The 'Europa 2020' strategy main goal is the advancement of the European Union economy. Additionally European Union in “Final report: Skills for Key Enabling Technologies in Europe” (Published on: 07/04/2016) defined direct needs for skilled professionals. Our project directly answering to defined needs connected with KET - Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (including innovative technologies, such as 3D printing, robotics, automation). More information about European Strategy for KETs: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/policy/key-enabling-technologies/european-strategy_en. Among the specific targets to be achieved before 2020 are increase of employment rate of the population and raising the level of education of the society. The way to do this is i.a. greater accessibility and attractiveness of vocational training. Nowadays over 95% of teenagers and 80% of people in other age groups uses mobile ICT devices regularly. The smartphone is natural and integral part of their world. In several years they will enter to the labour market. It is crucial to provide training system utilising this integral part of their daily life. The Eurostat unveils that in 2016 69% of enterprises in the EU27 made portable devices available to staff. Mobile devices make possible continuous and easy access to context and user related information automatically provided in the current learning place. The enormous popularity of mobile devices and their rapidly growing computational power results i.a. in explosion of VR and AR technologies availability for everyone. Facing these trends is the project MILAN, which addresses the Horizontal priority 1 of the Erasmus+ call 2018 "Open and innovative practices, in a digital era". Its main objective is to develop a vocational training system that will use the latest ICT solutions. It is assumed to use commonly used mobile devices for access to the training platform and for share the training content and other materials. The planned results will allow radically shorten the time needed to provide new skills and expertise needed on demanding industry labour market by developed learning materials and tools as well as actions that support the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies including Virtual and Augmented Reality solutions. Partnership: MILAN will be developed in close cooperation of six partners from four European countries – Poland, Slovakia, Estonia and Greece. All partners have the necessary long year experience not only in the respective professional area they occupy but also in transnational cooperation in different EU projects and programmes. The knowledge and competences of partners are complementary, so all consortium together create strong, powerful and effective team, able to realize all objectives of the ambitious project plan. The strength of the partner institutions and the individual skills of the team members guarantee the widespread dissemination of the results of the project and their use after its completion. Beneficiaries - main target groups: • People employed at SMEs: workers tending advanced machines (robots, automats, assembling cells/machines), middle-level technical staff • Teachers/trainers/consultants in the field of Robotics and Automation • Students of vocational schools Intellectual Outputs: O1 - Case studies O2 - MILAN Curricula O3 - MILAN Training content O4 - Multifunctional Educational-Training Network Platform • eLearning system • lessons for mobile devices • interactive exercises • movies for PC, tablets and smartphones O5 - MILAN Training Methodology Expected impact is to improve the quality of training systems through the development of innovative training system, content, methods and procedures within VET by new mobile ways of presenting content of new structured lessons. The solution will help to raise citizens' skills and help tackle the high levels of unemployment, especially among the youth.
The results of the MILAN project are directly addressed to the Erasmus+ call 2018 Horizontal priority “Open and innovative practices in a digital era” – the project activities are oriented to the elaboration of high-quality, open and innovative training materials and tools in the field of Robotics and Automation with the support of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. All the training materials developed in MILAN are installed on the multifunctional e-learning platform milan.coursevo.com. This web-based platform delivers a new quality of training oriented on identified needs in the field of Advanced Manufacturing. The MILAN training system contains online e-learning courses, lessons, interactive exercises and multimedia materials available either for PC, tablets, and smartphones. MILAN results use modern ICT solutions, including Virtual and Augmented Reality available without specialised applications but only a web browser. The project main target groups are: 1) People employed at SMEs: workers tending advanced machines (robots, automats, assembling cells/machines), middle-level technical staff, 2) Teachers/trainers/consultants in the field of Robotics and Automation, 3) Students of vocational schools. The MILAN training program is divided into 4 blocks, 10 modules and 27 lessons developed in 5 languages (English, Estonian, Greek, Polish, Slovak). The curriculum has been designed in such a way that it is not necessary to carry out all the lessons, but only those that are directly needed by the recipient. This allows course participants to choose only the material that suits their needs and acquire the necessary knowledge in the shortest possible time. In addition, the pilot solutions in the form of materials using AR and VR technologies allows mastering the specialised skills of using robots in advanced production without needing to purchase expensive equipment or travel to specialised training centers. The MILAN project approach and training platform integrates state-of-the art ICT technologies and solutions that can be effective to implement attractive forms of vocational education and training, and at the same time contribute to reducing the exclusion of people with difficult access to traditional forms of education / training - distance, transport problems, financial restrictions. MILAN supports a more flexible and accessible form of practical training, which is crucial in the Robotics and Automation field, traditionally organized by robot manufacturers in physical equipment with the use of specially prepared educational stations. Towards this end, MILAN provides learning experiences supported by multimedia and AR/VR technologies, as well as advanced communication and collaboration tools allowing connections with remote laboratories. Targeting on accessibility, MILAN exploits web-based technologies and formats, including recent standards for supporting AR/VR experiences on the Web, making its training platform and content easily accessible across a wide range of devices, not only computer stations with expensive hardware and installations but also popular mobile devices, e.g. smartphones. Those characteristics make the MILAN approach and training platform promising in supporting training in the field of Robotics and Automation, as well as other related fields where practical training is important, in a wide audience.