Abstract:

The new industrial revolution, also called Industry 4.0, (I4.0), needs technicians and workers with abilities and competences in the Key Enabling Technologies (KET): Big Data, Cloud Computing, Internet of Thing, 3D printing, Augmented Reality, Simulation, etc. However, the skills provided by the current academic programs (curriculums) of Higher Education (HE) degrees specialized in Information and Communication Technologies seem to be far from what the I4.0 claims.
This work analyses the competences in the curriculums of Telematics Engineering degree, Telecommunications Systems Engineering degree, and Master in Telecommunications Engineering; all of them offered by Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, in Spain. We compare the skills provided by them with those required by I4.0, revealing that there are some gaps between them. The comparison has been completed with the results obtained from a survey launched to ICT students in the framework of the European project IN4WOOD. The results of this survey reinforce the conclusions about the existing gaps.

Some bridges are proposed in this work to bring academia closer the industry, exploring some new academic strategies and proposing new roles of the Spanish universities, to be close to I4.0. Nevertheless, the rigidity of the Spanish academia curriculum in Higher Education is a fact, and the change will be not possible if the academic programs are not able to be modified easily as the technology evolves. Curriculums should be alive, like technology evolution.

Keywords:

Industry 4.0, KET, HE, curriculum, gaps, University.