By implementing the SFG project, we aimed to better align higher education with the evolving needs of the green and digital labour market, with a specific focus on AM and sustainable design. The primary objective was to address the existing skills gap by equipping both higher education students and adult learners with the competences required for emerging green jobs linked to AM technologies. More specifically, SFG sought to: (i) develop an innovative curriculum to train AM designers to adopt sustainable design approaches; (ii) create Open Educational Resources (OERs) to support higher education teachers and learners in mastering sustainable AM strategies; and (iii) validate all educational materials through national piloting phases to ensure their practical relevance, accessibility, and long-term usability. Ultimately, by tailoring course content to real industrial needs and delivering freely accessible training resources, the project contributed to reducing skills mismatches and unemployment, and promoted more resource-efficient and sustainable manufacturing practices across the EU.
SING for GREEN (SFG) was launched to bridge the gap between European Green Deal goals and manufacturing workforce skills. While Additive Manufacturing (AM) inherently reduces raw material waste, these benefits depend on sustainable design expertise. Our project addressed three critical needs: 1. Skill Alignment: To meet the industry's demand for "green skills," we developed two EQF Level 7 Competence Units (CUs). Through "AM Life Cycle Assessment," designers learned to analyse carbon footprints and mitigate data-related risks. Through "Sustainability-oriented Design Strategies in AM" we equipped them with technical skills in part consolidation, topology optimization, and lightweighting (lattice structures) to maximize resource efficiency. 2. Industrial Evolution: SFG supported the green transition of the manufacturing sector by aligning workforce competence development in AM with the EU’s 2050 climate-neutrality targets, contributing to the advancement of greener, more sustainable industrial value chains. 3. Environmental Impact: SFG empowered AM designers to make informed decisions using the GreenComp framework, directly reducing energy consumption and material waste.