SAMANTHA 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.
SAMANTHA project has five main project objectives that are composed of 5 main Intelectual Objects (IO’s). The main objectives are:
O1– 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.
O2– To ensure good alignment of VET programmes with the requirements of the Toolmaking industry and Habitat sector regarding AM.
O3– To boost the Digital Transformation and the Smart Industrial Specialisation of these manufacturing sectors with a competent implementation of AM in their value chains.
O4– 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.
O5– To raise awareness and to improve the image of KETs and STEM graduates in society as a field to work in.
The consortium partners have been undertaking deep analysis in order to have a complete overview of the role of Additive Manufacturing (AM) both in the Toolmaking industry and Habitat sector as well as to prepare a comparative report of the related VET training offer.
Currently, partners successfully finished the IO1 and are working in IO2 (SAMANTHA Joint Curriculum & Training Content). The main goal of the IO1 was to find out what are the technical knowledge and transversal skills desired for the workers’ curricula and if the actual academic offer is up to date with labour market needs. Therefore, for IO1 of the SAMANTHA project, the partners performed different activities such as:
O1/A1: Analysis report for the perception of AM high-tech T-shaped skills and competences mismatches and needs in the Toolmaking industry.
O1/A2: Analysis report for the perception of AM and high-tech T-shaped skills and competences mismatches and needs in the Habitat sector.
O1/A3: Analysis report on the current VET training offer related to the Toolmaking & Habitat sectors with regards to Additive Manufacturing.
O1/A4: Standardisation of national and European qualification systems.
O1/A5: Final report delivery
The first two pieces of research provide an analysis on the perception and application of AM in the two manufacturing sectors, which skills and competences are needed to be implemented in the average curricula, taking into consideration occupations profiles on the ESCO database.
The third research offers a comparative vision of the related VET training offer in the countries involved in order to understand if they meet with the real needs of the industry.
The fourth activity defines the general directives for the training programme that will be developed taking into consideration all requirement needed in the Qualification Frameworks of the participant countries and the ECVET and EQF recommendations.
In the last fifth activity, we performed a final report (in the English language) with the obtained results that were translated into German, Italian, Slovenian and Spanish language. It can be downloaded from the project site along with SAMANTHA project brochure:
In the next newsletter, SAMANTHA partners will inform you of the IO2 results. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission – application number 2019-1-DE02-KA202-006458.