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, meeting handling the changes in the workspace, trained welders must increase their IT knowledge. The main project innovation is the inclusion of digital technologies in the existing professional welding profile in the manufacturing industry, working in the context of Industry 4.0, that will address an actual market need in terms of qualified personnel. This is a key market need to address the skills shortage and gap that affect the manufacturing sector. The WELD4.0 project, submitted in 2017 to the UK Erasmus+ National Agency, has six main objectives: 1) To re-define the European Welder profile in the context of Industry 4.0, based on new and future job requirements, analysing needed digital welding skills and competences; 2) Improve the quality of qualification programmes related to welding in terms of transparency and recognition between 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 which may include e.g. Welding Simulators, Game Based Learning, and Serious Gaming. The WELD4.0 consortium composed by 4 partners with complementary backgrounds and expertise: 1. one company with expertise in ICT training methods (HighSkillz) 2. one research organization with expertise in manufacturing and digitisation (BIBA) 3. one welding institute with both sectorial and national expertise in VET and welding (ISQ) 3. a European umbrella association (EWF) with members, which are VET providers, in 31 European countries. WELD4.0 is going to innovate the Welding VET by updating the European Welder profile, to harmonise and standardise requirements and training standards across Europe. The enhanced profile is also addressing new technologies in the context of Industry 4.0. Based on that profile, innovative tools are developed, including new approaches of teaching and learning using methods for skill and competence development such as Game Based Learning, Simulators and Serious Gaming. The new approach is piloted through hands-on approach seminars in three different industrial countries in Europe: Germany, Portugal and the UK. Furtheron, WELD4.0 is providing national and international events (i.e. the Partnership Capacity Building Events and the International Project Conference) to disseminate the new approach to the VET and welding industry. WELD4.0 is defining a marketing and exploitation plan to ensure sustainability after project lifetime. Therefore, the WELD4.0 project is organized in seven main Activities (A): A1 - European Welder, an overview of the curriculum and its shortages A2 - Partnership Capacity Building Event & Hands-on Approach Seminars A3 - European Welder profile updating with novel ICT-based learning methods, including EQF and ECVET A4 - Quality Assurance and Evaluation A5 - Marketing & Dissemination A6 - Exploitation and Valorisation A7 - Project Management The expected outputs of WELD4.0 include an initial report, the European welder curriculum re-design, a set of WELD4.0 learning and training tools, a report on evaluation studies and recommendations for best practices, and Guide for implementation of WELD4.0 methodology to other industrial sectors. Finally, WELD4.0 will have a significant impact across Europe, during and after the project duration, because it will add innovation to an existing professional profile and a real market need in line with the digitisation needs and the standards of Industry 4.0.
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.