EfVET has joined Medaarch for implementing DigiCraft5.0 – Bridging Artisanship and Industry 5.0, an Erasmus+ Small-Scale Partnership in VET project aimed to bridge the gap between artisan know-how and the changes brought by Industry 5.0 to Creative and Manufacturing sectors (which include digital transformation and sustainability goals).
With a duration of 12 months (September 2025 – August 2026), DigiCraft5.0 has developed a new VET curriculum around a new profile that is not only aimed at the above-mentioned sectors, but can also be implemented transversally across different VET areas as it connects design, technical, productive and methodological competences – the Expert Designer in Digital Fabrication.
This profile gathers artistic practice, digital design and computing with traditional and innovative craft techniques, enabling integrated work across complex design-to-production workflows.
Moreover, the curriculum is highly specialized as it integrates and addresses:
- Digital design skills;
- Material knowledge;
- Use of machinery and tools for advanced manufacturing;
- Prototyping capacity;
- Process sustainability.
The career pathways of the Expert Designer in Digital Fabrication profile include freelance practice and roles within craft, industrial and creative enterprises of any size, across design, production and advanced prototyping units.
This DigiCraft 5.0 curriculum has a total workload of 150 hours, and a hybrid format that includes online sessions, hands-on laboratories, project-based and collaborative learning approaches.
Developed for VET learners and graduates, artisans and professionals of SMEs and creative industries, as well as job seekers, the DigiCraft 5.0 Expert Designer in Digital Fabrication curriculum has a total of 7 Competence Units that will soon be integrated and available on a MOOC platform, ready to be used by VET systems across Europe, willing to uptake the curriculum and integrate it into their own program.
Piloting the Expert Designer in Digital Fabrication curriculum with end-users
Piloting DigiCraft5.0 curriculum was one of the foreseen activities of the project. It aimed to test contents and materials with 21 end-users (including learners and professionals), and to gather their feedback for a subsequent refinement and integration of all materials into the project’s MOOC platform (currently being finalized), which will be available to all VET schools interested in integrating the curriculum on their own training programs.
The results achieved with this piloting phase allowed to conclude on the feasibility of the Expert Designer in Digital Fabrication curriculum to foster modernization of VET courses, to address the above-mentioned challenges to the Creative and Manufacturing sectors, and the changes in work and production.
Orgarnised in two different phases (distant learning, online, and in-person, in Italy), the pilot was carried out by Medaarch (with support from CAD – Centro Artigianato Digitale), between February 25th and June 19th, after a public call for participation was launched by both partners and at the project’s social media channels, early in 2026.
A Report about the piloting phase of DigiCraft5.0 is now available here, containing detailed information about its:
- Structure and program;
- Contents and organizational arrangements;
- Teaching approach and support provided to participants (who are also addressed in the Report).
Access to this Report to know more about the best practices identified in this phase of DigiCraft5.0 project, and the technologies employed in the pilots which not only contributed for the success of this phase, but also for the relevance of the Expert Designer in Digital Fabrication curriculum.
Next steps
DigiCraft5.0 partners will now focus their efforts into concluding the MOOC Platform of the project, and on launching a public online campaign that will provide real testimonies of some of the participants of the pilots – follow this campaign on DigiCraft 5.0 LinkedIn page (here) and Instagram (here), and check what they have to say about this experience!
Interested in knowing how to integrate the DigiCraft5.0 curriculum into your own training program, and to cooperate with Medaarch and EfVET in the project? Then please contact EfVET, at projects@efvet.org.