EfVET participated at the workshop on “Aligning Advanced Manufacturing education & training with the 21st Century needs: Non- tertiary vocational education” organised in the context of the Curriculum Guidelines for Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) and Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMT)’,projects coordinated by PwC EU Services (PwC). The project counts with the support of the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) and the DG-GROW of the European Commission. EfVET Members from TKNIKA were invited to share Basque Country innovation HUB.
The workshop was opened by Kristina Dervojeda (PwC) who introduced the subject of the workshop from its national objectives. The manufacturing domain is undergoing a fundamental transformation in Industry 4.0 that is driven by the following major developments:
- Technology trends
- Customer demand trends
- Industry pressures and drivers
- Policy and regulatory developments
These developments have direct implications for the skills needs, explained Dervojeda. Therefore, the number of jobs in manufacturing as a whole requiring high-level qualifications is projected to rise by 1.6 million (21%) by 2025 whereas the growing automation of production processes will see the number of low- and medium skilled jobs decrees by over 2.8 million. A similar pattern is expected in the high and high-medium technology industries within manufacturing, although the shits are less pronounced at the high technology.
Presentation of the actual 21st century needs when it comes to non-tertiary vocational education: TKNIKA as best practice
The objective of this presentation was to further set the scene for the workshop and frame the discussion. The Basque Country example was introduced by EfVET Member, TKNIKA (Basque Centre of Research and Applied Innovation in VET) represented by Jon Labaka and Unai Ziarsolo. The objectives of theBasque Hubs is to guide the regional applied Innovation System through the development of the available to companies necessary differential capacities, in direct relation to the Smart Specialisation Strategy of Euskadi. Today, 19 centers participate in the four Hubs which were focused on:
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Digital and connected factory
- Energies
- Biosciences and biotechnologies
In the Basque country they developed a pedagogical framework called ETHAZI (High Performance Courses) in the 2013/2014 academic year in 5 both concerted and public vocational training centers in the Basque Country. In this experience took part 100 students and 25 teachers from 5 different cycles. The central element of this model was articulated on the collaborative learning based on challenges and it implies the following aspects:
- Disruptive methodological change to adapt students to the professional profile that the industry needs to be competitive;
- Developing education & training ecosystems where learners are put in the centre;
- Getting the maximum learning potential of the student’s professional competences development (technical skills + soft skills);
- Teamwork, creativity, flexibility, digital skills, communication, social and personal responsibility, entrepreneurship etc. to be able to analyse, understand, synthesise, transmit, judge, decide etc.
However, as TKNIKA experts pointed out, one of the key drawback is that implies a large investment in hardware.
