"The European manufacturing industry is at the beginning of a new industrial revolution - being called Industry 4.0 - that holds the promise of increased flexibility in manufacturing, mass customisation, increased speed, better quality and improved productivity. Besides the strong use of ICT and automation, manual processes such as welding, still play a large role in the manufacturing industry. Welders represent a traditional branch with almost no ICT training being implemented. The common approach is classroom face-to-face theoretical training and applied shopfloor welding. Such opposition towards modernisation and new technologies requires a clearly stated concept that builds upon real challenges and working processes. To strive in today's digital world, meaning handling the changes in the workspace, trained welders must increase their IT knowledge.The WELD4.0, submitted in 2017 to the UK Erasmus+ National Agency, was an innovative project aiming at the introduction of digital technologies in the context of Industry 4.0 for the existing professional welding profile. The project addressed an actual market need in terms of the skills shortage gap of qualified welding personnel, affecting the broader manufacturing sector in Europe. The WELD4.0 had the following six main objectives:1) To re-define the European Welder Profile in the context of Industry 4.0, according to the new and future job requirements and analyse the digital welding skills and competences in demand;2) Improve the quality of qualification programmes in welding, in terms of transparency and recognition among the European countries (using common EU tools);3) Promote language learning and linguistic diversity through the provision of multinational pilot training, especially in English, German and Portuguese (languages of the consortium members);4) Increase transparency of competences and qualifications in the welding sector;5) Foster the promotion of new learning opportunities, in an easily accessible and career-oriented Welding Profile;6) Implement ICT new learning opportunities, via the development of an innovative ICT training solution.The WELD4.0 consortium was composed of four partners with complementary backgrounds and expertise: 1. HighSkillz is an ICT company with expertise in game-based learning solutions;2. BIBA is an interdisciplinary research institute developing technical and organizational solutions and putting them into practice in SMEs as well as multinational companies;3. ISQ is a welding institute with both sectorial and national expertise in VET and welding;3. EWF is a European umbrella association on welding with its members being VET providers in a total of 31 European countries. The WELD4.0 project started with the evaluation of the existing European Welder Curriculum towards the identification of the market needs and the digital skills gap in welding. The result of this analysis was a report on existing curriculum and digitization needs in the welding sector. The main findings of this report was the identification of gaps in the welding curriculum that led to the need of the update of the existing European Welder (EW) training Guideline. Therefore, WELD4.0 developed of a new Competence Unit on the ""Introduction to Industry 4.0”. As part of the introduced Competence Unit WELD4.0 developed an innovative ICT-based training solution for welders. The WELD4.0 Tool was an interactive training solution for the support of welding training of entry level personnel with two welding scenarios for different levels of expertise, translated in English. German and Portuguese. Due to the transferability potential of the WELD4.0 methodology to other industrial sectors, a Guide for this purpose was developed.The WELD4.0 main outcomes were piloted in a series of national events in the UK, Germany and Portugal, throughout the life of the project. The project’s innovative approach was disseminated to the VET and the welding industry through different channels. The project achieved a great impact at local, regional, European and international level. A number of events were realised throughout the project, including co-creation workshops, multiplier events (hands-on seminars, industry awareness events), a training workshop (capacity building event) and an international conference. The new Competence Unit and the innovative ICT training solution were also disseminated and shared with a number of people through the project’s website and social media at a European and International level. The WELD4.0 had a very positive impact based on the feedback provided by the project’s target groups and the participants that were actively involved throughout the project via their participation in evaluation surveys and events. The received feedback indicated that the project addressed a real need of the industry and a requirement in terms of training and preparation of welding professionals to meet the challenges brought by Industry 4.0."

"The idea for this project, submitted to the Erasmus+ National Agency in the UK, arose from the fact that there is a lack of qualified personnel in the car body repair sector. Following a report from Boston Consulting Group, ""The European Aftermarket Landscape"", which says that ""the total market volume for the five analysed focus markets (Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain and Poland) is approximately 115 billion euros"", it is easy to understand the target for the impacts of CARBOREP. From that very same report, it is worth mentioning that ""The introduction of new vehicle materials such as aluminium, carbon and UV paint require special tools, instruments and increased training requirements as well. ""Once more, it is clear the need for the ECBRT professional; for a harmonised training solution for all the personnel working in this sector: the European Car Body Repair Technician. The project aimed to resolve the skills mismatch for the employers of companies involved in car body repair processes. CARBOREP has developed a harmonized training course for personnel involved in this activity, designed to satisfy the requirements of both large enterprises and SMEs in different European countries, and creating a European Car Body Repair Technician curriculum, associated training materials and assessment scheme.The consortium consisted of 4 partners. EWF is the European Federation for Welding, Joining and Cutting, with a Training and Qualification network covering 31 member countries that was essential in the implementation and dissemination of the CARBOREP results. The remaining partners were the welding and quality institutes of the UK (TWI), Portugal (ISQ), and Spain (CESOL), which have strong knowledge and expertise in training and qualification at a sector-based level. TWI acted as the Project Coordinator, in direct contact with the National Agency in the UK.The CARBOREP project addressed the lack of specific qualifications and training schemes available for personnel working in the vehicle repair and maintenance industry (specifically for car body repair) in Europe. By creating a high quality curriculum, which features state of the art technologies and manufacturing processes used in car body repair, CARBOREP provides a methodology by which personnel can demonstrate their competence and guarantee the quality of their work and enhance motor vehicle safety. CARBOREP is a harmonised training solution for all personnel working in the car body repair sector and enables local repair workshops and other independent operators to maintain currency with advancing manufacturing techniques and ensure vehicle repair and maintenance routines are performed correctly. This project will have a significant impact across Europe, because it created a professional profile (European Car Body Repair Technician - ECBRT) that covers a specific market need. The project gains even more relevance because the skills and qualification profile development was done at a European level, with a transnational scope, aligned with the European market needs, and then transferred to the national level. This contributes to achieving the European Union's targets and the objectives of the Erasmus+ program of increasing the labour market relevance of VET and reducing skills mismatches and shortages.In addition, and based on the number of companies that work in motor vehicle repair in Europe, there is presently a high need for new VET-content for the training, qualification and certification activities in this field. Common VET-qualifications for personnel working in the car body repair industry, currently offered on a local or national level, are not able to deliver a systematic approach to VET for this occupation. CARBOREP closes this gap and delivers a European qualification standard, improves the quality of the VET-system by incorporating common European tools (e.g. RPL, Learning Outcomes, EQF, ECVET), promoting the transparency, recognition of competences and mutual synergies between I-VET and C-VET. The CARBOREP outputs are designed to boost the skills capital of this sector, important due to its market size, and support an industry-based skills network in order to promote the further need-oriented skills development. CARBOREP fostered the involvement of different stakeholders in making VET more responsive to the needs of the labour market. Having identified the above-mentioned needs, this project created a harmonised training guideline featuring a modular curriculum built with Learning Outcomes, training materials in 3 languages (English, Spanish and Portuguese) and design of the assessment for the trainees. All of these results help mitigate the identified EU market shortfalls."

FSW-TECH project tackled shortage of training materials and skilled workers for friction welding technology (FSW), which is increasingly being used by steel companies.The main aim of the project was to prepare an educational programme addressing three levels of qualification: operators, specialists and engineers, as well as development of the associated teaching materials and supporting guidelines for implementing the courses in the framework of lifelong learning. The project was implemented by a consortium of 5 entities from 5 EU countries - SR, RO, SLO, PT and BE (the partner from Belgium is a global organization based in BE but operating from one of its headquarters in Portugal). Cooperation of the partners was at the highest level, all partners participated in the preparation of IO, multiplier events, dissemination activities, etc. The project achieved all the initially planned intellectual outputs and activities. 5 transnational meetings were organized. All project outputs are also available on the project website (www.fsw-tech.eu/documents.html). Attendance lists and certificates from multiplication events and learning activity are attached to this final report.IO1 – Report on the state of art of FSW Training Courses and identification of skills needs in the sector, that resulted from the application of a dedicated survey in the partners countries and EWF international network. The report was translated from English to SK, SLO, PT and RO.IO2 – European Curricula for EWF Operator, Specialist and Engineer. Curricula for the three levels were developed. A short version was prepared and translated to partners languages. Examination Database was created for all three levels (in all partners languages), with levels of difficulty in line with the EQF level assigned to the qualification. IO3 – National curriculum adaptation and translation – training materials for all three levels in the form of handbooks and presentations have been prepared. One handbook dedicated to the operator for self-study, and one handbook for the specialist and engineer. The presentations to be using during the training sessions were also developed: six presentations for the operator and 2 presentations for the specialist and engineer. Documents prepared under IO2 and IO3 are considered as one whole and therefore translation of the guidelis you can find in IO2 instead of IO3.All presentations were initially prepared and finalised in English and translated to SK, SLO, RO, PT. IO3 is freely available, in the form of a handbook and presentations, at the project website. IO4 - National Implementation Guideline for the EFSW-O; EFSW-S and EFSW-E Profiles curricula - final version of the report was based on reports from individual partners from their Hands-on approach seminars in PT, SK and RO - indications on how to conduct training sessions and recommendations for future training providers was made and translated to partner languages.IO5 – European Recommendations – the aim was to support the implementation of the mentioned qualifications in other VET systems with all the steps that needs to be followed in order to successfully implement these courses in other EU countries, assuring the sustainability of the mentioned results. IO6 – Operational ECVET kit – to support the recognition of students achieved learning outcomes either at national level or trough mobility across European countries. The operational kit is accompanied by the several tools: Memorandum of Understanding, Learning Agreement and Personal Transcript. The allocation of ECVET points to individual learning outcomes is reflected in the document “Guideline for operationalization of EFSW-O/S/E LOs Qualifications according to ECVET”.Multiplier Events – were organised in SK, RO and PT - 3 Hands on approach seminars and Final Conference. More than 120 participants were reached. The overall feedback was very positive. Impact: Project partners are members of the European Welding Federation. Project has created a guideline that can be applied across Europe. All FSW-TECH outputs will be offered by EWF to its members, assuring the sustainability of the project results. Dissemination of FSW-TECH activities and results has been carried out in all partner countries. All dissemination materials (flyer, poster and roll-up) were made available in the project website. Partners published articles in professional journals, project was promoted at national and international conferences. The results of the project were presented at multiplier events, information was sent to relevant ministries and educational institutions. Companies were approached as potential users of the project results. At the end of the project a dissemination e-portfolio was created gathering all the dissemination activities performed.

"REASON FOR THE PROJECT: With the new priority of the European Commission of bringing manufacturing back to Europe their will be a huge need for qualified personnel. Also, the EC has identified advanced manufacturing as key for this ""re-manufacturing"" of Europe. This will require that VET providers and HE Institutes work together to answer the needs from industry. In order to allow this collaboration between VET and HE the first step is to ensure the transferability of people between these two educational ""paths"". The HE&VET project will focus on the need of qualified personnel in joining technologies, however, always keep in mind other manufacturing technologies to ensure an higher impact.AIMS & OBJECTIVES: The project aims at promoting the collaboration between VET and HE. This objective will be achieved through the development of a methodology and tools to allow the transferability between VET and HE. CONSORTIUM:The consortium is constituted by five partners. TWI will act as Project Coordinator, in direct contact with the National Agency from UK. EWF is the European Federation for Welding, Joining and Cutting, with a Training and Qualification network covering 31 member countries that will be essential in the implementation and dissemination of the HE&VET project results. Two of the partners are the welding institutes of Portugal (ISQ) and UK (TWI), which have strong knowledge and expertise in training and qualification at a sector-based level. Universidade de Lisboa has expertise in collaborating with VET providers and in developing courses that combine HE with VET.All partners also have plenty of experience in the implementation and training using European Harmonized Guidelines.OUTCOMES: The objectives will be achieved through the definition of a methodology and tools for the transferability between VET and HE. For this purpose, at the start of the project, a study will be carried out in order to understand the specific requirements in terms VET and HE transferability in different countries and in different industries, where welding plays an important role. This will allow the development of a methodology in line with the requirements of the different countries and industries.IMPACT: The project results will have an impact in the manufacturing industry. Considering that the European metal working sector which accounts for over 87€ billion of value added to the European economy, as well as over 2 million jobs, it is clear to see that the impact of this project is assured."

Contributions from industry, research and end-users, involving experts that represent diverse stakeholders are crucial for the standardisation development. However, the standards-making process and rules are sometimes at odds with the culture and practice of research. STAND4EU aims to strengthen the links between research, innovation and standardisation ensuring that standardisation is an integral part of the European research and innovation landscape. STAND4EU will map and identify key stakeholders and actors involved in standardisation activities at national, regional (EU) and international level to allow a proper identification of the obstacles hampering the standardisation efforts within the scope of 4 main technological domains: Additive Manufacturing, Welding, Smart manufacturing/Industry 4.0/Digitalization/ Artificial Intelligence & Circular Economy. The key bottlenecks in the standards development lifecycle will be identified and to overcome the obstacles on the standards setting process a plan will be develop with recommendations and solutions to make the standards development process more efficient between the stakeholders from research, innovation and standardisation. A STAND4EU interface will be created to facilitate the collection and the sharing of information about the obstacles and associated remedies and best practices towards the industrial and research & innovation community, the standards developing organisations, the public authorities and other relevant stakeholders. This will include pointers to available supporting services, networking services, herewith acting as a one-stop-shop for all related standardisation research and innovation matters All the proposed solutions will be validated with the relevant actors and stakeholders to transfer the methodology to a broader scale of application in other respective areas to reach sustainable development of developed methodological approach and exploit the STAND4EU Interface globally.