"<< Background >>Education is the main engine of any society, so all of us needs lifelong education. In the context of Industry 4.0, technical education is one of the main goals of modern societies without which there would be no progress. Welding is an essential cross-sectoral manufacturing process, performed in almost every major industry. Therefore, weld quality and integrity are critical to safety in an extensive range of products and structures. The International / European Welding Inspectors (IWI/EWI) are the key players in the evaluation of welded products to provide value-added on the market. The specific activities they perform are highly demanding and have long-term significant impact on the quality and safety of the welded products and structures. But high-level training as IWI/EWI requires a long course, and employers cannot afford to take out of production employees for such a long time. Besides the course cost and its duration, travel and accommodation costs are added for those that attend the course elsewhere. Moreover, in the current context created by the pandemic situation, the training of people became even more difficult, and thus, people accessibility to face-to-face training is limited. In this context, the opening to the digital learning area has growing fast, the e-learning market being estimated to reach a global $ 200 billion by 2024.Currently, training of the IWI/EWI is still very traditional and classroom based. To respond to the current socio-economic circumstances, the project proposal entitled: “Digital training for European Welding Inspectors”, acronym D-EWI, aims to mitigate presented impediments, offering an innovative digital training course that could be attend by the people, in parallel with their daily work. Open digital educational materials will be made and used to support implementation of innovative digital technologies for teaching and learning in initial and continuing VET in the field of welds inspections. They will be developed using innovative curricula aligned to the approach based on Learning Outcomes for a correspondence to the EU Qualifications Framework levels.The project target group consist of specialists in welding and allied process, teachers in higher education and trainers of all level. Also, target group includes SMEs involved in welding industry, stakeholders from other related industrial sectors. To achieve their goals, the employers are looking for qualified staff in the field. These specialists are hard to find and needs to be periodically trained to stay up to date with the latest news in the field.On the other hand, the employees may already have a welding technology background, but they will need to enhance their education with the new and coming production requirements. The EWI course will stimulate and allow a life-long learning path for qualified personnel. By developing the strategic partnership with SMEs, the project aimed to promote e-learning to support them in their current need to employ high qualified staff and to supply of high-quality learning opportunities in the field of welds inspections for engineers, regardless of gender or social condition.On the other hand, the project address the needs of training centres which could increase their expertise in the project field, having the opportunity to enlarge of their offer. To strengthen the market position, it is necessary to expand its field of expertise and to exploit the market opportunities (sharp demand for digital training) and current requirements (new standards/regulations). The project supports their needs since it offers the opportunity to train their staff, teachers and VET trainers in welding inspections, having access to a comprehensive e-learning course, harmonized at EU level. Thus, VET teachers could develop as EWI teachers based on their background. The course will allow further development according to international guideline and the achievement of a harmonized education.<< Objectives >>General Project ObjectiveEnhancing training capabilities of VET teachers and trainers and developing of digital educational materials to support implementation of digital technologies for teaching and learning in the field of welding inspections.To support addressing VET through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity in the field of welding inspection the project has the following specific objectives:O1: International standardisation of practices in e-learning and improving the VET trainers' skill in developing and implementing of digital tools, to foster innovation in welding-related practices;The project aims to adapt existing curricula to create innovative one based on Learning Outcomes (LOs) for a correspondence to the EU Qualifications Framework (EQF) levels and to implement ECVET points. International guidelines, rules and operational procedures will be updated for the delivery of theoretical and practical training for European Welding Inspector. By implemented of the IOs, it is expected to innovate the training sector by providing further evidence on the effectiveness of the approach and on the availability of harmonised teaching tools and approaches to offer digital training.O2: Developing innovative e-learning educational materials, to improve the level of key competences in welding inspections.Open digital educational materials will be made and used to support implementation of innovative digital technologies for teaching and learning in initial and continuing VET in the field of welds inspections. Practical training of welding inspector is likely to be the most improved area, as the outcomes of the project are expected to innovate the approach to transfer a practical skill into a digital tool.<< Implementation >>To achieve the project objectives, specific activities, actions and events will be implemented in the project frame, to achieved a proper impact on the target group. Activities related to the project management and implementation is laded by ISIM, but all partners will participate. The project administration and coordination (A1) will concern the management of the project and all reporting activities performed by the project manager and financial responsible with the support of each project responsible of partners.Monitoring of the activities will be done to assess if they are performed according to the project schedule, proper outcomes and results will be obtained. The quality control and impact evaluation of the project (A2) will be performed by the project coordinator with support of all project partners. For the implementation of this activity the Quality Management Plan (QMP) will be designed, implemented and periodical review. According to QMP, each project partner have to prepare a report at every six months to support preparing yearly of the interim report by the project coordinator. If delays are revealed during assessment of the tasks assigned to one or some project partners, new deadlines will be established so that the final deadline is respected. If the partner cannot comply with new deadline, renegotiation of the tasks between partners will be done to solve this issue. The Communication Plan (CP) includes 4 meetings scheduled to be held once at every 6 months, as well as monthly online meetings via Zoom or similar.Dissemination activities (A3) will be performed according to dissemination plan (DP). EWF will coordinate the dissemination activities, since it is an organization that has own network of interested members at EU level. All project partners will participate in implementation of the DP and will undertake specific activities at national level for promotion of the project results. Associated partners will be involved in dissemination of the project events to attract stakeholders from industrial sectors using various communication channel social media, websites and own customer and partner networks. Five multiplying events will be organized in the project partners' countries to disseminate the project Intellectual Outputs (IOs). All partners will be involved to assure the project sustainability (A4). Exploitation of the project results will be led by EWF with the support of IIW and all partners will play an active role in developing and implementing of the sustainability plan. It will be focused on influencing the policy and practice from local to EU and international levels, in order to improve the current teaching techniques, using new platforms or compatibles e learning schemes for the training course, as a part for a life-long learning physiology.During the project implementation two short-term joint staff training will be organized. C1 event aims to develop the skills of VET trainers in implementing and using of the digital e learning tools and C2 event aims to develop the skills of the project staff in the field of Welding Inspections. During of these events the participants have the opportunity to perform exchange of best practice in the project topics.The main technical activities to be implemented are concentrate on developing of a ""Guide for teachers and VET trainers on implementing and using of e-learning digital tools"" (IO1) and on preparing of the digital educational materials (IO2, IO3 and IO4) to be uses in the learning process, in a professional manner in day-to-day activities of teachers. Another important activity is related to “International standardisation of practices in e learning by digital tools” (IO5). The focus will be put on implementation of the specific framework for digital education correlated to the Learning Outcomes for proper implementation of EU Credit system for VET (ECVET), for recognition of the technical skills at EU and International level.<< Results >>The activities under the project aims to achieve the following Intellectual Outputs (IOs):IO1: “Guide for teachers and VET trainers on implementation and usage of e-learning digital toolsIt will consist of educational materials (e.g. text and figures, presentations, audio and video files) developed to be aligned with the requirements of IAB 195 Guideline on e-learning, document issue by the International Authorisation Board (IAB) of the IIW. The education materials will be targeting the project staff, teachers / trainers for the future courses for IW/EWI, being essential for implementation of e-learning. In order to create an attractive learning material for trainers, the new information must be related to their previous experience, be interactive to be motivated to put into practice the assimilated knowledge, be concise to induce the idea of ease in assimilation. Through this guide, trainers will have access to various educational resources and practices and thus they can achieve a high degree of professional development.The main project result will be the e-learning educational materials (IO2 to IO4) that support the consortium organisations to provide an innovative digital education and training, VET course for IWI/EWI, in an effective way, to be aligned at the current social trends and market/customer needs. To be aligned at the international regulation, the digital training system will be developed to meet the requirements the latest versions of the EWF-IAB-041 and EWF/IAB-195 Guidelines of International Institute of Welding (IIW). Thus, it will be developed according to the modules “Welding inspection”, as follows:IO2: E-learning educational materials on quality assurance /quality control in inspection (related to Welding inspection - module 1)IO3: E-learning educational materials on testing of welds and reporting (related to Welding inspection - module 2)IO4: E-learning educational materials on practical work on testing (related to Welding inspection - module 3)The education materials will have innovative character, since they will include new techniques and technologies used in e-learning (e.g. drag & drop, sort & drag, drag & replace, hotspot reveal, gamification), being as well in line to the latest European and International standards, as well as scientifically articles that highlight the state of the art in the field. The learning materials will support the necessary knowledge skills with innovative digital tools in training for the future European Welding Inspectors being a major step forward for new digitalized teaching methods. All documents and related information will be in English to have a proper transferability potential in all countries.IO5: International standardisation of practices in e learning by digital tools.Current applicable International standards consider that only a limited amount of teaching hours can be delivered through digital tools. Limitations are based on the poor international harmonization available on the e-learning digital tools and on the insufficient information on the effectiveness in transferring information to students digitally. Specifically, current guidelines do not consider the possibility of offering the full content of the training digitally, and specifically a very limited amount of practical training as included in Module 3. IO5 will consist of updated international standards, guidelines, rules and operational procedures for the delivery of theoretical and practical training for European Welding Inspector. The expected output will consist of a revision of the applicable documents, to be made available for approval by the relevant bodies.By implemented of the IOs, it is expected to innovate the training sector by providing further evidence on the effectiveness of the approach and on the availability of harmonised teaching tools and approaches to offer digital training."