The first objective of the project was to identify the needs, limitations and knowledge gaps which SMEs face in relation to AI and its potential for their business, in order to determine how the training content developed during the project can best address the knowledge gaps needed to increase staff confidence in AI and digital competence relevant to modern labour market needs. The second objective of the PAITool project was to develop a new training course, made up of 8 modules, to support SME staff in adapting to and enacting digital transformation by learning how to incorporate AI systems and tools in their own business structure and gain a competitive edge in the market. The third objective was to deploy the course and deliver training to over 60 SME staff, by making the course freely accessible on the PAITool website, as well as conducting Train-the-Trainer workshops and Upskilling workshops in Slovakia and Malta. The final objective of the project was to gather feedback on the project outputs in order to evaluate the success of the course and provide suggestions for improvement in future projects centred around the same topic.
We applied for this project primarily to contribute to the EU’s strategies on AI and digital skills, using SCDI and AcrossLimits’ combined expertise. Providing opportunities for AI training is essential to upskill the European workforce with digital competencies needed to address modern labour market needs and prepare SMEs for the digital transformation, to meet both European and national targets for digitisation. We sought to address the needs of 3 main target groups: 1. Professionals working in SMEs who need to improve their digital and AI knowledge and skills in order to bridge the digital skills gap to be able to both compete with larger companies and to meet the new digital skill needs. 2. Training organisations and/or educators working in on-the-job training environments.These training providers would benefit from the transformation of their courses to cover AI. 3. Unemployed or low-qualified people in employment with limited IT or AI training or knowledge who need to upskill to meet the challenges brought on by the digital transformation. With the future of the workforce being digitised, it is essential to ensure that unemployed or less skilled people are upskilled or reskilled to meet the labour market needs.