INSIGHT joint curriculum

To develop the Industrial Symbiosis Facilitator professional profile, the INSIGHT partners designed a dedicated training curriculum. Built taking into consideration the European Framework for Vocational Education and Training (VET), the training course is composed of five modules divided into several training units. Learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills, and competences are associated to each unit. ECVET points* are allocated to these learning units based on time and relevance. The INSIGHT curriculum will have a duration of 150 hours, corresponding to a total of 6 ECVET points.

* ECVET points are numerical representation of the overall weight of learning outcomes in a qualification and of the relative weight of units in relation to the qualification.

Five Learning Modules

The Curriculum’s five learning modules are:

Module 1: IS Theory, Concepts and Context
(3 training units – 21 hours)

Basic knowledge around Industrial Symbiosis, including history, concepts of industrial ecology and symbiosis, legal framework, key barriers and advantages. Also providing a more detailed description of the role of industrial facilitator.

Module 2:
Resource Management
(4 training units – 34.5 hours)

Detailed explanation of the circularity of resources with three major focuses on waste materials, water resources and energy.

Module 3:
IS Management
(5 training units – 31.5 hours)

Step by step managerial approach to IS implementation via data collection, resource flow analysis, available circular economy and IS platforms. It includes an overview on the financial opportunities in order to finally build a sustainable business model.

Module 4: Soft Skills for IS
(3 training units – 25.5 hours)

Effective training on how to pitch IS to stakeholders, alongside entrepreneurship mindset, design-thinking strategies and co-creation methods. At the same time, it is supported by models of collaboration for inter-company work.

Module 5:
IS Case Studies
(3 training units – 4.5 hours)

Concrete view on successful cases of industrial symbiosis. Each unit focuses on different approaches adopted: territorial, industrial park and company.

Each training unit is assessed by a quizz.

Summary and structure

Click on the images below to view the Joint Curriculum summary and structure.

Validation

To validate the Joint Curriculum, 72 stakeholders from different countries and backgrounds have been involved. They represent the main target of the Joint Curriculum: employees from industries, regional development agencies, technology parks, local and regional administrations, etc.

The stakeholders identified via a set of questions potential weaknesses and opportunities for improvement and provided feedback in terms of relevance, consistency with the objectives defined in the project and impact. The questionnaire also helped to better tailor the content of the Joint Curriculum to the needs of its potential target learners.

The very positive results obtained confirm that the Joint Curriculum meets the expectations: an astonishing 92% of stakeholders agrees with the fact that the Joint Curriculum fulfills the needs of the target group, while only 8% of the respondents claim that it partially fulfills those needs.

Report on the INSIGHT Joint Curriculum

The INSIGHT curriculum is described in a report detailing the composition of the modules and training units and specifying the learning objectives, duration and ECVET associated. The report also provides a summary of the validation process and an overview of the national education framework in Belgium, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, and Spain. It aims at facilitating the transnational recognition of the INSIGHT training course, its formal validation at European level, and its transfer to countries and organizations in view of an implementation in all of the EU countries.