The project aims to identify the training and educational needs of employees in the public and private sectors and of university students regarding Enterprise Architecture (EA) and to fulfil these using innovative pedagogies and practices based on Web 2.0 technologies and active, Problem-Based learning approaches. Specifically, the project aims to:

• Determine the required skills, knowledge and attitudes that university students, public servants and private sector employees must acquire in order to become competent Enterprise Architects;
• Identify innovative training and teaching methods based on Web 2.0 technologies and active, Problem-Based learning approaches;
• Develop a Web 2.0 platform and course models for university students and employees. The foreseen training courses will be created in English translated in German, Greek and Polish;
• Undertake pilot trials for private sector employees, public servants and university students.

 The project is anticipated to have an impact on the VET (Vocational Educational Training) and university level education methods used for teaching and training multidisciplinary and state of the art content. In addition, it seeks to impact the educational level and employment status of university students and the efficiency of both public and private sector employees.

Policy Context

The project is co-funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) and its key activity on ICT.

Description of target users and groups

• University students interested in the EA Public sector and private sector employees working as Enterprise Architects or interested to gather EA competences.
• Managers in public and private sector institutions interested in successfully implementing EA in their organisations or/and effectively training their personnel in EA learning approaches or/and Web 2.0 applications.
• Research communities interested in EA or/and innovative learning approaches or/and Web 2.0 applications.
• Consulting companies strongly interested in EA or/and innovative learning approaches or/and Web 2.0 applications Organisations providing professional training courses (including VET and consulting organisations).

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The project is divided in four main activities as follows. The first activity refers to the needs of Enterprise Architects in terms of competences (skills, knowledge and attitudes)needed to become competent professionals. Based on the European e-Competence Framework, on literature review and on focus groups with experts in the field we have been able to identify the EA relevant competences and to present them in the format of an ontology. Then, we concentrated on innovative learning approaches comprising active, problem-based learning and Web 2.0 technologies. We are investigating how to employ such learning approaches in EA education and training and we will finally develop an EA learning methodology to address this. We are also considering the suitable learning approach for the project pilots that will commence in 2010.One of our future aims is to create EA course models according to the Enterprise Architects’ needs and to the EA learning methodology developed earlier in the project. We intend to produce EA educational content in the format of SCORM packages so that it can be easily exploited even after the project ends. At the same time we plan to develop an EA learning platform to facilitate the educational process and the Web 2.0 features that are considered suitable for EA courses. Finally, we will implement pilot courses on EA capitalising on all previous work. At the same time we will develop an appropriate evaluation plan for evaluating the pilots and the effectiveness of the project results in overall. The evaluation report will be the final outcome of the project at the end of the second year of operation. In parallel to the aforementioned activities we are working on an Exploitation Plan on how to further exploit the project outputs after the project ends. We have also prepared a dissemination plan for promoting the project in the partners’ countries and in general as well as a procedure for reporting such dissemination activities. To support the above activities a sound quality assurance procedure has been set up comprising SWOT analysis, risk analysis and peer reviewing. At the same time suitable management structures and procedures are being followed to ensure the timely and qualitative completion of the project.

Main results, benefits and impacts

The project is committed in producing the following number of sustainable results for the academic and professional community on EA.

• An EA learning ontology will dynamically describe the complete specification of EA competences needed by university students and employees in the public and private sector.
• An innovative EA learning methodology based on an active problem-based learning approach that will capitalise on the principles of Web 2.0 and the related technologies.
• A Web 2.0 EA learning platform that will support the EA learning methodology.
• Three EA course models, one for each of the three different stakeholder groups; university students, private and public employees. The course models will be created in English and will be translated in German, Greek and Polish.
• Three EA pilot courses, one for each of the three different stakeholder groups will apply the aforementioned project results in practice.

Track record of sharing

The project and its outputs offer great chances for transferability. Most project outputs are public deliverables which will be freely accessible from the project’s website and which can be further exploited by the academic and the professional community in place and beyond.

Lessons learnt

The project is still half-way and we cannot report specific lessons yet. However, it seems that there is something that we can note here. There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to education and training; Courses should be designed according to the specific needs of the students and to the learning values which we want to achieve.