Identification of Competencies and Teaching Models for the Governance of Smart Sustainable Cities in the South American Context

Abstract

This study is developed in the context of the Strengthening Governance Capacity for Smart Sustainable Cities (CAP4CITY) Project, part of the Erasmus+ Programme. The study aims to support the design of teaching materials to address the human-capacity related needs for the governance of Smart Sustainable Cities (SSC) in South America. This article identifies the competencies and instructional design for the design of smart sustainable cities courses adapted to the South American context. Applying a scenario-building approach and the CAP4CITY roadmap for smart sustainable city initiatives, we conducted two workshops in Chile and two in Argentina attended by representatives from academia, NGOs, government agencies, and private companies. Using the data about competencies and teaching models gathered during these events, the study clustered the data and identified the major areas of competences and instructional methods. Lastly, we compared the results from both countries.

A competency-based specialization course for smart city professionals

“…Building urban governments' capacity to plan and implement successful smart city interventions, requires modernization of vocational education and training as well as of higher education curricula (Avdeeva et al, 2019). The CAP4CITY Erasmus+ project deals with smart sustainable cities having as one of its main goals the design of training modules that would reflect the needs of the Latin American region (Sanchez-Ortiz et al, 2020). Nine themes/groups of competencies were identified and updated curricula in formal education and lifelong training through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to cover the skill demand were suggested.…”

“…Although technological developments and urban innovation provide many opportunities for improved and sustainable urban management, their potential can only be realized to a certain extent without skilled and talented people (Hollands, 2020). However, as several studies indicate, smart cities face substantial shortages in skillful employees with the skill supply lagging behind demand in various domains (Ahad et al, 2020;OECD, 2020;Sanchez-Ortiz et al, 2020). Therefore, educational and training programs are imperative to reinforce the human capital of smart cities with appropriate skills (Zhuhadar et al, 2017).…”