Cecimo Launches Initiative Aimed at Remedying European Skills Gap

 

Cecimo, the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries, is partnering with trade associations in Germany, Italy and Spain to launch the Machine Tool Alliance for Skills (METALS) initiative. METALS falls under the European Union’s Erasmus+ Sector Skills Alliance program. The three-year project aims to provide tool builders with skilled labor as part of remedying the European skills gap.

Cecimo’s German, Italian and Spanish national associations (VDW, UCIMU and AFM, respectively) have developed METALS to improve the relevance of vocational education and training (VET) in the machine tool industry by bringing together industry representatives, VET providers and regulatory bodies from the three countries. The alliance first analyzes emerging technologies in the sector and builds a skills panorama highlighting the future skills needed by European machine tool builders. In the second phase, the alliance will design a sector-wide curriculum and gather relevant learning materials which will be available through an e-learning platform for the European machine tool workforce. One of the technology focuses of the program is additive manufacturing.

By bringing together partners from education and industry across Europe, METALS is expected to improve the sector’s labor market intelligence by providing policymakers with the insights they need to design policies and programs. Throughout the initiative, the consortium will also organize skills workshops in Germany, Spain and Italy with the participation of relevant stakeholders.

“With METALS, our sector has made use of the framework provided by the EU’s Sector Skills Alliance initiative to develop new channels to influence the curriculum delivered in Europe and to supply the industry with the skills actually needed with a long-term strategy,” says Filip Geerts, director general of Cecimo.

Cecimo, visit cecimo.eu.