Universities in the Western Balkan (WB) region that offer study programs in telecommunication engineering are experiencing a reduced number of students despite the fact that telecommunications is a pillar in the modern economy. The major reason is that the telecom industry is passing through significant changes and the labor market requires a new profile for the telecom engineer (TE): a professional that is trained in the broad ICT domain, that owns both technical and market-oriented skills and, therefore, that can contribute to the techno-economic society challenges. To render the study program more attractive and to boost the TE profile, the project BENEFIT will work on three main pillars:
A) the cooperation between HEIs and industry to modernize the study program in telecommunication engineering;
B) the adoption of modern teaching methodologies and tools, the upgrade of the infrastructure, and the creation of joint university-industry labs;
C) the implementation of training of both teachers and students.
Furthermore, to increase the level of cooperation, visibility and sustained opportunities the project will develop an integrated e-platform giving access to class material for e-learning, training/internships in the region, a listing of universities and companies, employment opportunities, and events of both technical nature and accessible to the general public.
Therefore, BENEFIT will contribute to shape a modern profile of graduates in telecom/ICT engineering bridging the gap with the job market needs, which is a concrete action in response to the recently announced programmatic goals by WB countries.
BENEFIT is co-funded by the ERASMUS+ KA2 Capacity Building Program. It is a 3-years project (15 October 2017-14 October 2020) coordinated by the University of Klagenfurt, Austria (coordinator, prof. Andrea Tonello). The list of participants can be found in the Partners page.
