YachaY is the Quechua word for “knowledge” and represents the project entitled “Intelligent personalization and flexibility systems to improve the quality of Virtual Higher Education in Latin America”.The main objective of YachaY is to create and test a series of intelligent technological solutions for Latin America and the Caribbean, which facilitate the implementation of the educational requirements of the 21st Century of flexibility, customization, credentialing, and inclusion; in synergy with the business framework.The fourth industrial revolution requires changes in the education system that involve empowering students in the definition of their learning paths and acquisition of skills, improve the systems of recognition of qualifications and modernize higher education institutions, through the use of intelligent systems for interaction with students. For this, it is necessary to strengthen the university-business relationship, so we intend to create and implement a series of unified tools for Latin America, in line with those in Europe, for customization, flexibility, credentialing and organizational interaction.YachaY responds to the preferences and needs of today's students. Especially to those who choose virtual training, precisely because they are, in most cases, busy people, integrated into the workplace, seeking to improve their skills through lifelong learning, in a way that is really practical for the development of their professional careers, being able to guide their own learning path.Personalization, flexibility, credentialing; they are key words in 21st century education. An education more inclusive and adapted to the real needs of our increasingly competitive and demanding world.

The project aims to contribute to the improvement of the employability indexes and the labor insertion of the graduates of the higher education institutions of the countries of the Pacific Alliance (Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile), through permanent monitoring and analysis. Needs and characteristics of the labor market and the construction of national guidelines and policies that contribute to the creation of a relevant training offer and the strengthening of the academic programs offered by HEIs in the participating countries.

Eradicating all forms of exclusion, discrimination and marginalisation that result from disparities and/or inequalities, as well as reducing the student drop out rate remain key challenges for the higher education (HE) sector in Latin America. Through the design and testing of educational centers for support and development (CADEP), the ACACIA project aims to foster solidarity and cooperation among HE institutional departments and staff in order to develop innovative educational resources and improved strategies to deal with the socio-emotional distress of students at risk of desertion. Thanks to better intra- and inter-institutional cooperation, the project will provide solutions to strengthen HEIs’ staff skills, modernise HEIs’ organizational structures, decrease student drop out rates and ultimately promote respect of the other’s differences. The structure of the educational centers, articulated in mutually supporting modules, has been developed by a team of researchers and administrators from 14 HEIs in 8 countries from Latin America and Europe. It represents an innovative and replicable tool for HEIs to provide students, especially the most vulnerable, with integrated support using a differential approach. Concretely, the project will set-up three pilot centers in Colombia, Peru and Nicaragua to support and monitor students at risk, carry out training sessions for staff at HEIs, explore new strategies for teaching and improve the use of ICTs in educational practices. Thanks to the project, more than 4,000 teachers and 200,000 students from 11 Latin American universities will benefit from an innovative and relevant professional profile, helping to improve academic results and reduce the drop out rate among students.

The European Latin American Network in Support of Social Entrepreneurs (ELANET) has the ambition to become a leading platform in support of social entrepreneurs (SEs). This project will lead partner universities to implement an IT-based platform that consolidates already existing tools, resources, and coaching material for SEs. Our consortium involves 17 project partners (among which 4 European Universities and 12 Latin American Universities) and 35 associated partners. Through ELANET they will: - Develop and implement an international platform in support of SEs (in English) with 7 modules with seven modules: 1. SE cases to inspire, 2. SEs in need of support, 3. Support Partners, 4. Volunteers, 5. Tools for mentors, 6. Tools for SEs, and 7. Library with relevant articles and books.;- Exchange best practices for the support of SEs;- Make an inventory of available materials and tools;- Intensify the (inter)national collaboration among SEs, and between SEs, HEIs and network partners to attract resources (funding, coaching, volunteers);- Stimulate the internationalization of SEs, and their solutions to social challenges. The consortium undertakes this project because of all partner HEIs commitment to support SEs from their local communities. We refer here to the third and fourth mission of universities, with their active contribution to society, in addition to teaching and research. In the context of this project, most HEIs lack of a consolidated network of partners and programs of extracurricular activities to support SEs due to their complex coordination. Five years after the project (by 2028), ELANET’s goal is to be adopted by at least 100 universities from 20 countries, engaging 3.000 professors and 20.000 students in support of 5.000 social entrepreneurs. It is our ambition, supported by the crowdsourcing and transdisciplinary methodology of the project, to sustain ELANET over time and reach far beyond those numbers in support of social entrepreneurs.