WOODigital aims at developing a dual learning system to enhance digital skills of young Europeans interested in entrepreneurial ad employment opportunities in the woodworking and furniture sector. The model proposed is thought to be strongly work-based and provided with a component of international mobility, so as to provide young learners with the opportunity to apply knowledge in real work-life situations. The action is targeted to help the EU youth becoming a key driver for challenging the emergence of Industry 4.0 and IoT, which have been soundly reshaping the woodworking and furniture industry in recent times. As well, it contributes to feed with young skilled workers a sector made up almost completely of SMEs and aged workforce, thus avoiding the loss of European manufacturing and craftsmanship history. The project thrives within both cooperation and knowledge frameworks of other EU projects (WOODUAL, FUNES, IM-FUTURE, DIGIT-FUR, and others), which have been claiming the use of dual learning system in wood and furniture sector to improve digital skills and employability of young people and cooperation between business and VET providers across Europe. At the core of the project there is a strategic management of knowledge by: - fostering teaching and learning of digital skills, WOODigtial strives to strengthen employability and key competences of young people, making woodworking a knowledge-based industry. The more woodworking processes and products are digital and digitalized, the more data and information are available to SMEs and other relevant players to make their offer more effective and valuable to the market, enhancing the decision-making process; - running a feedback loop, the partnership is committed to nurture strategic links to further enhance synergies among woodworking-based projects at EU level; - being involved in long-lasting cooperation and business relationships, partners have been producing new knowledge that is worth to be investigated through additional resources, facilitating a knowledge-transfer process between education and business for mutual improvements.
Through WOODigital, we wanted to reinforce certain essential skills by creating a learning system which promotes innovation, new technology development, and knowledge concerning the double transition, digital and green. Furthermore, we wanted to develop partnerships that focus on promoting learning in the work environment toward wood sector industry representatives, social partners, innovation centers and VET providers in order to allow young people to put into practice their digital skills in professional situations. Finally, our objective was to support the dissemination of innovatives teaching approaches. We wanted to create a double learning system, to promote innovation in the sector, all while reinforcing digital skills and employability of young woodworkers, and helping them to seize opportunities offered by Industry 4.0 on a European level (big data and IoT, new materials, circular economy). Finally, thanks to the online platform and WOODigital’s innovative training course, we wanted to encourage the exchange of best practices on a European level.
The industrial wood and furniture sector is facing the aging of its workforce and tensions linked to recruiting young qualified workers. This new dynamic has led to evolutions in the sector and further integration of Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things (digitalization of industries, big data, etc.). These two elements have produced a new source of innovation in micro-enteprises and SMEs and requires the creation of learning content which allows learners to acquire new digital skills, necessary for analyzing knowledge and information collected by digital mechanisms. Thus, keeping in mind the consequences linked to these transformations, the project responds to companies’ needs: Improve woodworkers’ green and digital skills in order to face the digital transition and the industrial digitalization of manufacturing; Reorient students’/learners’ choices toward market needs, through an innovative and attractive training offer: Encourage young Europeans, future employees and jobseekers to pursue their careers in the wood and furniture sector by promotion its dynamic and attractive aspects.