Since 2022, the Erasmus+ project "KA220-HED Embracing rapid application development (RAD) skills opportunity as a catalyst for employability and innovation" has been implemented at Vilnius Gediminas University of Technology (VILNIUS TECH). Its main objective - to provide learning opportunities not only for students with Information Technology (IT) background, but also for students with business background. Also - to acquire skills that are needed in the modern business world and that will increase students' employment opportunities in modern companies. 

5 European universities are involved in the project: Vilnius Gediminas University of Technology (VILNIUS TECH, Lithuania) (https://vilniustech.lt/) (main coordinator), Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech, Estonia) (https://taltech.ee/en/), Technological University Dublin (TUDublin, Ireland) (https://www.tudublin.ie/), Riga Technical University (RTU, Latvia) (https://www.rtu.lv/en) and University of Rijeka (UNIRI, Croatia) (https://uniri.hr/en/home/).

At the beginning of the project, in late 2022 and early 2023, the Oracle Academy Principal Instructor for EMEA conducted an online training for a group of nearly 30 teachers from the participating universities to familiarise them with the resources, including Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and APEX, and the associated course materials. Project team members created two 3 ECTS credit modules. The first module is designed to provide students with basic knowledge and skills in developing database and application systems, while the second module is designed to deepen knowledge and skills in developing database and application systems. The new modules are already included in the study programs of all participating partner universities – Software Engineering and Information Systems study programs offered by VILNIUS TECH - and have been thought for the students of the partner universities in the study year 2023/2024. The assessment of the participating students’ knowledge showed that the students had a good command of the material taught and that their level of knowledge met the requirements for the development of RAD databases and software systems.

On 3 April 2024, as part of this project, VILNIUS TECH hosted a very successful first International Conference on Innovative Rapid Application Development, details of which can be found on the conference webpage here (https://vilniustech.lt/332092).

Piotr Kurzynoga, Principal Cloud Solutions Engineer at Oracle, gave a keynote speech at the conference: "Low Code - Modern Application Development", providing the audience with a general overview of the broader context in which Oracle APEX was created, the reasons for its growing popularity and the expected roadmap for future development. It also included insights into the role that AI could play in this dynamic and rapidly evolving area of software development.

According to Professor Diana Kalibatiene of VILNIUS TECH, the coordinator of the RAD Skills project, the conference attracted more than 60 participants, both from the consortium member institutions and from the IT industry in the region. The conference can be seen not only as a successful project outcome, but also as a good example of successful collaboration between educational institutions and the potential future employers of their students.

Now, in the last month of the project (September 2024), the final workshop of the RAD-Skills project is planned, to which we will soon invite students, teachers, business representatives and all interested parties.