Abstract:

The digital age changes all spheres of everyday life: speed and availability of information, technological innovations cause shifts in customer behavior patterns, in supply of products and services, and in teaching and learning processes. Modern students who grew in the digitalization era belong to Generation Z and according to Chan & Lee (2023) have distinct characteristics, namely: they excel in digital literacy and technological skills, they have technoholic mindset, they prefer digital content and tend to learn better through images, videos or audio instead of text, their preferences are for experiential active learning with immediate and frequent feedback as they mostly are independent learners. Given the generational characteristics discussed above, there is a real need to improve the teaching and learning process in higher education institutions in order to ensure that graduates not only achieve their personal development goals, but also engage in the study process and acquire competences relevant to the labor market.

The consortium of seven universities and institutions from Poland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Lithuania proposed the way to deal with these challenges. They implemented Erasmus + Cooperation partnerships in the higher education project 'Fostering Digital and Green Transformation in SMEs'. The integration of different educational methods and implication of digital techniques allowed to develop the curriculum oriented on managing green digital transformation in SMEs with gamified Open Educational Resources.

This paper aims to present the way of developing students’ competence through integrating experiential learning based on project results. The article presents good practices for teaching by implementing different educational methods for the development of students' competencies. The reflection results of the students regarding the experimental activities of active learning are provided and the insights of the SMEs representatives are also presented. In summary, we could note that active learning integration into the study process stimulates entrepreneurial and problem solving competencies of Generation Z students, which complement the development of interpersonal skills such as communication and collaboration. Students also referred that given activities gave a wider understanding of contemporary situations in business and this fostered their feeling of readiness to labor market.

Keywords:

Students’ competencies, Digital techniques, Innovative educational methods, experiential learning, Generation Z engagement.