This project addresses the pressing issues of social exclusion of vulnerable communities in remote and rural areas in Ecuador and El Salvador by creating an online educational environment that can foster cultural diversity, promote indigenous heritage and strengthen social cohesion in an environment-friendly way in both countries and beyond. The consortium of seven HE institutions (2-Ecuador, 2-El Salvador, 3-EU) will develop a multilingual online portal that has two functions: it will serve as (a) a collection of tangible (traditional crafts) and intangible (folklore, oral traditions) cultural heritage fast disappearing in the remote areas; (b) a compendium of educational modules, methodologies and trainings, realised by didactisation of the authentic original materials collected, to be used by HEIs, re-skilling institutions and organisations promoting sustainable tourism. The consortium will collaborate intensively to transfer know-how, experience and good practices. The Ecuador and El Salvador partners will collect and record materials among the vulnerable indigenous communities in remote areas, transcribe and translate them into Spanish. The European partners will develop the online portal and educational modules, methodology trainings and sustainable tourism support modules based on the authentic materials. Then, the Ecuador and El Salvador partners will pilot the educational modules, methodologies, and sustainable tourism support materials in their HEI´s already existing and newly-establish programmes as well as in re-skilling workshops and trainings. Finally, all partners will present the portal to target audiences (educators, social workers, tourist agents) in Latin America and the EU.The aim of the project is to use a combination of technologies, education and cultural heritage preservation to improve the situation of vulnerable indigenous communities in remote areas in an environment-friendly and sustainable way.

The PROFIC project will explore the topic of Intercultural competence curriculum development through professional development and pedagogical testing in higher education institutions in Latin America. Intercultural competence (a set of abilities for successfully dealing with different cultures and diversity) is one of top 10 graduate competences needed for the modern labour market. Universities are expected to provide their students with the competence to deal with different cultures and use the cultural diversity of their surrounding as an advantage for innovation. However, this task is put on academic and administrative staff, who might not have all the necessary skills to tackle rising diversity challenges or to support development of intercultural competence in their teaching. Studies and previous research experience show that, on the one hand, academic and administrative staff in universities might need to develop a higher level of intercultural competence themselves. In order to competently deal with such complex cultural challenges the PROFIC project will investigate, develop and test a holistic, customized, flexible and reflective professional and curriculum development programme that would provide LA HEI’s with increased knowledge, awareness, skills, attitudes and tools to be an intercultural competent professional (Region 8, priority 1). Moreover, through the use of work-integrated learning supported by technology enhanced learning and use of mobile technology and development of Open-Educational Resources (OER) Toolkit to support staff in integrating IC in their curriculum, the project will also address (Region 8, Priority 3) of New technologies in higher education. Therefore, the PROFIC project is committed to developing a learning programme and related OER tools a step change in how intercultural competence is perceived and tau at the individual, institutional, national and international level.

HICA, which was driven by university associations, universities and ministries in 6 Central American (CA) countries, aimed to support the reform, innovation and harmonisation of HE curricula. The project further developed/implemented a regional qualifications framework for Central American HE (‘MCESCA’) – proposed by the prior project Alfa PUENTES (2011-14) – that defines what a student should know, understand and be able to do after each HE cycle, in a Central American social and political context. HICA further completed the MCESCA by defining learning outcomes for pre-bachelor, short-cycle programmes. This was done through national focus groups and consultations with academics, students and other social partners in the different CA countries, guided by a Technical Team that was appointed by national university associations. The project also examined time/credits required for the different HE cycles, with the objective of defining credit ranges to achieve the learning outcomes of the MCESCA. The MCESCA was simultaneously 'piloted' in partner universities. CA partner universities selected at least one study programme to revise and reform, defining work-load based learning outcomes that correlate to the MCESCA. European partners shared practice on curricula innovation in support of this, via a training programme that entailed three workshops, webinars and visits of European experts to CA countries. The pilot outcomes and the MCESCA itself were promoted widely to regional and national political bodies, employers, accreditation agencies, etc. via national promotion workshops in April through June 2018, organised by the associations and the ministries. These were used to enrich and validate the MCESCA as a tool in the region. HICA has had diverse impacts: The revised academic programmes have created a catalytic effect, bringing leadership, students and teaching staff together to implement curricula reform. In addition, CA universities have networked and reinforced regional cooperation. National associations and the ministries benefit from a regionally agreed tool that they can use for quality assurance and teaching reforms taking place in their own systems as well as recognition of studies between countries. The European partners benefit from discussions on frameworks for HE reform in CA, which will provide an important mirror for similar reforms that take place in the context of the Bologna Process.