Insights
need for advanced technology and digital skills increases every year. Metalworkers should be qualified with wide array of skills, including metal tooling knowledge, mechanical and mechatronic skills along with programming, robotics, computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), networking IT security and big data. Moreover, worker of smart factory is expected to be confident in change and innovation management, be able to self-learn and coach others. “When the global market requires to increase efficiency, new challenges rise in front of each metalworking company. In engineering industry, the problem is that
professional skills in need are constantly changing. Giant concerns, such as Siemens or Continental, have a huge potential to invest to special tools for the training of human resources to increase efficiency. But other companies, mainly SME (small and medium-sized enterprises), are not able to put so many finances and devote so much time to educate their employees”, - notices G.Rimša, project manager and chairman of management board in UAB Baltec CNC Technologies. The learning system, developed in the project, should let enterprises of metalworking sector have qualified workers and gain competitive position within the EU.
EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTS Products, developed during project Industry 4.0 Challenge: Empowering Metalworkers for Smart Factories of the Future can be used in VET as well as directly on the job training in metalworking enterprises. Next to the VET programme, self-adaptive workbased learning system was developed. G. Rimša points out, that CNC operating is a process of machine controlling: both programming and setting tool parameters can be considered digital skills. So CNC operators have already been digital natives a long time ago. Seemingly it should be easy to increase their additional 45