SAMANTHA Kick-off meeting

The kick-off meeting of the project SAMANTHA took place between 24th and 25th September 2019 in Karlsruhe at KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Germany. The project, financed by European Commission in the field of the Erasmus + programme „Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training“, has the aim of creating Skills in Additive MANufacturing for the Toolmaking and HAbitat Sectors. The consortium, guided by KIT, is actively formed by AMUEBLA (Spain), CEIPES – Italy, CENFIM – Spain, CENTROCOT – Italy, ILI-FAU, Germany and TECOS, Slovenia.

The SAMANTHA project wants to anticipate the improvement/update strategy, especially in the field of VET because the current offer of European VET has to respond to such challenges and take advantage of the great opportunities that lie ahead, such as the gap that exists in the Toolmaking industry and the Habitat sector. For this reason, SAMANTHA aims to develop an innovative training program that addresses the high-tech T-shaped skill gaps for the proper implementation of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in the value chains of that sectors through a skilled workforce.

During the Kick-off meeting, apart from the presentations of all present organizations and of the principal objectives of the project, all outputs that will be created during all 36 months of the project were presented.

In detail, the partners will develop and test 5 Intellectual Outputs (IO) over the project period:

• IO1- Create flexible learning pathways and didactic tools based on the learning outcomes approach, able to provide, assess and recognize the key competences identified in target groups.
• IO2- To ensure good alignment of VET programmes with the requirements of the Toolmaking industry and Habitat sector regarding AM.
• IO3- To boost the Digital Transformation and the Smart Industrial Specialisation of these manufacturing sectors with a competent implementation of AM in their value chains.
• IO4- To increase competitiveness and productivity of these sectors with a continuous up/re-skilling of the workforce with the required high-tech T-shaped skills needed in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
• IO5- To raise awareness and to improve the image of KETs and STEM graduates in society as a field to work in.

During the project meeting, the individual work steps of the first intellectual output were dealt with in greater depth and the further procedure was discussed. In the last phase of the project, the project results of SAMANTHA will be presented and distributed in multiplier events in all participating countries of the consortium.

The next transnational project meeting oft he consortium will be held in March 2020 in Yecla, Spain hosted by project partner AMUEBLA.