The European Union recently launched the EU Academy, a corporate e-learning platform for external stakeholders. The success of the platform has managed to exceed all expectations, since to date, over 350,000 learners from over 190 countries have enrolled in the more than 1,000 content items available in the platform, making it the biggest MOODLE platform in the world. The EU Academy team expects to hit the milestone of 1,000,000 enrolments in 2023!

The EU Academy is the EU’s online hub for e-learning. It contains first-hand knowledge, high quality educational resources and valuable insights produced directly by the EU Institutions, Bodies and Agencies and their trusted partners. It is a tool created for professionals (policy-makers, researchers, decision-makers), aspiring professionals (students, young professionals) and EU programme participants to have an easy and smooth understanding of EU policies in and programmes in a wide array of domains.

As a modern and smart platform active in a fast-changing digital environment, the EU Academy offers multiple types of pedagogical contents and is continuously adding new features in its quiver in order to provide its users with the best learning experience possible. The platform hosts traditional self-paced online courses, learning communities, online events, webinars, as well as content in micro-learning, podcasts and learning paths.

The EU Academy understands that each learner has different needs, which is exactly why its pedagogical offer is so wide. Every learner type is able to find content communicated to their preference so that in depth comprehension of the courses is ensured. What makes all the features of the platform so important is their versatility. Taking as an example the newly introduced micro-learning section, when a learner enters a micro-learning page, they enter a page that allows no distractions. That makes them fully concentrate on the content that is being communicated to them. The micro-learning sections can be used as a way to produce a full course, as a section of a course or even as a small introduction to a course.

Several courses available at the EU Academy were

created for policymakers to understand and successfully implement the policy put forward by the European Union. Some examples include the ‘Interoperability: An introductory course’, which is designed to enlighten the audience regarding the basics of interoperability and ‘The EIF Toolbox, support and guidance for the implementation of the EIF’, which teaches learners about the EIF toolbox, a solution designed to equip national public administrations with the necessary tools to align their National Interoperability Frameworks with the European Interoperability Framework. Both of these courses were created by the Interoperable Europe Academy, which is the initiative that gave the EU Academy its first course ever! Other courses hosted on the platform include the ‘Global Covenant of Mayors - Cities taking action against climate change’, which targets decision-makers and planners in municipalities and local governments; ‘SHERPA: A tool to support the design of urban/regional air quality plan’, targeting national, regional and local policymakers involved in air quality management.

The EU Academy was created to provide a modern and engaging learning environment that can foster and improve the quality of the application of knowledge of EU policy in a simple, smart and inspirational manner. Due to its nature, the platform also seeks to foster synergies for learners.

For further information and the opportunities the EU Academy may offer Joinup users, you can contact the EU Academy Business Manager, Mr. Paul Hearn, at paul.hearn@ec.europa.eu