Open Access

This article aims to explore the relationship between digital innovations and sustainable development before and during the pandemic, taking into consideration the level of development of countries. The authors employed both qualitative and quantitative methods, including a critical review of the literature and the analysis of a database of 31 European countries, using various indicators such as the global sustainability index, global innovation index, human capital and research, infrastructure, business sophistication, knowledge and technology outputs, country innovation performance, and creative output. The investigated European countries have been categorized into three clusters based on the level of sustainable development, and their characteristics before and during the pandemic have been examined. The study also explored the relationship between global sustainability and digital innovation. The results suggest that global action is needed to address structural factors perpetuating inequality and underdevelopment in less-developed countries. Hence, this research offers insights into the potential of digital innovations in promoting sustainable development during crises. Policymakers, development practitioners, and scholars interested in sustainable development can benefit from this research to design more effective policies and interventions for different country clusters to understand the impact of the pandemic on sustainable development and develop more effective responses.

CPS−capable engineers of today increasingly need to possess both technical and social skills to run CPS−engineering projects successfully. Having technical skills solely is not enough since engineering projects mostly fail because of lacking knowledge, skills and social competencies of project members. The effective holistic teaching methods can help to solve this problem. The aim of this study was to develop, apply and asses an innovative task−centric holistic agile teaching approach (T−CHAT), for the course in CPS−engineering with realistic up−to−date industry−like scenario. The authors conducted four monthly educational experiment with fifteen−person group of volunteers – international students at technical universities in Germany and Russia, during that the authors used the novel method of teaching. The course participants evaluated the effects of education using a novel original questionnaire, estimating knowledge, skills and social competencies at the beginning and end of the course. Feedback of the experiment was positive for the method. The main findings of our study was the innovative teaching approach. KEY WORDS: Agile teaching; Cyber−Physical Systems; Education of Cyber−Physical Systems Engineering; Education of Global Software Engineering; Perceptional teaching; Problem−based teaching; Project−based teaching; Research−orientated teaching

This paper describes the concept of the Erasmus+-project “Modernisation of Master Curriculum in ICT for Enhancing Student Employability in Belarus” (MaCICT) as well as its implementation plan. MaCICT is aimed to enhance the employability of ICT master students, foster entrepreneurship and establishment of SMEs in the ICT sector, and to upscale the position of higher education in the sector on the market. To achieve these goals, we plan to undertake the following activities. First, before the curricula can be modernized, the main weaknesses of ICT employees and ICT university graduates need to be identified. Bearing in mind that: 1) Belarus has a strong tradition of providing competitive education in ICT and 2) the Belarusian ICT industry is export-oriented offering various services for foreign clients, the weaknesses may predominantly be found in missing communicative skills, including foreign language skills and skills of intercultural communication, operative management skills, and in the missing spirit of entrepreneurship. The motivation to undertake activities related to the project results from the following reasons. The ICT sector is an essential element in Belarus’ economy and the ICT development is defined as a priority task in the National Strategy of Sustainable Economic Development of Belarus up to 2030. Due to its strong ICT education and cost-competitive salaries, the Belarusian ICT industry is export-oriented. During the Soviet time, the ICT industry of USSR was concentrated in Belarus. The ICT tradition from those days has been kept upright - today's ICT industry in Belarus offers various types of ICT services for foreign clients. Although the growth of ICT services has been fast (more sevenfold from 2005 to 2015) and has reached more than 15 % of total export in 2017, the full potential has not been reached yet. To increase the ICT sector’s position as a central soil for the Belarusian economy, factors that hinder further growth, need to be identified and improved. Two of such factors are the inefficient dialogue between the ICT sector and higher education and a rather passive role of universities in framing trends on the market. The novelty of our study is the new attempt of the MaCICT to respond to these challenges. We will apply the novel didactic method T-CHAT that can help to enhance the mentioned skills and to modernize the existing ICT curriculum needs. We will concentrate on an interdisciplinary study programme at the master level, to equip graduates with competitive skills and competencies requested by the regional, national, and global market to optimize their employability. By doing so, we consider university as an education service provider and an active participant of the market rather than a knowledge-generating authority only. Consequently, the study programmes need to become more labor market and society oriented, practice-based, and student-centered. The market orientation forces universities to combine the traditional professional skills and competencies with soft and transferable skills. Additionally, the universities need to focus more on multidisciplinary studies and internationalization of the study environment.