The 4th industrial revolution is coming at a worldwide scale, opening up new horizons driven by new-generation digital technologies. This change of paradigm has a profound impact in our economy and society, transforming products, processes and business models in every industry. The footwear industry is characterized as one of the most handcrafted industries in Europe. In 2016, the European Footwear Sector was represented by 20.300 companies and 286.651 direct employees. This industry has a long tradition in production and retail of innovative and high quality products, developed in accordance to the consumer needs and trends. However, the integration of the footwear industry in the so called 4th industrial revolution is delayed and the main obstacle is not about technology; it is about people! This means that the footwear industry has now to tackle the challenges presented by the new digital era. The workforce is still characterized by people with low-qualifications and even lack of ICT competences. Despite of all efforts, there still are an impressive number of footwear workers who are info-excluded. The process of creating a shoe requires artistic and technical talents and the retail must be done by competent people that are able to suggest the right shoes for the right feet, according to customers’ needs and the technological developments. Bring this talented target group to the digital era is essential to the success of the footwear sector but also to achieve a positive impact on cultural and economic terms and social inclusion. The Feet IN 4.0 project intends to bring the industry 4.0 to the footwear companies, mainly for the employees who are digital excluded or lack ICT competencies, by developing innovative training contents for trainees and trainers (toolkit) in five different profiles that partners believe to be of a great importance in the digitalization of this industry. The project establishes a work plan divided in 5 main Intellectual Outputs (IO). The first one intends to adapt the industry 4.0 guidelines to the footwear industry having in consideration the current workforce and also the past and current educational profiles taught in schools. After that, the second main IO of the project is to set a list with the important skills/competences for the footwear industry of the future. These competencies will be also linked with the new key competences created by the industry 4.0. To do so, the partnership will interview, experts, trainers, managers and employees in order to make a diagnosis in the field and will link the results obtained with the industry 4.0 strategy for Europe. The third IO of the projects is to design a training tool kit which will be applied and provided to the footwear companies, employees, trainers and teachers so that they can use and implement the new knowledge, competences and abilities in their daily activities within the company and schools. This toolkit will be focused on 5 profiles that were already settled in the preparation phase of the project but can change according to the data provided in IO2. The fourth IO of the project main goal is to test the training tool kit in real context. Therefore, all the materials and the framework developed will be first tested in real companies’ trough training pilot sessions which will be developed in the partnership countries, where the footwear industry is well represented. The training pilot sessions will be implemented by the national technological centres involved in the partnership. The final IO is related to the ECVET and EQAVET assurance as so as definition of an agreement for future cooperation and transfer of the project results. This project will set basis for the support of info excluded workers to get fitted and ready to the change that industry 4.0 will bring to them and to the companies.
The 4th industrial revolution is coming at a worldwide scale, opening up new horizons driven by new-generation digital technologies. This change of paradigm has a profound impact in our economy and society, transforming products, processes and business models in every industry. The Feet IN 4.0 project takes this pillar as its backbone for the development of skills among the future and current workers of the footwear industry. And why is the Feet IN 4.0 project focused on the footwear industry? - The footwear industry is characterized as one of the most handcrafted industries in Europe. In 2016, the European Footwear Sector was represented by 20.300 companies and 286.651 direct employees, with exports to third countries having increased by 40% in quantity and 90% in value from 2009 until 2016. - However, the workforce in the footwear industry is still characterized by people with low-qualifications and even none or severe lack of ICT competences and knowledge. Despite of all efforts, there still are a remarkable number of footwear workers who are infoexcluded. To bring this target group to the digital era is essential to the success of the footwear sector but also to achieve a positive impact in cultural and economical terms and also to assure their social inclusion. The Feet IN 4.0 project intends to incorporate the industry 4.0 in the footwear sector, having as specific targets employees, managers and other key people who have direct connection to the sector and are excluded from or have limited access to the centres of knowledge. The Feet IN 4.0 project was oriented to create new and innovative learning contents that can help trainees to overcome the future challenges arising from the uptake of industry 4.0 in the footwear industry. At the time of the project application and still to this day, Industry 4.0 it is not only a reality in the footwear industry but in all business activities. Nevertheless, the specific characteristics of this sector of activity (namely low skilled workers, info-excluded and high demanding handcrafted jobs), makes this industry the ideal group to test innovative solutions that supports workers in the process of improvement of their digital skills. That way, by creating a training tool kit that combines a more traditional teaching materials (theoretical and practical content) with virtual and augmented reality that replicates the future tasks that workers will need to be engaged, those same workers become more prepared to keep up with the technological innovation linked to their functions. As result, Feet IN 4.0’s results helps them retain their jobs with high productivity. As so, this project provides open access, innovative and free training materials that enables workers in in the new digital era. The main target groups of the project are: (1) Footwear Workforce; (2) VET teachers, trainers, coaches and other stakeholders directed connected and working in the footwear industry; (3) Potential training providers; (4) Employers and HR managers in Footwear companies; (5) Employment services and social parties; The activities of the project directly involved more than 250 participants. In terms of results with relevance for the public we highlight: - Study on Industry 4.0 applied to the footwear industry in Europe - Methodology for applying Industry 4.0 in future profiles for Footwear Industry - The FEET IN 4.0 Training Tool Kit One of the project main expectation was to support continuous training and lifelong learning namely in the digital area. In addiction to developing innovative theoretical and practical training resources, the partners of this project are still working to obtain credit validation (ECVET) of the skills acquired in the training given, as well as making evaluation of learning outcomes in order to ensure the quality of the training provided (EQAVET).