Industry 4.0, digital revolution, smart factories, global interconnection – these are the keywords describing the present developments of the labour world. Vocational training can become “the first choice” to live this transformation, but at present only a few training centres in Europe can exploit necessary equipment and, even more important, teachers and trainers are not aware of the dimension of such changes, or can exploit the required tools (conceptual and methodological first, rather than technological). Some of them tend to adapt the same (sometimes old fashioned) methods to new topics; some of them are not fully aware of existing on-line tools for learning, teaching, assessing; some of them do not interact with each other as much as they could, thinking they have know-how to “defend” ; some of them need a clearer picture of the nature, implications and real meaning of the 4.0 paradigm, which is not only “Industry” 4.0 and technology.
The erasmus+ project “Fit for 4.0” took up the challenge of trying to fill the gaps that still exist in the transition to the world of Industry 4.0 and achieved the following goals:
- description of a “minimum” of skills set, namely didactical and transversal, needed by teachers/trainers with regard to the 4.0 transition;
- development of a competence self-assessment tool, allowing VET teachers/trainers to measure their readiness for the 4.0 world and digital transformation;
- developiment and testing of a training programme delivered as a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course), complete with examples of training material, methods for learning assessment, (truly) innovative tools for training and learning.
If you are interested, please keep monitored the project website because the MOOC will be available soon!