This paper examines three interventions in three professional programmes in higher education in Europe. The aim of the study is to evaluate the implementation of three learning scenarios that use authentic learning theory to improve professional competence and students’ employability skills. The data come from an Erasmus+ project involving three countries and 120 students. A design-based research approach is used for the first iteration of interventions. The results show how the authentic learning framework was realised in the three contexts and which elements of the framework were challenging. The key findings are that authenticity is not realised in one element of the model in isolation, but through the interaction between several elements, and that some elements of the theoretical model are crucial for realising others.