Abstract:

Higher education institutions (HEI) are increasingly aware of the changing world and society that surrounds them, which is reflected in their choices regarding curriculum design and the blending of innovations that acknowledges these constant challenges. These days, it is important to think about degrees not only in terms of the knowledge involved, but also in terms of their connection to the labor market, specific needs concerning new skills, namely social and soft skills, and integration in the surrounding community, combining a solid training in higher education with the ability to be flexible, adapt to new challenges and act as a committed citizen. In this context, HEI must give enhanced tools to their students to help define their learning path and master new skills, considering their future careers. To find ways to address these issues, a network of HEI devised the Project “Adaptation and Evaluation D.Y.L. Methodology to Individualized Career Planning in Higher Education Institutions”, funded by the NAWA Program, from Poland, joining the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszów (Poland), Université de Nice (France) University of Bologna (Italy) and the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (Portugal), which combines the development of career definition paths with social responsibility.

In the DYLMIC proposed methodology, we have three main steps:
(1) Discover, discovery of themselves and of the intended professional environments;
(2) Innovate, definition of innovative paths of personal and professional development;
(3) Validate, validation of the intended and alternative paths of development.

In the Discover main step, two sub-steps are proposed:
(1) a starting point, where applying psychological tools people are driven to a self-discovery process, and
(2) clarity, where applying a Personal Swot Analysis people are driven to structure two main concerns with the help of the previous analysis.

In the Innovate main step, four sub-steps are proposed:
(1) big picture, where all the situation is drawn with the help of a Rich Picture to get, as the Chinese saying, “a picture to value a thousand words”,
(2) main concerns, where applying the Personal Branding CANVAS people can structure personal and professional development paths as a Model of Development,
(3) structured paths, where the intended and alternative (contingency) paths of development are drawn with the help of Decision Trees and/or Mind Maps, to get better clarity on them (this step helps to validate peoples’ ideas with third persons’ contributes), and
(4) on-going model(s), where applying theb Personal Business Model CANVAS and LinkedInCanvas people get a final model of their intended development or separate models according to with different needs.

This article aims to describe the project´s framework, objectives, methodology and preliminary results.

Keywords:

Curriculum Design, Social Responsibility, Career Planning.