EngageComp: making student civic engagement competences visible 

Students develop a wide range of valuable competences through civic engagement activities, including service-learning, volunteering, student-led initiatives and community-based projects. However, these competences often remain implicit, informal or difficult to recognise within higher education. 

The new EngageComp framework responds to this challenge by offering a structured way to identify and recognise the competences students acquire through civic engagement. Developed within the Erasmus+ EngageAll project, the framework is designed as a practical resource for educators, higher education institutions, civic partners and students themselves.  

Grounded in European research, EngageComp identifies 21 specific competences that contribute to students’ overall civic and democratic competence. The framework understands civic and democratic competence as the ability and readiness to engage actively, responsibly and ethically in democratic and civic life across societal, practice-based and individual contexts. 

By making these competences more visible, EngageComp can support higher education institutions in valuing student engagement more systematically. It can also help students better understand and communicate what they learn through civic participation — not only in terms of skills, but also in terms of responsibility, ethical action and democratic engagement. 

The framework is freely available for download and is intended to support wider recognition of civic engagement as an important part of the student learning experience. https://engageall.eu/competence-framework/