According to EUROSTAT statistical review, the largest EU-28 subsectors in terms of value added and employment are the manufacture of machinery and equipment and the manufacture of fabricated metal products. Additionally, the European engineering industry plays a vital role in the economic recovery of Europe and the ambitious goal to increase the industrial output by 2020 to more than 20% of the GDP. At the same time, EC reviews and reports show that institutional arrangements, national legislation and practice are still insufficiently coherent to coordinate VET activities in a way that benefits both – students/trainees and the business, in order to allow for matching future workforce knowledge, skills and competencies to labour market needs.Therefore, the 3MVET project joined the efforts of eight organisations highly active in the field of VET from four countries and offered an innovative contribution to addressing the above highlighted challenge. Through cooperation between VET providers, leading supplier of educational and professional literature, academics with background and expertise in vocational training at secondary and tertiary level, research and innovation leader, large enterprise employer in the targeted economic sector and facilitator of cooperation between the education and the world of business, the consortium designed, developed, tested, validated and piloted:- methodological materials for teachers responsible for the curriculum and syllabus delivered in VET schools and cooperation with companies (to cover vocations in the field of „Mechanical Engineering, Metalworking and Metallurgy“), i.e. 3MVET Teachers’ Handbook;- training materials for company mentors engaged in the delivery and monitoring of work placement activities for apprentices/students (to cover occupations in the field of „Mechanical Engineering, Metalworking and Metallurgy“), i.e. 3MVET Mentors’ Handbook;- matrix mapping expected learning outcomes, acquired by VET students/trainees/professionals (in the field of „Mechanical Engineering, Metalworking and Metallurgy“) through theoretical and practical experiences against a common framework to allow for recognition of knowledge, skills and competencies as a result from study, work placement or labour mobility, i.e. 3MVET Recognition Matrix.As part of our effort to enhance knowledge, skills and competencies of our most imminent target groups (teachers and mentors) we had joint staff training in Germany.We achieved our objectives during the two-year project lifetime and also by involving thorough evaluation, quality assurance and extensive dissemination at national and European levels. The project directly benefit at least 3368 individuals, incl. teachers, mentors, other VET stakeholders and has an impact on VET students, trainees and professionals, in the field of Mechanical Engineering, Metalworking and Metallurgy. The impact we achieved at different levels could be summarised as follows:- increased competencies to design structured, up-to-date and relevant VET (at school and company level);- increased knowledge on how to build long-term education-business partnerships to foster economic prosperity;- recognition of learning outcomes and qualifications.The long-term impact of the 3MVET project is to contribute to boosting employability at European level and economic prosperity through increasing the relevance of VET provision and applying successfully the principles of dual modality.

The industry is facing surmounting challenges today, such as deeper mining, social license to operate, access to land, higher production rates, but at a lower cost and more challenging environments, both underground and on the surface. Innovative mining technologies, research and education are required through bridging of business, research, and education, to enable a sustainable, efficient, and successful mining industry now and in the future. MASTERMINE proposes a structural multilevel change for the mining operations, focusing on the top-down axis of Culture, Strategy and Tactics. Culture refers to the intrinsic change for the EU mines, to understand the value of digitalization and environmental sustainability We address the Strategy pillar for the mine, by designing high-level modules that address real industrial challenges. We lead the digital transformation of mines through CYBERMINE, we foster autonomous and electric operations along with smart monitoring and maintenance through AUTOMINE, we ensure safety and stability in critical structures using GEOMINE, in GREENMINE we enhance the environmental sustainability of the mines by improving energy consumption, air quality and GHG emissions, water savings and waste valorisation. In METAMINE, we build a virtual world for the EU mines, introducing the concept of the mining metaverse hosting all the technologies, along with Digital Twins and Business Intelligence to provide simulation and decision support. Finally, we make the EU mine OURMINE, by bringing the communities together, build trust around the sustainability compliance of the raw material and fostering social innovation. We are going to demonstrate our approach in 5 EU demo cases and one replication demo in South Africa. Our mining partners offer access to a total of 11 mines around Europe, producing 10 different raw materials, including 5 CRMs (Cobalt, Tungsten, Coking Coal, Phophate Rock and Platinum).

The Construction sector is one of the most relevant at European level. The number of companies in the sector amounts to 3,429,268 (EUROSTAT 2015) and for 2012 is estimated to reach 15,580,000 workers (CEDEFOP, 2008). The sector is affected by significant technological and regulatory changes and must address the challenges of producing buildings and infrastructures adapted to changing social and economic needs and meet global challenges such as energy security and climate change.Any change in regulations, technology, social, etc., involves the adaptation of companies and workers to such changes, with training being the essential instrument to carry out such adaptation. At present it is possible to find static studies of training needs related to the professional skills for which it is necessary to qualify workers in the sector, but the reality is that tools such as the one proposed by the present project are needed that can detect qualification needs Dynamically and continuously over time and deliver results on:- Training requirements, emanating from the companies themselves- Trends in emerging professional skills.- Current training offer and its adaptation to the demands of companies.- Geo-positioning of both the job offer and the training offerThe main contribution of the project is DETECTA, a totally innovative tool that provides the results indicated previously. Its operation is based on the management and processing of all the information published in the Network on prospective reports, job offers and training offers to know in real time where and with what qualification the workers are needed and if the training strategies that are proposed In the market respond to the demands of the companies. This is possible thanks to the combination of semantic intelligence technologies with the Big Data's large-volume information analysis power.

IW-NET will deliver a multimodal optimisation process across the EU Transport System, increasing the modal share of IWT and supporting the EC’s ambitions to reduce transport GHG emissions by two thirds by 2050. Enablers for sustainable infrastructure management and innovative vessels will support an efficient and competitive IWT sector addressing infrastructure bottlenecks, insufficient IT integration along the chain and slow adoption of technologies such as new vessel types, alternative fuels, automation, IoT, machine learning. The Living Lab will apply user-centered application scenarios in important TEN-T corridors demonstrating and evaluating the impacts in simulations and tests covering technological, organisational, legal, economical, ecological, and safety/security issues: 1) Digitalisation: optimised planning of barge operations serving dense urban areas with predictive demand routing (Brussels-Antwerp-Courtrai-Lille-Valenciennes); data driven optimisation on navigability in uncertain water conditions (Danube). 2) Sustainable Infrastructure and Intelligent Traffic Management: lock forecasting reducing uncertainty in voyage planning; lock planning; management of fairway sections where encounters are prohibited; berth planning with mandatory shore power supply and other services (hinterland of Bremerhaven via Weser/Mittelland Canal). 3) Innovative vessels: new barge designs fitting corridor conditions and target markets: barges with a high degree of automation for urban distribution (East Flanders-Ghent); new barge for push boats capable with low/high water levels optimising capacities (Danube from Austria to Romania); use of GALILEO services for advanced driver assistance like guidance, bridge height warning and automatic lock entering (Spree-Oder waterway close to Berlin). Accompanying activities are stakeholder engagement, capacity building, and the delivery of a European IWT development roadmap with policy recommendations for increasing the IWT share.