An international cooperation project by Harz University of Applied Sciences to promote future skills, strategic internationalization, and global employability.
The world of work and life is increasingly characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Under these conditions, specialist knowledge alone is no longer sufficient to remain successful and capable of acting in the long term. What is needed are interdisciplinary skills, international experience, and the ability to deal constructively with change.
The Skill Up 4 Future project addresses this development. Its goal is to prepare students and university staff specifically for a globalized working world, to strategically expand international cooperation, and to anchor future skills sustainably in teaching, studies, and university structures.
In the long term, the project will help to tap into the untapped potential of existing partnerships and raise the international profile of Harz University of Applied Sciences. It will also bring about a lasting improvement in the cosmopolitan, future-oriented quality of education and strengthen the global employability of students. Through the planned combination of network maintenance, structured knowledge transfer, internationalized teaching formats, and the sustainable anchoring of future-relevant skills, the project makes a substantial contribution to the program's objectives.
The project specifically addresses and links the following future skills:
These skills are not taught in isolation, but are applied and developed further in international teaching, exchange, and practical formats.
The network meetings of the four partner universities serve to systematically intensify cooperation and promote scientific and intercultural exchange. Meetings are planned twice a year during the course of the project, each of which will take place virtually and in person.
The competence circles are a key instrument of the project for promoting professional, intercultural, and institutional exchange. They enable structured peer-to-peer dialogue between teachers, staff, and central institutions such as the Career Service, the Language Center, and the International Office, and contribute to university-wide internationalization.
The Entrepreneurship Semester (ESS) has been offered at Harz University of Applied Sciences since 2023 and teaches key entrepreneurial and interdisciplinary skills. To make the program available to international students, content needs to be adapted, designed, and piloted for an English-language, internationally oriented format.
Skill Up 4 Future Week is an international project week for students at Harz University of Applied Sciences and partner universities. Every year, it brings together participants from several European countries and promotes collaborative learning and intercultural exchange (2027 & 2028).
In its final project year, International Week brings together key networking activities on the topic of future skills. It combines the concluding network meeting with thematic input from the competence circles and structured matchmaking formats to initiate further international collaborations.
The project involves the development of innovative teaching formats for German as a foreign language (DaF) in close cooperation between Harz University of Applied Sciences and Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. The aim is to make learning German more attractive through digital and practical approaches and to strengthen the interest of international students in studying at Harz University of Applied Sciences.
