The European project MANUFACTURING 4 ALL aims to transform small municipalities through digital education and entrepreneurship

  • The project, with a budget of 60.000 euros financed by the European Commission (through the ERASMUS+ Programme) is led by the City Council of Onil (Valencia) and with MESTIERI LOMBARDIA Consorzio di cooperative sociali S.C.S. (Italy) FunkWeb Suksess for alle (Norway) and Finnova (Belgium) as partners.
  • The project which will last for 14 months,  has been launched on the eve of the EU Industry Days.
  • It will implement best practices in digital skills training for the transformation towards Industry 4.0 and improve the training of technical and support staff in the field of training, guidance and social and labour market integration of young people in Industry 4.0

Create an educational and training model for young unemployed people with the aim of contributing to the municipal transformation towards a more digitalised business fabric and a greater entrepreneurial spirit among citizens. This is the final mission of the MANUFACTURING 4ALL project, led by the City Council of Onil and with a consortium formed by the Italian MESTIERI LOMBARDIA Consorzio di cooperative sociali S.C.S., Norway’s FunkWeb Suksess for all, and Belgium’s Finnova Foundation, has just kicked off on the eve of the EU Industry Days, an annual European flagship event that focuses on key industrial policy debates, connecting industry leaders and boosting the knowledge base of European industry.

With a budget of €60,000 funded by the European Commission through the ERASMUS+ programme, the European project will encourage the involvement of young unemployed people and existing industries in the project implementation regions in a process of educational, digital, and entrepreneurial transformation. The aim is to find innovative solutions to a problem common to many southern European regions: industrial recession, the exodus of young people to the big cities and, consequently, the negative demographic growth of certain regions.

To this end, the project will draft a European Best Practice Guide on Education in Digital Competences for the Transformation to Industry 4.0 and an “Innovation Lab Implementation Guide”, both in digital format, and will implement training courses for young people in transformation and digitisation processes.

The changes in business dynamics in the toy industry in Onil due to globalisation and the decentralisation of companies have slowed down Onil’s industrial stability and its demographic growth. This is especially evident in the case of young people, who have to leave in search of new labour markets. On the other hand, the Province of Sondrio (where Mestieri Lombardia is also active) registers a depopulation of small municipalities, especially by young people who move to larger cities. The critical points in the local labour market are the lack of long-term projects by public bodies and local historical companies; lack of skilled workers and skilled labourers; intense wage competition with nearby Switzerland; difficulty in promoting and creating innovative and multidisciplinary approaches in the labour market, both in private companies and self-employed; and little variety of vacant professional fields with the consequence of a reconversion and reduction of employment expectations and aspirations.

About Onil Town Council

Onil is a municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is part of the historical and natural sub region of Hoya de Castalla (Foia de Castalla). The municipality is attached to the judicial district of Ibi and is known as the cradle of dolls. It currently has 7569 inhabitants (INE 2021). At the point of industrial recession and ageing/population trend in which the municipality finds itself right now, the town of Onil needs to boost job creation, especially in the young public, promoting youth entrepreneurship and training young people as an incentive to make a life here. This is one of the main objectives of the municipality, to strengthen youth employment by creating new jobs and training.

About MESTIERI LOMBARDY

Mestieri is a consortium of Social Cooperatives covering different Italian territories working in all of them for the social and labour inclusion of people with disabilities. Mestieri Lombardia is a non-profit regional employment agency. Through a network of 15 local offices, it provides all kinds of employment services (guidance, recruitment, matching, selection, outplacement, etc.) paying attention to the social aspects of labour market functioning, ensuring person-centred attention in the process, and raising awareness of decent work as the main tool to promote social inclusion and cohesion. Mestieri Lombardia wants to find suitable job opportunities for all, ensuring fairness in the conditions of access to the labour market, with particular attention to young people, women and groups disadvantaged in accessing the world of work.

About FunkWeb

Since its foundation in 1997, FunkWeb has been working for labour inclusion. In its early years, FunkWeb operated as a vocational school offering ICT education. Since 2005 they have been working with IT production, HR and career services for companies and individuals. Today, as a provider for NAV (Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration), FunkWeb provides career guidance in various IT professions. At FunkWeb, they have extensive experience in offering guidance on choosing IT-related education and courses and skills development through tests, tasks, and work training, job matching, job analysis, and recruitment.

About Finnova 

Finnova is the European Foundation that works for the constant commitment to business innovation and excellence of applied knowledge through the development of talent and its international and interregional connection. To this end, it promotes multiple networks and high-level events to seek European resources and funding related to technology transfer, modernisation, and competitive development of public and private entities at all levels at international, regional and local level. Its headquarters are in the heart of Brussels (Belgium) within walking distance of the institutions of the European Union. It also has a delegation in Spain with a presence in Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia, Andalusia, and the Basque Country.


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *