Globalization and technological innovation (4th Industrial Revolution) bring long term changes in the world economy that are altering the structure and the future of the labour market. The decision makers should realize that in the near future the job vacancies will not be reduced due to technological advances but due to the fact that the nature of these vacancies will change. These new vacancies will shift rapidly in favour of employees that are skilled and educated people in the fields of nanotechnology, robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, programming, automations, data science. Moreover, the market needs require employees that have the ability to solve problems, take the initiative, be innovative, have management & entrepreneurial skills in order to survive & be employable under open market globalization conditions. Also, the business word believes that new technologies such as AI will create more jobs than will destroy; by 2020 AI was expected to automate 1.8 million people out of work, but also to create 2.3 million new jobs - a net gain of 500.000 jobs. It is however harder to imagine industries that do not yet exist and how these will create jobs for all types of workers. This is why data science for example is so intriguing right now: it is one of the early, emerging industries that has come into being because of AI. A direct product of data science is also the field of IoT; until 2020 more than 20 billion were expected to be connected to collect applicable information for various human activities (e.g. track noise, track pollutants, the number of cars in a parking lot). This was expected to create more jobs related to new technologies. The Higher Education in Europe should react fast and shape its educational programs in order to ensure that its graduate students enter the work equipped with the sort of skills firms are willing to fight over in a global base. HEIs should contribute also to the lifelong distance learning of the European citizens in order that the latter be able to re-skill themselves and remain employable under the new conditions the 4th Industrial Revolution has set. The CRETE project proposed a flexible curriculum of modules & training activities for electronic engineers that address all the aforementioned priorities. CRETE project offers an open access platform (the credentials will provided after a communication with the coordinator in [email protected]) of modules related to technologies the 4th Industrial Revolution brings. All the modules are fully developed and can be used by any lifelong learner or student in order to study the most wanted hard and soft skills the 4th Industrial Revolution era is looking for. The platform (CRETE) includes modules in nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, artificial intelligence, robotics, 5G Communications, data science, neural networks, machine learning, management, innovation & entrepreneurship. The CRETE platform envisions to work complementary to the conventional course curricula that exist in any Department of Electronic Engineering in Europe and introduce the 4th Industrial Revolution competences in an introductory level. The project does not envision to cancel the existing curricula but to make them more competitive and tuned to the forthcoming changes. The complementarity of the proposed modules will make easier its integration in the existing curricula and facilitate their accreditation if this will be decided by the respective bodies. The project does not only focus on the teaching of engineering students in technical themes but emphasises on the teaching of academics on the most modern educational methods in order to provide high quality education which will result in competitive graduate students. During the project, modules, which target modern teaching methods such as problem based learning, flipped classroom and blended teaching, offered training and knowledge to students but also to academics to modernize their ways of learning and teaching respectively. The online format (online lectures) of all the proposed modules and their free access through the project's educational platform will contribute towards the re-education of adult learners all over the globe in modern technological & teaching skills (technical & soft skills) in accordance to the modern market needs and future developments. To increase the impact of the project ,all the modules and all the material delivered in the executed Intensive courses have been developed in English. All this material can be found in the CRETE projects’ Moodle platform. The consortium envisions to engage more partners into the project even beyond its lifetime. All of its material will be integrated into the ATHENA European University (athena-uni.eu) platform as a service to students of this Alliance. The consortium will update the project's educational platform with new material even beyond its funding lifetime. This action is very important to be followed by the consortium and beyond it in order for the HEIs curricula to be able to respond to the fast-paced change of the market requirements regarding the skills an electronic engineer should have.
Globalization and technological innovation (4th Industrial Revolution) bring long term changes in the world economy that are alternating the structure and the future of the labour market. The decision makers should realize that in the near future the job vacancies will not be reduced due to technological advances but the nature of these vacancies will change. These new vacancies will shift rapidly in favour of employees that are skilled and educated people in the fields of nanotechnology, robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, programming, automations, data science. Moreover the market needs request employees that have the ability to solve problems, to take the initiative, to be innovative, to have management & entrepreneurial skills in order to survive & be employable under open market globalization conditions. Moreover the business word believes that new technologies such as AI will create more jobs than it will destroy; by 2020 AI will automate 1.8 million out of the work but will create 2.3 million jobs - a net gain of 500.000 jobs. It is harder to imagine industries that do not yet exist and how they will create jobs for all types of workers. This is why data science for example is so intriguing right now: it is one of the early, emerging industries that has come into being because of AI. A direct product of data science is the field of IoT; right now 8 billion sensors are connected to collect applicable information for various human activities (e.g. track noise, track pollutants, the number of cars in a parking lot); until 2020 more than 20 billion will be connected. This is expected to create more jobs related to new technologies the 4th Industrial Revolution will introduce. The Higher Education in Europe should react fast and shape its educational programs in order to ensure that its graduate students enter the work equipped with the sort of skills firms are willing to fight over in a global base. HEIs should contribute also to the life long distance learning of the European citizens in order the latter to be able to re-skill themselves and remain employable under the new conditions the 4th Industrial Revolution have set. CRETE projects proposes a flexible curriculum of modules & training activities that addresses all the aforementioned priorities. CRETE project that will offer innovative, high quality training in all the new and interlinked emerging technologies the 4th Industrial Revolution brings and will demand an electronic engineers to know. The proposed modules in nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, artificial intelligence, robotics, data science, neural networks, machine learning, management, innovation & entrepreneurship will complete the existing conventional course curricula of the consortium Universities. The project is not envisioned to cancel the existing curricula but to make them more competitive and tuned to the forthcoming changes. This will make the proposed modules easier to be integrated and accredited by all the partner Universities. The project is not only focused on the teaching of engineering students in technical themes but empathizes the teaching of academics of the most modern educational methods in order to provide high quality education which will result in competitive graduate students. So the program will offer training in problem solving learning strategies for engineers, online teaching & assessment methods, teaching oral & written presentation skills, performing open science research. The online form (online lectures) of all the proposed modules and theirs free access through the project's educational platform, is believed will contribute towards the re-education of the adult learners all over the globe in modern technological & teaching skills (technical & soft skills) and in accordance to the modern market needs and future developments. To increase the impact of the project all modules will be developed in English, all planned Intensive courses will be live streamed in the Internet in order for more people to benefit from the CRETE project. The consortium envisions to engage more partners into the project during and beyond its lifetime. The consortium promises to make the project's objectives priorities within the consortium Universities and update the project's educational platform with new material even beyond its funding lifetime. This action is very important to be followed by the consortium and beyond it in order for the HEIs curricula to be able to respond to the fast pace change of the market requirements regarding the skills an electronic engineer should have.