The fourth industrial revolution based on the new paradigm of Industry 4.0 requires both the skills adaption to new technological progresses and the inclusion of a gender approach to face economic and social challenges in terms of youth unemployment and industrial skills mismatch in Europe. The Industrial VET Hub is based on the cooperation of international partners form Nothern (Germany), Central (Germany), Eastern (Estonia) and Southern (Spain) Europe to address these challenges by means of coping them with European VET systems of quality, which is the key education sector in which youngsters, and specially females, will gain the specific skills demanded by the industrial companies. Above all, the Hub will cooperate towards the positioning of Europe as an international reference based on the talent acquired through VET systems of prestige and inclusion of gender issues. The general objective of the Industrial VET Hub will be therefore to build a sustainable transnational partnership to exchange good practices and implement strategic recommendations to tackle the industrial skills mismatch in general and to address industrial gender imbalances at school and the industrial sector. The specific objectives are (1) to address and evaluate the sort of profiles and skills needed by the industrial labor market of the partner countries; (2) to address industrial skills mismatch, gender wage gaps or imbalances in industrial companies of the partner countries; (3) to improve VET industrial-related studies and curricula to reduce the industrial skills shortage of youngsters in partner countries; (4) to improve VET industrial-related studies to make it more attractive to female youngsters in partner countries; (5) to assess the gender parity approach in all good practices and recommendations in parnter countries and (6) to develop and implement recommendations in the specific areas which are not performing appropriately. The Industrial VET Hub is an innovative feature in itself, as will serve as a strategic knowledge platform involved in the industrial sector at the European level, and will work around the challenges around the nexus between VET, industry and gender. Later, the Hub will be sustainable over the years at it is expected to continue running to work together to tackle skills mismatches of industrial students and professionals within the industrial sector, especially females, as well as to continue working to closing the gender gap in this sector. Through the Industrial VET Hub, a thematic pool in the form of a European Round Table of Industrial VET is expected to be created at the international level to attain a sustainable and inclusive growth of EU economy by addressing the skill mismatching of industrial occupations and adapt it to new requirements of Industry 4.0, as well as promoting the gender balance within industrial occupation, especially for women.
The 4th industrial revolution has brought new technological changes an a generalised skills mismatch at the EU labour market, mainly on the industrial sectors of electronics, mechatronics, ICT or metal works. Europe encounters high difficulties to fill in new occupations that, along with the existing gender imabalances within, impacts negatively in youth employment rates across the continent. The “Industrial VET Hub” (IVH) was the first of its kind to become an international partnership of VET schools from Northern (Denmark), Central (Germany), Eastern (Estonia) and Southern (Spain) Europe by focusing on the role of VET as the best education system for youngsters, and especially females, to gain the specific high-level skills demanded by the industrial companies and better adapt to these and future challenges of the sector. The general objective of the Industrial VET Hub was therefore to build a transnational partnership based on the cooperation of European VET experts to exchange good practices and make strategic recommendations on how to tackle the industrial skills mismatch and how to address industrial gender imbalances at the education and the industrial sector. Regarding participants, a total of 8 project participants represented the 4 partner organisations, who participated directly in the transnational meetings, activities, identification of good practices and making the recommendations. Also, a total of 22 teacher participants were selected by each partner organisation to participate in the staff training activities (both physical and virtual, being a maximum of 2 industrial teachers per country, with at least 1 women per organisation positively discriminated as an exemple of gender balance in the project. Regarding activities, these were undertaken by phases to achieve particular results and linked to specific deliverables done at the end of each project phase: Within Phase 1, all partners collected key facts and data about the proportion of women studying industrial VET, women employed in industrial occupations or gender wage gap in the sector resulted in a higher openness to other EU contexts and was reflected in the “Infography on the initial situation of industrial VET, skills and gender gap”: https://industrialvethub.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/ind-vet-hub_version-5-3.pdf; Within Phase 2, partners guarantees quality assurance along the project; Within Phase 3, all partners identified and exchanged the best practices located in each country at company, VET and secondary schools, with special attention to gender, resulted in a productive exchange among partners and was compiled into the “Manual of Good Practices on Industry, VET & Gender”: https://view.genial.ly/601953f56e2cb50d83c934b4/guide-manual-of-good-practices; Within Phase 4, partners elaborated the recommendations aimed at industrial companies, VET schools, youngsters/societies and authorities/decision-makers, resulting in a collaborative work and professional exchange of expertise in the subject, compiled into the “Guide of Recommendations”: https://industrialvethub.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/guide-of-recommendations-v3-def.pdf; Within Phase 5, staff from partner organisations participated in short-term joint training activities that gave them the opportunity to exchange different local, national and international points of view and the creation of a stronger network of trust among project partners on the nexus between VET, industry and gender. Regarding impact, partners got more knowledgeable about the relationship between VET, industry and gender in Europe but also in their own territories. By working together in this transnational partnership, they got also deeper expertise on how to make targeted recommendations, and gained strong reputation for being the first partners of this sectoral VET Hub aimed at tackling societal challenges in Europe. Also, by learning from other International good practices, staff participants got more awareness about the need to find female teachers to work in technical disciplines as role models and how to motivate girls to study technical fields in-school. Regarding benefits, different EU VET organisations worked together in the field of skills mismatch and gender underepresenration in industrial VET studies, that could not be solved separately. By sharing their experiences, best practices and making recommendations they developed new ideas to create experimental learning approaches to better promote industrial vocations among females and adapt VET to the rapid evolution of the industrial scenario in Europe. Todayu, partners are therefore in the position to offer their companies, VET staff, youngsters and local authorities with practical knowledge on what works better and how this can be undertaken step by step in each context, that in the long term will help to invest in the future of youngsters and females in particular.