The labour market is changing faster in the era of digitalisation and industry 4.0. It is necessary to look for the best ways to transfer the changing skills requirements to vocational education and training in order to get the best prepared adepts for employment. Given the interconnected economies, the common competitiveness of labour markets and VET systems is a common concern. Identifying best practices in other EU countries is an effective way to gain new impetus for initiating change both nationally and across Europe. The goal of the EDU4future project is to find and describe the answer to the question „how changing requirements of the labour market, with special regard to digitalisation and industry 4.0, are transferred into vocational education and training in each partner country“. From this point view, the partners will describe VET systems in individual partner countries, roles of social partners, state and regions in the process of transferring labour market requirements to education on national, regional, local and sectoral level, competencies of individual actors, examples of good practice and examples of relevant partnerships and initiatives. EDU4Future is a proposal made by a strong and multiplayer partnership of The Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Regional Chamber in Trenčín, Slovakia) that represents employers on regional level; experienced VET provider from Germany: Akademie für berufliche Bildung GmbH (Dresden); enterprise with strong track record in VET and cooperation with companies: TREXIMA, spol. r.o. (Czechia); CONPLUSULTRA GMBH (Austria): experienced consultancy company at the interface of public institutions, innovation support actors and regional SMEs facing digital transformation challenges; t2i (Italy): technology, innovation training organization from one of the most innovation location Veneto region and G&P svetovanje Gregor Jagodič s.p (Slovenia): Erasmus+ newcomer, a small consultancy university spin off company. We want to describe in detail the procedures by which 6 EU Member States, represented by 6 project partners, foresight and choose to transfer the changing requirements of the labour market, with special attention to digitalisation and industry 4.0, into vocational education and training after COVID crisis. From this point project activities are based. AfBB leads International Methodology to be used by partners to describe the situation in each partner country or even in any other EU or not EU country. Each of the partners will prepare a detailed Country Report, where the procedures – in similar way set by methodology - are described. In addition, illustrative examples of good practice will be added. Supervision over the processing of Country Reports will be held by t2i. Individual Reports will be compared by TREXIMA. The comparison will result in a comparative analysis. CONPLUSULTRA will process output recommendations. Comparing systems to learn new methods and processes from the examples of others has also the long-term goal of preparing tomorrow's workers so that: 1) they are more aware of their choices and the possibilities offered by the new sectors; 2) promoting youth employment and reducing the gender gap; 3) promoting mobility and helping to build a sense of unity and belonging to the European Union as a community 4) favoring the permanence and resilience in difficult times of skilled labor force.
The main goal of the EDU4future project was to provide an answer to the question "How are the changing requirements of the labor market with special regard to digitization and Industry 4.0 transferred to vocational education and training in individual partner countries". Next, a description of VET systems in individual partner countries, the role of social partners, the state and regions in the process of transferring of the labor market requirements to education, taking into account different administrative levels of public administration, the competences of individual actors, examples of good practices and initiatives. Another goal was to identify the possibilities of knowledge transfer and recommendations for improving the VET system at the local/regional, sectoral/national and international level. The goal was also the identification of good practice from each country aimed at the development of VET, the creation of a comparative analysis of relevant aspects that are used in adaptation processes in different countries and the processing of meaningful recommendations. A number of different perspectives and actors in the VET system were taken into account to capture stakeholder proposals.
Changes in the labor market in the era of digitization and Industry 4.0. have brought about the need to find ways to transform changing skills requirements into vocational education and training in order to obtain the best prepared candidates for employment. With respect to interconnected economies, the common competitiveness of labor markets and VET systems is a mutual concern. The requirement to match the needs of the labor market with the skills and knowledge of graduates has always been here, but nowadays new requirements are emerging at an ever-increasing pace as technological developments accelerate. In addition, Covid-19 has forced to respond to the challenges facing the industry and accelerates the need to align industrial practices with the fourth industrial revolution, I4.0. In this context, the education of qualified professionals is essential for the effective support of transformation processes. The transfer of new competences into effective training programs is a complex process in which different countries can learn a lot through mutual exchange of experiences. Identifying best practices in other EU countries is an effective way to get new stimuli for initiating changes at the national and pan-European level.