South Mediteranian Welding Center for Education, Training and Quality Control,

The economic and deep political crisis in the South Mediteranian (SM) region show that access to higher education is NOT a sufficient prerequisite for economic stabilty and job creation. The mismatching between academic programmes and labour market has created a political and economic void where young, high educated people have difficult to build careers in the industrial sector.The SM Weld promotes a novel nodel of partnership university-industry to enhance quality of workforce through education and training contributing to knowledge transfer, increasing employability of engineers and technical staff and supplying North-African industry with highly qualified personnel. The implementation of welding standard ISO 3834 in North African companies will contribute to a considerable strengthen of their economical competitivness.SM Weld overall goal is to implement the International System for Higher Education and practical Qualification of Welding Personnel based on the harmonised European System for Welding. The SM Weld objectives:(i) Academic level: MSc specialization in Welding and Coordinatation of the IWE/IWT education(ii) Welding personnel: Implement and Coordinate activities of training and certification of welding personnel(iii) Company level: Coordinate the implementation and certification of welding organizations in ISO 3834.To accomplish these objectives:(i) Education: Master specialization in welding and joining (ii) Mobility: Training of academic and welding academic staff and personnel in EU- and PC countries(iii) Knowledge transfer: Dissemination and information seminars, and workshops regarding implemention of ISO 3834 (iv) Certification: Development of a common European recognized qualification and certification system in welding.The project was carried out by a Consortium of 18 partners from 6 Programme Countries and 2 Partner Countries. The project workplan is distributed in tasks grouped in 7 Work packages. Each work package belongs to one of the four work phases: preparation, development, dissemination and exploitation and management. WP1 is in the preparation phase, WP2 and WP3 are in the development phase, WP4 is part of the quality plan phase, WP5 and WP6 are in the dissemination and exploitation phase, and eventually, WP7 is the management phase. It should be emphasized that WP5 is the genuine dissemination while WP6 is the main exploitation directed work. Establishing the Center for Welding and Joining, during the project's life, as the first South Mediterrianian Welding Center is considered the major contribution to the exploitation effort, with concentration of resources on exploitation and certification which justifies an own workpackage. Given the complexity of the project's aim and the relatively large number of partners required to implement the project tasks, the project is organized in three main clusters, transversally to the work packages. In addition to a more flexible and cost efftive project structure, this type of organizing the work will strengthen the communication between partners. The three clusters are: Education and specialization (CEd), Training and Certification (CTr), Welding and Joining Center (CCe). Each partner is assigned, as the major activity, to a cluster. Each cluster will develop each workplan and strategy. The leaders of the clusters assume responsibility for progress monitoring and inter-communication among clusters and to the project coordinator. Project Outputs• Welding specialization• Welding Center organization• Educational and training material• Training of staff and academic staff • Exploitation Plan • Certification system