Higher education must equip students with the competences needed to contribute to – and drive – sustainability transformations. While key competences are described by many academic competence frameworks, little is known about how requirements vary across professions. To date, only few studies directly connect academic competence frameworks with the real-world expectations of employers and practitioners.
The BRIDGE project – “From learning to practice: Digitally Bridging Competence Frameworks and Professional Realities in Sustainability Education” – addresses this gap. Building on an established competence framework, CDE researchers developed a competence model tailored to the “Sustainability Transformations” Master’s programme at the University of Bern. In collaboration with the Swiss IT start-up Menon, they also created a digital tool that enables students to track, assess, and reflect on their competence development throughout their studies.
Mapping key competences
BRIDGE is now exploring how sustainability professionals across research, organizational practice, and civil society apply and contextualize sustainability competences in their daily work. By analysing these real-world situations and mapping key sustainability competences, the project derives competence indicators, which participants then rate for relevance.
The findings will inform the continued development of the digital tool to enable more personalized learning pathways in the Sustainability Transformations Master's programme and lay the groundwork for a larger, cross-national study. The results will also be used to assess how well the Master’s programme aligns with the demands of the professional fields its graduates enter.
