How to shape open online higher education to fit the public policy community and labour market

Join UNU-MERIT / Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) in discussing how Open Higher Education can better disseminate e-learning content and increase students’ link with the labour market. UNU-MERIT/MGSoG is midway in its implementation of the project SMART Choices and SMART Tools, which facilitates graduate Public Policy students in academic specialisation selection and offers graduate students and public policy practitioners practical skill-set acquisition through online content. The objectives of this webinar are to find out in what ways SMART Choices and SMART Tools connects to employee and employer needs and to better shape the project to fit the community better.

The webinar will act as a platform where participants can discuss and brainstorm the following topical questions:

1.Public Policy labour market needs.
- What skills do employers and employees within public policy fields say are most essential in the labour market?
- Do you consider there are needed skills within the public policy labour market that are insufficiently trained in education?
- How can we better target our current online material to better shape these needs?
- What options may there be for collaboration?

2.The SMART Choices and SMART Tools project creates open online public policy courses and tools for the public policy community.
- Which groups would benefit from this content?
- What dissemination methods could be used to reach these groups?
- Are these methods the same for each group, or would you recommend specific targeting channels to reach specific groups?

SMART Choices and SMART Tools was selected for funding by SURF and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. The duration of the project is 09.2017 – 12.2018.