A final conference was held at the VERN' Polytechnic, presenting the completion of the EU project Design and Development of Undergraduate Studies - Entrepreneurship in Applied Arts and Design.
A final conference was held at the VERN' Polytechnic, presenting the completion of the EU project Design and Development of Undergraduate Studies - Entrepreneurship in Applied Arts and Design .
"This has created the prerequisites for the introduction of another undergraduate study program at VERN' Polytechnic, in the field of applied art and design, which is also foreseen in our development strategy," said the dean , Prof. Dr. Sc. Vlatko Cvrtila at the beginning of the conference.
The study design project lasted 18 months, during which, in cooperation with partner institutions, the following project activities were successfully implemented: needs assessment and analysis of the current situation on the labor market in the field of applied arts and design, training of secondary school teachers, training of VERN' staff on the CROQF methodology, and the development of three documents that form the basis of the new study program - the Occupational Standard, the Qualification Standard, and the Curriculum, according to the methodology of the Croatian Qualifications Framework (CROQF).
It is the application of the CROQF, which recognizes the needs of the labor market and provides guidelines for the education of future personnel, that is important for the launch of this study. VERN' conducted a research into the market needs for future graduates in cooperation with employers, experts and professional associations in the design sector, thus becoming one of the first higher education institutions in the Republic of Croatia to design a new study program that is fully in line with the principles of the CROQF.
"The alignment of the new study with the real needs of the labor market and organizations will further increase the employability of our graduates. Cooperation with a large number of business entities and experts in the design of the study certainly contributed to its interdisciplinary nature, so students will develop exactly those competencies that employers need, and which will enable them to be self-employed in the field of applied art and design," emphasized Dean Cvrtila.
Members of the project team – Iskra Devčić Torbica , Maja Jukić , Mirjana Rinkovec , Danijela Domljan , Igor Toš , Tamara Hudolin and M. Sc. Gordana Ćorić from VERN – presented the three main documents that form the basis of this study at the conference, explained the approach to designing the study program and the basic principles of the new study. In addition to lecturer Ćorić, VERN's lecturer M. Sc. Iva Senegović also played an active role in the implementation of this project.
"The main purpose is to educate students in the field of applied art and design, while integrating entrepreneurial knowledge and skills in the educational process, so that they are more (self-)employable in the labor market. This study focuses on the formation of future students through a design approach and methodological skills based on new paradigms of education, solving tasks on specific problems of business entities, local government entities, civil society and individuals," explained Tea Gagro , EU project manager at VERN .
Within the framework of the conference, a panel was held in which members of the development team participated, who discussed the potential of introducing this type of study to the Croatian higher education market, its benefits for future students, and examples from foreign countries that have successfully integrated study programs of this type into the business environment, such as Finland, Denmark, etc.
The project is financed by the European Social Fund through the grant program "Further Development of the Croatian Qualifications Framework", and has been implemented for the past 18 months. The project leader is the VERN' Polytechnic, and it is implemented in cooperation with partner institutions Vaasa University of Applied Science from Finland and the Association of Former Students of ŠPUD Zagreb (UBU).
