project experience can be made more visible via the platform and also recognized accordingly thanks to open badge systems. In future, it will depend on the respective advanced training provider whether advanced training confirms completion with a certificate, diploma, CAS degree or other form of feedback. Feedback from employers, team leaders or experts can also represent a high degree of validation for a certificate of competence. In particular, the goal of “lifelong learning” should become a new habit in order to keep pace with the ever-changing needs of the “working and learning of the future”.

Self-directed learning and digital coach

In the preparation phase, before the actual learning of content, the platform generates individual skills portfolios for users based on personal data. These contain both formal and informal confirmations of skills: Job references, certificates, letters of recommendation from peers, but also reference projects, feedback and self-reflections. The platform-generated “Competence Vitae” is the central output. To develop the individual portfolios, concepts of competence modelling, procedures for the recognition of competences, open-badge and e-portfolio principles are further developed and concretized for implementation on the platform in concrete pilots. On the basis of the portfolio, the SCESC recommends a suitable further training or retraining offer to learners. A digital “motivation booster” can also be booked to support the learning process. “The personalized, dialogue-based digital coach is a motivating factor. It shows users their strengths, weaknesses, learning progress and what helped or hindered their learning. It also gives learning tips and incentives to practise more.” The voice assistant thus made learning fun, supplemented with gamification elements and real-time awards.

Learning culture and community

The digital space also enables innovative learning approaches such as mobile learning. This makes learning more flexible, perceived as seamless and can take place at any time in different contexts - for example at home, on the move or at work. Such a learning culture could also be established and anchored within companies. This requires a corresponding technical infrastructure that needs to be set up and maintained. Studies have shown that data protection is an important success factor. Employees are often very interested in their own development, but fear that their data could be monitored, assessed or compared with colleagues. Particular attention must be paid to this when setting up a mobile learning environment. Another special feature of the platform is the learning community option. Learning is always a social process. In the community, space is created after the actual learning process to share experiences, ideas, new goals and plans as well as feedback. This is done with the intention of ultimately transferring the latest skills into everyday professional life. The SCESC platform can bring learners together with a community that optimally supports their current status within their individual learning path. It also takes into account the type and nature of the exchange, additional tools, the level of commitment and the size of the group.

Sharing educational content

Advanced training in Switzerland should be even more accessible to everyone, support individual skills profiling and be tailored to future-oriented needs. Thanks to innovative technologies such as blockchain or non-fungible tokens, new financing options can be created by companies, education providers or crowdsourcing and an open fund for retraining and further education purposes can be set up to which people without financial means can turn. Meeting these training needs would in turn benefit working companies, especially small companies, in the spirit of the circular economy. In this way, the platform pursues a network approach that creates an advanced training ecosystem based on the principles of the circular economy. Acquired and required training content is constantly renewed and adapted to current and future needs and opportunities.