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Increasingly, among international organizations concerned with unemployment rates and industry demands, there is an emphasis on the need to improve graduates' employability skills and the transparency of mechanisms for their recognition. This research presents the Employability Skills Micro-credentialing (ESMC) methodology, designed under the EPICA Horizon 2020 (H2020) project and tested at three East African universities, and shows how it fosters pedagogical innovation and promotes employability skills integration and visibility. The methodology, supported by a competency-based ePortfolio and a digital micro-credentialing system, was evaluated using a mixed-method design, combining descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis to capture complementary stakeholder perspectives. The study involved the participation of 13 lecturers, 169 students, and 24 employers. The results indicate that the ESMC methodology is a promising approach for supporting students in their transition from academia to the workplace. The implementation of the methodology and the involvement of employers entails rethinking educational practices and academic curricula to embed employability skills. It enables all actors to broaden their understanding of the relationship between higher education and the business sector and to sustain visibility, transparency, and reliability of the recognition process. These findings indicate that there are favourable conditions in the region for the adoption of the approach, which is a meaningful solution for the stakeholder community to address the skills gap.

Teacher training and professional development are the pillars that underpin the quality of teaching in higher education. The pandemic has accelerated the momentum of online education and has highlighted the importance of training and updating for teachers in higher education. This paper presents a qualitative study to determine the mechanisms that are usually used by university teachers who teach online to update their skills. The research methodology was based on 12 in-depth interviews with six university teachers who teach online, and was structured around an analysis of their learning ecologies. The results indicate that online teachers who teach via the Internet tend to opt for self-directed learning formulas, prioritizing non-formal learning mechanisms, participation in peer-based teaching communities, and the use of digital resources available on the Internet. The con)cept of learning ecologies applied to professional development and updating for university teachers has proved to be a useful analytical mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]