Abstract:

One the one side, Additive Manufacturing (AM or 3DP) is one of the technologies under the umbrella of AM, which has been identified by the European Commission as one of the Key Enabling Technologies (KETs).

On the other side, the creative industries are core elements of the European economy. Creative workers are talented and flexible people with a range of core capacities that can be developed and improved naturally via practice and lifelong learning.

Increasing these capacities is gaining momentum in the European Economy as new sectors find out that they need the skills provided by creative enterprises workers. At the same time, new and often disruptive technologies come to light and require highly skilled creative labour to allow maximum exploitation of capital.

Such technologies are often adopted by relatively traditional sectors in the economy. However, these sectors often need workers who are ready and competent enough to use those new technologies. Conversely, when they do have a high level of technical skills, workers often lack the core capacities for creativity, innovation and an entrepreneurial approach to use technologies such as AM/3DP. New technologies require these working capacities if organisations are to make the most of their capital, which takes the shape of tools and machines.

In this context, the ACCESS-3DP project was launched in an Erasmus + call, which brings together an innovative consortium of 5 partners with experts in 3DP and design from the Vocational Education and Training (VET), Higher Education (HE) world and business organisations of the creative industries from 5 EU countries (France, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain). The partners jointly embrace the following objectives: Identification of mismatched skills between the craft and traditional industries with additive manufacturing technologies; use of the skills needs to develop a tailored VET curricula according to EU standards to foster mobility and employability in craft sectors in Europe; improvement of the competitiveness and efficiency of the traditional sector enterprises through the use of 3DP technology and, finally, improvement of the entrepreneurship in craft sectors and Additive Manufacturing sector through better understanding of the 3DP value chain.

This paper presents the results of an in-depth analysis on how VET providers can innovate and interconnect creative and traditional craft industries through 3DP. The first part of the paper illustrates a preliminary study carried out by the project partners, which shows the interest in adopting 3DP and the opportunities that this technology presents for all types of industrial and craft businesses. The second part of the paper illustrates a benchmark analysis of 3DP training courses available in Europe which targets the craft sector, among others. The third and final part of the paper presents an analysis of the 3DP use and needs, which has been carried out by directly questioning the final beneficiaries of the training offer on 3DP.

Keywords:

Craft Industries, 3DP, Additive Manufacturing, Traditional Industries, Innovation, Research, Key Enabling Technologies, International Cooperation, Education.