WOODigital aims at developing a dual learning system to enhance digital skills of young Europeans interested in entrepreneurial ad employment opportunities in the woodworking and furniture sector. The model proposed is thought to be strongly work-based and provided with a component of international mobility, so as to provide young learners with the opportunity to apply knowledge in real work-life situations. The action is targeted to help the EU youth becoming a key driver for challenging the emergence of Industry 4.0 and IoT, which have been soundly reshaping the woodworking and furniture industry in recent times. As well, it contributes to feed with young skilled workers a sector made up almost completely of SMEs and aged workforce, thus avoiding the loss of European manufacturing and craftsmanship history.The project thrives within both cooperation and knowledge frameworks of other EU projects (WOODUAL, FUNES, IM-FUTURE, DIGIT-FUR, and others), which have been claiming the use of dual learning system in wood and furniture sector to improve digital skills and employability of young people and cooperation between business and VET providers across Europe. At the core of the project there is a strategic management of knowledge by:- fostering teaching and learning of digital skills, WOODigtial strives to strengthen employability and key competences of young people, making woodworking a knowledge-based industry. The more woodworking processes and products are digital and digitalized, the more data and information are available to SMEs and other relevant players to make their offer more effective and valuable to the market, enhancing the decision-making process;- running a feedback loop, the partnership is committed to nurture strategic links to further enhance synergies among woodworking-based projects at EU level;- being involved in long-lasting cooperation and business relationships, partners have been producing new knowledge that is worth to be investigated through additional resources, facilitating a knowledge-transfer process between education and business for mutual improvements.

<< Objectives >>WOODCircle aims to foster the green and circular skills of young European students and workers, between the age of 18 and 34, working in or interested in the wood and furniture sector, by providing a comprehensive dual teaching and training programme in an international environment. The priorities are sustainability and circularity, delivered through digital tools and blended and physical mobilities to help the Twin transition (Green and Digital) happening in the sector.<< Implementation >>WOODCircle aims to foster the green and circular knowledge and skills of young European students and workers, between the age of 18 and 34, working in or interested in the wood and furniture sector, by providing a comprehensive dual teaching and training programme in an international environment. The priorities are sustainability and circularity, delivered through digital learning tools and blended and physical mobilities to help the Twin transition (Green and Digital) happening in the sector.<< Results >>During the project, multiple reports will be developed, based on the needs analysis and surveys carried out in all participating countries during the project. A new professional profile will be created for the Circular and Sustainable Woodworker, along with a complete training package, that includes the curriculum, methodology, online training materials and an international physical mobility. The results will be disseminated through a new website, e-newsletters and social media platforms.

SmarTrain joins VET providers and Research and Technology Organisations from the Woodworking and Furniture Manufacturing Industries to challenge and broaden the horizons of European VET systems. The project will detect the core changes required to include new SKCs (Skills, Knowledge and Competencies) in the official curricula of VET, aligned with the current and future demands of the wood&furniture sector. Hitherto it addresses a major TRAINING GAP between VET curricula and companies’ real needs for transformation. Acknowledging that 40% of workers does not have sufficient digital skills (Eurostat 2015), SmarTrain fosters the EVOLUTION OF ENTERPRISES TOWARDS THE INDUSTRY 4.0, exploiting previous initiatives aimed to facilitate this undeniable new industrial revolution for both companies and their future workers. The main objective is the acquisition of SKCs about CIRCULAR ECONOMY, ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING and INTELLIGENT FURNITURE, which require new (soft) skills in this digital era: digital literacy, curiosity and imagination, critical analysis of information, entrepreneurship, collaboration in networks, agility and adaptability, critical thinking and problem solving. SmarTrain is a collaboration of RTOs, an European umbrella organisation (AIDIMME, COSMOB, INNOVAWOOD) and 3 VET centres (CIPFP Catarroja, ENAIP Lombardia, WOODWIZE), paired by countries. SmarTrain composes a network fostering VERTICAL (between sectoral and VET centres), HORIZONTAL (between centers of the same typology) and MULTIDISCIPLINARY links for exchange and collaboration, all of them forming a CIRCULAR CONSORTIUM in touch with the labour market and the educational sector.The initiative includes the development of three IOs:• IO1: Innovative open training material on Circular Economy and Digitisation (AdditiveManufacturing, Intelligent Furniture) including e-Learning, ready-to-use for VET-learners in the wood&furniture sector.• IO2: Cross-cultural course for VET students & teachers consisting of 3 cooperative VET school projects (Project Based Learning and Co-creational Learning).• IO3: Open Education Handbook and Best Practices for VET stakeholders: from VET students to hiring companies.Both students and accompanying teachers will acquire fundamental SKCs and new soft skills, and will participate in National MEs to expose their final pieces of furniture as prime showcases for INNOVATION MANAGEMENT incorporated into current VET systems. SmartTrain promotes fellowship, collaboration, support and synergy, and above all, Smart Attitudes.Therefore, the initiative will give much room for the INCLUSION of participants ‘with different skills’. All our students are going to join forces and talents. In every student there are for sure hidden aptitudes, expertise and genius to be offered to the rest of the group.We aim at the participation of some 30% of students with lesser chances, students that are particularly, facing difficulties and obstacles to participate in international projects. They will participate in the same activities as the rest of students, coming from other VET Centres. All of them will perfectly complement each other, fitting as the pieces of a puzzle in order to make the most of this project: development of a piece of furniture from scratch, applying innovative elements of CIRCULAR ECONOMY and DIGITISATION. In total, max.10 students + 3 teachers coming from the wood and furniture VET institutions will be trained within the SmarTrain framework.The METHODOLOGY carried out will be as follows:•TRANSFER of knowledge from RTOs to VET centres.•COOPERATIVE APPROACH, which will aim to organise activities into academic and social learning experiences, leading to structuring positive interdependence. Students will work in groups to produce a furniture collectively toward academic goals.•Active and INDUCTIVE learning methods, such as PROJECT BASED LEARNING, paired with the ever-growing technology access available in the facilities of the European VET centres will ensure a deeper comprehension and understanding of new technologies. •Gathering of feedback from the VET stakeholders in this experience. After all, in the European labour market, a gradual upward movement of the increasingly specific and high-profile competencies is occurring. Companies are demanding professionals to deal with digital transformation. However, people looking for jobs rarely meet the ever-demanding requirements of industry 4.0. The ability to work as a team according to the methods of collaboration of less hierarchical and structured working environments, MORE TECHNOLOGICAL and DYNAMIC becomes fundamental. What must be clear, however, is that the 4th Industrial Revolution is about people, not machines. SmarTrain bets on the provision of this skilled workforce in the wood and furniture sector and the development of the competencies demanded by the companies, thanks to the establishment of a circular network of SKCs provision and reception.

FUNES [FUrniture New European Skills 2020] has stemmed from a latent need that wood and furniture companies are enduring. In the last 10 years, there has been a vast myriad of changes related to globalization, new ways of working, new consumer habits, product customization, etc. The rationale of the project was to solve this need that current and future workers bereft of, which was covering those skills that they are in need of acquiring, in order to develop a work with a optimum level of quality and standards required by their companies, due to new scenarios.Consequently, the aims of the project were to determine the emerging skills demanded by companies in the furniture industry regarding new scenarios, as well as developing an e-learning training material that will be facilitated to the target in order to achieve these new skills. As regards the partnership, it was ambitiously composed by seven multidisciplinary participants that create altogether an initiative with synergy: AIDIMME (Spain) and COSMOB, (Italy) which are Technology Institutes specialized in the wood and furniture sector, specialization that also shares the Technology Institute ITD (Poland), focused on the wood sector; Vocational Education and Training Centres, such as and CFPIMM (Portugal); Enaip Lombardia Foundation (Italy), an acknowledged training agency that delivers a wide variety of high quality training courses and services for the workforce; FEVAMA, a business association in the wood and furniture sector; and InnovaWood (Belgium), which is an umbrella organisation that integrates four European networks in the Forest, Wood-based and Furniture industries into a more effective mechanism to support innovation in these sectors. Thereupon, these activities carried out: - European mapping of the current situation in the furniture industry;- Definition and development of future scenarios; - Compilation of those skills demanded by companies in the furniture sector in the new scenarios;- Development of a self-assessment skills system; - E-learning training course;- Pilot test;- Pilot testing results and improvements.These activities will lead to European analyses and studies about what concerns the wood and furniture skills in the future scenarios, as well as potential training course with its validated pilot test with target members. The methodology used was through questionnaires for the research activities; an e-learning course hosted in a training Moodle platform for elaboration the training course and pilot testing.The impact envisaged has been multiple. From the sectoral point of view, this project has facilitated the knowledge that will constitute those new competencies that the current and futures workers of the furniture sector need to have to face new challenges, in the same way to the furniture Vocational Education and Training. This project provides information on the new needs of the market of work in the case of the furniture sector. The training material allows workers to expand their knowledge, and with this information, FUNES is promoting PROFESIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPORTUNITIES, leading to establish future strategies or activities that will allow companies to undertake in order to face prospective scenarios.

The field of Higher Education has been recognised as one of the key drivers within the EU2020 Strategy to overcome the socioeconomic crisis, to boost growth and jobs and to foster equity and inclusion. Moreover, one of the key priorities for HE is the reinforcement of the “Knowledge Triangle”, through the support of innovation, entrepreneurship and university-business cooperation. This specifically applies to those traditional sectors, such as the furniture and woodworking sectors, where changes in education and training are required to equip the future workforce with the new skills for the new demands generated by the changing patterns of furniture consumption (e.g.: ageing population/assisted living).Nevertheless, the European furniture sector is a key driver of sustainable growth with a significant contribution to Europe‘s overall economic health, competitiveness, creativity, innovation, employment and export: One quarter of the world´s furniture is produced in the EU. In 2012, more than 900,000 EU workers were employed in approximately 126,000 firms, and production amounted to more than €84 Billion (1) (figures for each participant country are fully detailed in Partner´s Description). However, these figures are 13% lower than in 2007, while the Asian market has increased its production to 230% during the same period (2). Staff qualifications along with the ageing workforce and the inability to attract young workers (3) remain one of the crucial points in these industries. To boost the recruitment of highly prepared staff requires initiatives addressing training to make the sector attractive and capable of transforming both the academic knowledge and high-level basic and transversal competences required to be useful and applicable. ObjectivesThe aim was to develop an International Master’s Programme for the furniture sector in Europe. The new Master’s programme offers an adapted curriculum to equip the young generation with the specific, basic and transversal competences currently required in the furniture, woodworking and related industries. This international Master Programme provides students with opportunities to gain additional skills by studying and training abroad.For these reasons, this Strategic Partnership developed a flexible learning pathway in line with the needs of learners and companies in the furniture, woodworking and related sectors. The project provided a joint study program between Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training that are providing enterprises innovation, expertise and added value. Partnership.IM-FUTURE was a Strategic Partnership composed of seven entities from regions that are highly influenced by the furniture and woodworking industry: Four universities, two technical research and training centres and one furniture industry representatives. Main activities consisted in:-Conducting surveys, comparative analysis and evidence-gathering, studies of real life cases in order to have a real idea of the needs of skills and competences in the European furniture and Woodworking industry.- Development of a joint curriculum with the integration of different learning modes such as distance, face to face or blended learning employing innovative approaches.- The creation of learning and training materials together with methods, pedagogical approaches and tools.- Capacity buildings and networking activities. The consortium developed a Study Report on current skills needs on the European Furniture and Woodworking industry, a Joint Curriculum together with a learning content and an e-Learning platform that is freely and widely distributed. Four Multiplier Events have been conducted at the end of the project. Results and impact.IM-FUTURE contributes to the modernisation and reinforcement of education aligned to the needs and opportunities offered by traditional industries. The project provides, assesses, and seeks the recognition of basic skills needed in the furniture and wood working sector. IM-FUTURE also addressed transversal skills, such as entrepreneurship, foreign languages and digital competences. HE students and staff, and also everyone involved in the development of this initiative had the chance of increasing their sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, their competences in foreign languages and, of course, increasing their skills and capabilities for employability in an industrial sector which is the main key driver in many European regions. It is estimated that in the next five years there will be about 500 students benefiting directly from the educational materials developed within the project. These will become better equipped to contribute to the development of the furniture sector, to fulfil the demand of highly qualified staff, to foster entrepreneurship in the sector. The fact that the Programme is taught in English facilitates the mobility of staff from one EU country to another and through this the integration is facilitated.