VERDE joins six partners from Ukraine, Palestine, Greece and Slovakia in a new Erasmus+ project that keeps learning going when campuses close.

We are pleased to announce that OLYMPIA, Skills for Life framework and resilience structures for war-affected higher education in Ukraine and Palestine, has been selected for funding under the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education programme. The project will run for 24 months, starting with its kick-off meeting in Athens, and brings together seven universities and organisations led by the Central Ukrainian National Technical University.

For students in Kropyvnytskyi, Kherson, Ramallah and Gaza, war is not a short interruption. Power cuts, closures, displacement and constant stress break up their studies and leave many without recognised proof of what they can do. Support services exist, but they often depend on the goodwill of individual staff members, and students with fewer opportunities are the first to fall through the gaps. Our own work with displaced Ukrainian learners has shown us how much a clear entry point and a trusted person can change.

What the project will do

Partners will co-design a shared Skills for Life competence framework and at least four short modules of 5 ECTS each, built to work offline and on low bandwidth, so that students gain recognised credit even when they can complete only part of the pathway.

Each partner university in Ukraine and Palestine will open a One-Stop Education and Support Desk and a Skills and Resilience Unit, with trained peer mentors, so that students who need help know exactly where to go.

At least 25 teachers will be trained in trauma-informed and inclusive teaching, and at least 120 students will take part in two pilot cycles, half of them students with fewer opportunities.

The partnership and VERDE's role

OLYMPIA brings together the Central Ukrainian National Technical University, Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University, Al-Quds Open University, the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza, Harokopio University of Athens, the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra and VERDE. VERDE leads dissemination, exploitation and sustainability. We will host the project website in English, Ukrainian and Arabic, run four open webinars, prepare the ethics and safeguarding framework that protects every participant, and package the results into a Skills for Life handbook that any university can adopt. We also lead the co-design of the competence framework and the teacher training curriculum.

We will share news, resources and webinar dates on our channels and on the project website as the work begins. Universities, networks and organisations that want to follow OLYMPIA or reuse its results are welcome to contact us.