The long-term problem of the labour market in the woodworking industry is the shortage of skilled workers controlling modern technologies, which companies increasingly use in this industry. One of the main reasons for the last three years seems to be the Industry 4.0, the so-called Industrial Revolution of the 4th Generation, which brings development in the field of computing technologies. This translates into all industries. In the woodworking industry, these are mainly the CNC machines. The companies are faced with the problem of lack of employees who control these technologies. As is evidenced by the statistical data and survey of the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia these employees are already in a long-term shortage in the labour market of all three partner states. The project partners – VOŠ and SPŠ in Volyne, the Technical University in Zvolen and the Woodworking School Maribor – have decided to respond to this problem by innovating and adapting of the educational programmes in the fields of the wood processing industry, and they want to upgrade the teaching of the disciplines concerned to the needs of the labour market and employers. The main objective of the project is the innovation of teaching of CNC technologies corresponding to the needs of the labour market and employers, especially employers in the woodworking industry, in order to prepare the graduates immediately employable in the labour market with the high added value. The target group of the project are the potential employers who appreciate well-prepared graduates without the need for their long training. The added value will be therefore saving the money necessary for the training of these workers and it will help the overall increase of production efficiency. Another advantage for employers will be the scrap reduction in production, also the financial and time savings of the operations. The long-term contribution of the project can be seen in reducing the shortage of the skilled technical staff in the labour market (controlling CNC technology) In the woodworking industry. The following activities are planned throughout the project: - Project Management. - The International Project Meetings – each attended by project teams of all three partners (12 participants in total). - The establishment of cooperation with companies and other institutions - to identify the employers' needs in the operation of modern technologies in production, we should define the requirements for knowledge and experience of the graduates entering the labour market. - The improvement of the methodology and teaching of CNC technology - in order to prepare graduates to be immediately employable in the labour market, we should develop the methodology and incorporate it into teaching. - The VET Educational Activities – short-term exchanges of pupils (10 students and 4 lecturers in total) . - The organisation of competitions in design for CNC and an intensive course. The resulting effect of these activities will be the improvement in the CNC technology education system in all three involved countries using the strenghts of each partner. The main output of the project will be to create the methodology for improving and streamlining the teaching of the CNC technology in the areas of woodworking that will have the common parameters for all project partners, and so it will be transferable to other educational institutions in the field of the woodworking industry. The methodology will be publicly accessible in several places and also usable for other entities (schools, federations, employers, etc.).
The first of several goals, was to analyse the shortcomings in the teaching of subjects related to CNC technologies to find out the main reasons why teaching in this area is so problematic. Another goal was the overall streamlining in education of woodworking disciplines using CNC technology not to be excessively time-consuming for students, without the negative effect on the quality of the graduates. Another goal of the project implementation is the creation of a comprehensive teaching methodology for vocational subjects related to CNC technologies, which would reflect the current requirements of the labour market, while removing outdated teaching methods, including theoretical content that is no longer used. The subsequent implementation of the methodology at partner schools promises to increase the amount of mobilities of students and teachers, which will result in more efficient international transfer of information and skills between partner schools. The theoretical content also needs to be replaced with up-to-date study materials, which are completely missing in the field. It was also planned to test the effectiveness of methodological procedures in real teaching to identify possible shortcomings.
The main reason why the project was solved was the opportunity to obtain funding for international teams of experts in teaching CNC technologies to improve the situation related to the dynamically developing CNC technologies in the field of woodworking, to which the educational systems in the Central European region have not yet been able to respond properly. This slow response results in a lack of skilled CNC woodworking workforce, which in the long term does not lead to the full use of the potential of these machines, see annex Preliminary Analysis. Participating partners have been observing long term decrease in the number of applications for study, but also in the form of a change in the profile of applying students, who no longer come exclusively from secondary schools of related fields, but the number of graduates from other secondary schools is increasing. For this reason, all partner schools evaluated CNC technologies as an opportunity to reawaken students' interest. However, the high-quality teaching of these technologies is needed, which, however, runs into a lack of necessary materials for teaching. Due to its complexity, a comprehensive methodology is also needed to effectively carry out such teaching process.