Sharing ideas to shape the future occupations of the European TCLF Industries

The project partners of the European funded project “Skills4Smart TCLF Industries 2030 Blueprint” have successfully started to brainstorm with Vocational Education and Training providers in Europe on upgrading certain of the TCLF occupations and respective training programmes. Focus Group sessions have been organised in Paris and Milan to weigh in with a variety of perspectives regarding the latest skills needs in the TCLF industries. These Focus Groups are part of the across-the-board approach on which the project is based, an approach that understands that skills mismatches can only be tackled if industry and education stakeholders work together.

During the previous phase of the project, the 22 partners gathered input from the business community through a survey that assessed how recent drivers of change have an impact on the nature of current and anticipated TCLF occupations. Based on the survey results, 8 occupation profiles have been identified as being particularly affected, hence the need to upgrade their description and training programmes to sustain the performance and competitiveness of European TCLF companies in a period marked by constant and fast-paced change.

In this second phase, education experts from VET centres across Europe are invited to join the respective national Focus Group to contribute to the definition of each of these 8 qualification profiles and shape the skills and competences required in accordance with the latest technologies and drivers of change. The discussions and contributions will allow project partners to refine and validate precise and detailed skills sets for which training curricula will then be developed. These focus groups and interviews are also an opportunity to share ideas on how to feed the forthcoming pilot phase that will see curricula be implemented in VET centres in Europe. The first Focus Groups were organised in France and Italy, and VET providers showed great interest in the initiative and suggested and validated new sets of skills to upskill the existing profiles. They also manifested their willingness to participating in the pilot phase.

The press release can be downloaded here