Digital4Sustainability
Digital4Sustainability addresses the twin transition by bridging critical digital and green skills gaps. Through a transnational strategic alliance, the operationalizes the European Skills Agenda by developing a comprehensive Digital Sustainability Skills Strategy and designs evidence-based Higher Education and Vocational Training curricula. This initiative facilitates industrial transformation by equipping the workforce with advanced digital competencies for ESG implementation.
Objective
The project’s goal is to bridge the growing skills gap that currently hampers Europe's progress toward a clean, green future. By implementing a demand-led Skills Strategy and modular Higher Education/Vocational Education and Training learning programmes, the initiative trains professionals to leverage advanced technology for sustainability. This empowers the industrial sectors to reduce waste and emissions, ultimately supporting the EU's 2050 climate-neutrality targets.
Results
- Comprehensive Digital Sustainability Skills Strategy: A collaborative roadmap providing concrete actions, milestones, and policy recommendations to address skills gaps and unlock net-zero emissions by 2050.
- Modular HE/VET Learning Programmes: Demand-led training curricula covering EQF levels 3 to 8, designed to equip the workforce with the advanced digital and green competencies required for industrial transformation.
- EU-Recognised Certifications: A stackable system of micro-credentials and certifications aligned with national frameworks to ensure the formal recognition of skills and facilitate professional mobility.
- Direct Workforce Training: The reskilling and upskilling of at least 500 participants through urgent programmes for decision-makers and pilot sessions for emerging occupational roles.
- Ready-to-Use Resource Packages: Standardised, downloadable training materials and teaching resources to enable educational providers across the EU to rapidly adopt and deliver the new curricula.
- European Digital Sustainability Skills Platform (EDSSP): A central hub to foster long-term collaboration, knowledge exchange, and best practice sharing between industry leaders and education providers
Approach
The project proceeds through six interconnected work package over a 48-month duration. The methodology involves intelligence gathering (such as needs analysis), curriculum design , and pilot testing of the training programs to ensure an evidence-based rollout of digital sustainability skills across Europe.
Projectupdates
Building Strategic Literacy in EU Sustainability Regulation: Lessons from the Digital4Sustainability Pilot
HU University of Applied sciences delivered the international course focused on ‘’EU Policy and Legislation’’. The course provided learners with a foundational understanding of the EU's regulatory landscape. It established a comprehensive base, addressing the urgent need for interpretation and application of overarching frameworks such as the CSRD and ESRS.
It enabled learners to engage with themes such as practical circular business models and the circular transition in the built environment, applying the "strategic literacy" the course had equipped them with to connect high-level policy goals with double materiality assessments and practical ESG reporting.
‘’The transfer from theoretical grounding to contextual application in an education programme focusing on 'Transition to a Circular Economy' represented an added value and demonstrated that the pilot is relevant and scalable within different disciplines and Higher Education Institutions’’ Dr Mohamed Eledeisy, Institutional Coordinator of Digital4Sustainability
Future rounds of the course are open for self-pace enrolment here.
How can we prepare future professionals to put digital sustainability into practice?
Lecturers from several practice-oriented Associate Degree programmes at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht completed the online Digital Sustainability Foundations 1 course. During a workshop on 29 September, a group of them came together to assess its relevance across a range of programmes and professional roles.
The potential was clear. The pilot showed that the course provides a valuable foundation for Associate Degree education and offered valuable insights into how the current EQF6 course can be made accessible at EQF 5. A Dutch translation has already been developed, marking an important step towards wider adoption within the institute.
The workshop led to the formation of a project group that will examine how the course can be translated into a multidisciplinary and hybrid learning experience. One possibility is to combine self-paced learning with an interactive format, such as a serious game.
This creates a valuable opportunity to embed the outputs of Digital4Sustainability in formal education in the Netherlands.
“These future professionals will encounter digital sustainability in their day-to-day work. We want to give them practical tools to recognise the challenges and apply digital sustainability within their own professional contexts.” Dr Irene Jonkers, Course Trainer
For enrolment in upcoming rounds, please get in touch with irene.jonkers@hu.nl
Pacal Ravestijn joins a panel on innovative approaches to create lasting skills and learning impact across Europe
As skills needs evolve, Europe is developing new ways to help people learn, upskill and demonstrate their competences. But how can micro-credentials, professional certifications, competence frameworks and new learning models move from promising initiatives to solutions that are recognised, adopted and scaled?
On 30 September, Digital4Sustainability brough this conversation to Brussels at the European Digital Sustainability Skills Conference.
The panel “From Project Results to Lasting Impact: Scaling Digital Sustainability Skills in Europe” brought together Jasper Van Loo(Cedefop), Pascal Ravesteyn (HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht), Suzanne Galletly (EXIN), Luis Fernández-Sanz (Universidad de Alcalá) to explore what it takes to turn emerging approaches into solutions that work in practice.
Read more here
Digital4Sustainability Webinar | Learning Materials and Piloting Opportunities
Digital4Sustainability invites teachers, trainers, educational institutions, VET providers, SMEs, and sustainability professionals to an online webinar on new learning materials and pilot opportunities across Europe. Discover the learning pathways, piloting opportunities, and ways to join the Digital4Sustainability community. Sign up here: https://digital4sustainability.eu/digital4sustainability-webinar-discover-the-learning-programmes-and-pilot-opportunities/
D4S Meeting
During the meeting, the partners discussed the general plan towards the development of new pilots and courses. HU is planning to pilot an Introduction to sustainability hybrid course and workshop for teachers in the different educational institutes within the HU, and a Circular Economy in digital systems module for students an professionals in the field of circular economy, informatics, and project management .
The meeting also focused on the upcoming reporting with the European Commission and external evaluators. This includes the assessment of the Urgent Upskilling programme led by HU, with the involvement of 12 urgent upskilling pilots, offered as webinars and live events in 7 countries, and involving 468 European learners in 5 languages. (Photo will follow once it becomes available).
EU.ACE network: empowering higher education through quality micro-credentials.
Last week, the European Universities on Academic Continuing Education (ACE) network visited our HU. The HU works together within this network to strengthen education for professionals. All week there were workshops and presentations by experts, with experiences from knowledge institutions like Le Cnam in Paris, HSLU in Luzern, Turku UAS in Finland and more EU.ACE partners. From KC DBM, Senior Project Manager Mohamed Eledeisy held a session on European collaboration for institutional innovation and flexible pathways.
About EU ACE
EU.ACE is a consortium of ten European knowledge institutions focused on the development of innovative, tailor-made lifelong development pathways as an integral part of the European education area and knowledge infrastructure in the EU. The network hopes to anchor lifelong-development more strongly in the European Higher Education Area. To this end, among other things, they have formulated a Living Paper, containing a European Framework to include lifelong development as the fourth pillar of the Bologna Process. In December, this paper, to which the HU also contributed, was presented in Brussels.
About the EU ACE visit
EU.ACE was held at HU from 23 to 27 March 2026. They participated in the learning network week "Education for all: empowering higher education through quality micro-credentials." After all, how do you develop successful, stackable micro-credential programmes? How do you string together flexible, stackable modules into a recognised degree? And how do you use online, 'blended' education to improve people's career prospects worldwide? These and other topics were covered over the five days of the visit.
European collaboration for institutional innovation and flexible pathways
One of the sessions at the ACE visit was led by Senior Project Manager Mohamed Eledeisy, where he talked about the importance of European collaboration for course development. In his role at the Research Projects design & management Centre (RPC) he facilitated several projects that focus on the development of digital skills for professionals. During the talk he highlighted the projects Digital4Sustainability,SMARCO and ARISA. These are collaborative projects that work on strategy and curriculum development for digital and AI skills for European professionals.
Impact for education
Digital4Sustainability transforms education by operationalizing life-long development through modular Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Higher Education (HE) curricula and micro-credentials, enabling flexible, stackable learning pathways. By fostering co-creation between academia and industry, the project ensures professional practice is driven by validated digital and green competencies. This strategic alignment bridges critical skills gaps, equipping inventive professionals to lead Europe’s twin transition and implement impactful ESG initiatives.
HU researchers involved in the research
Collaboration with knowledge partners
European Digital SME Alliance, DIGITALEUROPE, TEKenable, Matrix Internet Applications Limited, Digital Technology Skills Limited, National College of Ireland, Adecco Training SRL, Adecco Italia Holding, BadgeBox, Cefriel, Profil Klett, Nokia Networks France, Stichting Hogeschool Utrecht, EduserPro, Fast Lane Institute for Knowledge Transfer, Universitat Koblenz, Universidad de Alcala, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja, GZS CPU, Chamber of commerce and Industry of Slovenia – CCIS, AS BCS Koolitus, CLUJ IT Cluster, Universitatea Politehnica din Bucuresti, Bulgarian Association of Software COM, Informatikai, Tavkozlesi es Elektronikai Vallalkozasok Szovetsege, Exelia EE, Associazione CIMEA, Skillnet Ireland Company, CEPIS, UCM, Infobalt, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur forederung der Angewandten Forschung EV.
Co-funding
Granting authority: European Education and Culture Executive Agency
Call: ERASMUS-EDU-2023-PI-ALL-INNO
Project number: 101140316
