Employment in aerospatial sector is growing fast in EU and experts indicate that the main need in terms of skills is for STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and practical experience. I-TRACE project is aimed at creating strong partnerships between the world of education (VET providers, universities) and the business world, to develop technical-professional training opportunities strongly anchored to the needs of companies in the European aerospace supply chain. Specifically, the project will allow the development and experimentation of pedagogical approaches and methodologies based on digital integration in teaching, through the use of immersive learning, offered by the new 3D virtual learning environments or other innovative forms of experiential learning. Conceptual learning in immersive virtual environments is a relatively young field but with an immense potential. Virtual Reality (VR) can contribute to raise interest and motivation in students with a high potential to enhance the learning experience. However, the practical potential of VR is still being explored and understanding how to use this technology to support learning activities has been a substantial challenge for the designers and evaluators of this learning technology. It is planned to carry out a training of trainers through study visits with the various European partners, in order to transfer the successful training practices at local level in the VET sectors of each country system. After that, the application of immersive learning will be tested through pilot actions both within the VET school and in the universities. The partnership involves very experienced (company, universities) and less experienced (VET providers, chamber of commerce) partners in immersive training: the exchange of experiences among partners about their training methodologies and the debate among teachers/trainiers/mentors is in I-TRACE project the fundamental basis for the development of all project outputs. Italy Spain, Poland and Norway are the European involved Countries. I-TRACE intends to face the increasing global demand for different aerospace and aeronautic products (it is anticipated that there will be 4.8% annual growth in passenger traffic in coming years) helping the aerospace sector to be ready to meet the labour market rising demand which includes digital updated skills and - most difficult to have in existing educational paths - practical experience. Direct participants of the project are VET teachers and trainers and university teachers (about 40 in total) who will deepen immersive training methodology and technical tools, and their students who will participate to local trainings experimenting the immersive learning approach. I-TRACE envisages three intellectual outputs: a Comparative research on aerospatial sectoral skills needs, a report about best practices in immersive training and a pubblication guiding teachers and trainers in the adoption of immersive training for didactic purposes. Two kinds of training activities are foreseen: - 2 Intensive training courses 5 days long, one in Italy and one in Norway (all partners participating, represented by two teachers/trainers) - 4 Local trainings, one in each participating Country, addressed to students in vocational schools and in universities. The project results will be targeted to the students, teachers and also researchers who need to fit their skills and knowledge to the changes of technology in the aerospace sector. Impacts are expected at local, regional, national and European level. The impact will rely on application and diffusion of the deliverables produced by the project. The dissemination drivers will be the consortium partners themselves and companies and educational institution members of the I-TRACE network. The access of project participants to a number of industrial associations and research centers of aerospace sector will also guarantee the exchange the best practices and many possibilities of implementation of project results.
Launched in November 2018 and over its 24 months of duration, the project had the priority objective of experimenting in the education chain (secondary and tertiary education and training segments), the application of new training methods and teaching methodologies focused on the use of virtual reality (augmented, extended, mixed), in order to assess the innovation of these technologies and related forms of learning, both in terms of innovation of curricula and benefits for trainees. The constant collaboration between the partners and the direct involvement of stakeholders, first of all, the companies of the aerospace supply chains of the different partner countries (Italy, Spain, Poland, Norway), has allowed to obtain all the expected results. The intellectual products developed, are the following: 1) COMPARED RESEARCH ON KEY COMPETENCE FACTORS IN THE AEROSPACE SECTOR: the output aims to systematize the results of the needs analysis carried out in the field in the different countries of the partnership, through the administration of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to HR managers of companies in the sector. The action of qualitative analysis in the field has involved a total of 14 companies, Poland, 8 Italy, 5 Spain, 3 Norway. 2) REPERTORY OF GOOD PRACTICES ON THE USE OF TECHNICAL COMPETENCES: the digitization of production processes, as well as the innovation of production techniques in the field of advanced mechanics and aerospace, require the availability on the market of skills and profiles able to metabolize and govern these innovations. This also implies the need for the actors of the training system to increase their ability and speed of response in providing training proposals that meet and anchor the demands of economic operators. The repertoire of good practices represents a common and available knowledge base to enhance experiences carried out in different educational contexts, through immersive training that can constitute a methodology capable of reducing the learning time of future "professionals" in the sector. 3) GUIDELINES FOR THE DESIGN, MANAGEMENT, EVALUATION OF TECHNICAL CURRICULAR TRAINING INTERVENTIONS THROUGH THE METHODOLOGY OF IMMERSIVE TRAINING: the guidelines will bring to value the results of the pilot training courses carried out by the partners with target groups of students, teachers and trainers in each country and within secondary and tertiary training courses. The output will be a milestone of the project also in a perspective of sharing and debate with operators, companies, institutional actors. In the European panorama, as well as in the Italian context, I-TRACE has been characterized by a strong innovation and originality, aimed at starting a joint reflection between VET providers, industrial leaders, companies, policy makers to assess the extent of innovation of the immersive training methodology and its possible applications in educational contexts at different levels of technical education.