Reimagining ePortfolios as Personal Learning Environments for Lifelong Career Development: Insights from the DEVICES Project

Higher education is increasingly challenged to prepare students not only for their first employment but also for lifelong career development in rapidly evolving and digitally mediated labor markets. This shift requires moving beyond knowledge transmission towards educational models that foster learner agency, reflection, adaptability, and Career Management Skills (CMS) [1, 2, 3]. At the same time, digital transformation offers new opportunities to redesign learning environments that support students’ personal and professional development throughout their academic journeys. These challenges are particularly significant in international capacity-building initiatives, where educational innovation must respond to diverse institutional traditions, cultural perspectives, and labor market needs. Despite the rapid expansion of higher education systems in Vietnam and Cambodia, universities continue to face persistent challenges in aligning academic preparation with graduates' employability and labor market expectations [4, 5]. Sustainable innovation in higher education increasingly depends on collaborative and intercultural partnerships that integrate international expertise with local educational priorities through processes of co-design and mutual learning [6, 7]. Within this context, the DEVICES project (Developing Education in Vietnam and Cambodia Enhancing Employability of Students; No. 101177347) was launched in November 2024 as a three-year Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education initiative. Coordinated by the University of Macerata, the consortium brings together nine partner institutions, four European (University of Macerata, Italy, STEPS Research Centre, Italy, University of Alicante, Spain, and WSG University in Bydgoszcz, Poland) and five Asian (Hanoi, Ha Long, and Nha Trang Universities from Vietnam, and CheaSim Kamchaymear and Battambang Universities from Cambodia). The project explores how digital technologies can support CMS, reflective learning, and professional identity development through an intercultural process of pedagogical co-design.