Cluster meeting on dual education developed within Erasmus+ projects at universities from the Republic of Moldova

The contribution of the Erasmus+ projects to the development of dual higher education in the Republic of Moldova was the topic of the event organised on 12 May by the National Erasmus+ Office, with the support of the European Union, the Ministry of Education and Research, and WBL4JOB and COOPERA Erasmus+ projects coordinators. Thus, during the meeting, the participants of the two Erasmus+ capacity building in higher education projects (CBHE) – COOPERA and WBL4JOB, shared the experiences on their projects’ implementation, discussed the challenges and opportunities of dual education for Moldovan universities and agreed on cooperation intentions between the two projects in the future.

COOPERA – Integrating Dual Higher Education in Moldova and Ukraine, and WBL4JOB – Introducing work-based learning in higher education systems of Armenia and Moldova for better employability of graduates are the two Erasmus+ winner projects within the 2020 selection. Both projects have as their basic objective the development of practice-based education, in order to increase the employability of students and create sustainable partnerships between universities and enterprises, by introducing the necessary changes in the legislation of the Republic of Moldova, through close cooperation of both projects with the Minister of Education and Research.

One of the main objectives of Erasmus + capacity building projects is to take over the experience of European universities and implement it, with the necessary adjustments, in the institutions from the Republic of Moldova. Thus, COOPERA and WBL4JOB included in their projects’ consortia higher education institutions from Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovenia, France, Austria and Belgium, which allowed Moldovan participants to carry out study visits and trainings at European partner institutions.

About 40 participants were present at the event, including the programme officer of the EU Delegation to the Republic of Moldova – Giuseppe Paglione, the general secretary of the Ministry of Education and Research – Nadejda Velisco, but also representatives of the five higher education institutions participating in COOPERA and WBL4JOB projects (Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, Technical University of Moldova, Free International University of Moldova, “Alecu Russo” State University of Balti and Cooperative-Commercial University of Moldova).