Industry 4.0, business digitalisation, artificial intelligence and KETs are increasingly taking centre stage, not as buzzwords but as pillars for innovation in all business sectors at a global level. The defence sector is no exception.Accordingly, all players involved in this field are experiencing evolution in business processes and human resources: the former in regard to technological advancements; the latter regarding the skills needed to exploit such technologies in the proper way.In particular, human resources need to possess or develop new knowledge, abilities, and competences to help companies complete the quantum leap which is expected from the “fourth industrial revolution”. The problem facing the European defence industry is twofold: (i) it is experiencing difficulty in finding the necessary skills in order to sustain its leadership, competitiveness and sustainability in the medium- to long-term; (ii) aging staff and difficulties in engaging and keeping young professionals are preventing the sector from reshaping company capabilities and creating new, attractive job opportunities for talented workers of any age.ASSETs+ project aspires to build a sustainable human resources supply chain which allows defence companies to innovate by both attracting highly-skilled young workers and upskilling their employees thanks to customised, complementary education & training programmes addressing three main technologies: Robotics, C4ISTAR and Cybersecurity aspects related to the first two.The project will focus on 4 main activities:Skill Strategy to translate the selected technologies into actionable sets of relevant fine-grained skills to be (potentially) transformed into new job profiles;Design of three training programmes to address high-school students, university students, employees;E&T programme realisation and improvement;Development of community of practice (i) and body of knowledge (ii) to promote new skills acquisition, development and retention

The LeaderSHIP project brings together main industry leaders, EU and national social partners representatives, regional clusters and education providers to collectively boost innovation, competitiveness and resilience in the European shipbuilding sector and the entire maritime value chain, through the development of a sectoral skills strategy, the design and implementation of EU-level training and by building sustainable cooperation of the EU Shipbuilding and Maritime Pact for Skills. Building upon the results of previous Blueprint projects and the knowledge and expertise of the partners, the LeaderSHIP project will design and implement secondary and tertiary training for up- and reskilling current and future workers in key areas to support the industry in meeting the needs of the twin digital and green transition. The project will deliver the current and emerging skills to reduce the carbon footprint of the industry and accelerating the use of renewable energies and new fuels and electrical power. The project will also deliver key skills for the digitalisation of the design and production processes and remote and connected maritime operations. The Project is organised in a top-down approach, it will deliver EU-level courses and qualifications and establish the mechanisms for their recognition and implementation in the different countries and companies in the partnership to facilitate workers and learners mobility. The courses will make use of innovative methodologies and technologies incl. e-learning, WBL and blended learning approaches. Rooted in the EU sectoral social dialogue between employers and workers representatives the Project aims to enlarge and strengthen the existing large-scale partnership by engaging stakeholders across EU maritime ecosystems to promote sustainable cooperation on skills mobilise resources, incentivise upskilling and reskilling actions and promote inter-company and business-education partnerships and collaboration in Europe.