The main goal for the project was to foster the digital transformation and development of the textile industry in Catalonian/Spanish and Slovenian territories by addressing skill and knowledge gaps and providing textile employees with the required skills to face the current challenges of the sector. The ultimate result/achievement of this project was the development of a virtual training programme covering the lack of knowledge in the Catalonian/Spanish and Slovenian textile industries related to digitalisation as well as the creation of a strong collaborative relationship between the project partners which will outlast the duration of this project and continue to drive positive developments in the area of digital adaptation in their respective European regions. The adoption of digital transformation is key to allow the EU textile industry to be at the forefront of the new competitive market scenarios. Thus, this e-training platform will enable industry to upskill, reskill and transform the entire workforce within organisations with a strategic lens on digitalisation.
The digital and green transformation of the textile industry will require a totally different skill set for managers and operators in order to drive this transformation within their organisations. As such, this project conducted a needs analysis to identify common needs and expectations as well as skill and knowledge gaps within the Catalonian/Spanish and Slovenian textile industry which were addressed through the development of an online training programme. Overall, organisations were at low to medium levels of digitalisation with some still using basic Excel based processes, whereas others started to look at more advanced software applications in the areas of customer and process management, production sensors, business intelligence services and data analytics. Overall, the main challenges were the lack of knowledge in relation to the various technological applications available as well as their applicability and potential return on investment. As such, the approach taken for the online training platform was to provide a general overview of digitalisation, the various technologies used to digitalise processes within organisation as well as provide practical case studies to showcase their various applications and impact.