Abstract:

As the world and economy changes, so change the needs and requirements on knowledge and skills of workers. Knowledge and skills of workers have to be consistent with the content of work and since the content changes continuously, workers have the solid background within their specialization but also ability to adapt and learn. Flexibility is a personal feature, which can be practiced and developed while solid knowledge background needs to be provided by education institution. The main objective of the paper is to present the gap between the offer of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) on Industrial Engineering and Management (IE&M) knowledge and industry demand on knowledge required to implement the new paradigm and technologies of Industry 4.0. Knowledge profiles of graduates are confronted with scope of Industry 4.0 paradigm to define the range and structure of knowledge gap. The methodology implemented to complete the task includes systematic review of publications and documents on HEIs offer and Industry 4.0 paradigm, as well as on job market demand. The gap identified is analyzed in terms of its dimensions and structure. The factors that cause the gap and determine its dimensions are identified and main phenomena that limit knowledge workers availability are analyzed. The methodology implemented for this task includes cause-effect analysis and Delphi method. The diagnosis is followed by the suggested solutions within innovative models for higher education in IE&M. The innovative tools and methods presented as best practices and/or described in the literature on the subject are characterized. Basing on their analysis, they are linked to the structure of the gap (and its dimensions), to prove their potential of its minimizing/elimination. Basing on the above, the paper describes new higher education model that the Erasmus plus project ‘IE3’ aims to build up to close or at least minimize the gap identified basing on innovative courses (both classes and e-learning modules) in IE&M. The education model aims at changing the push approach - generally followed by HEIs - into a pull, knowledge demand-driven approach by updating and creating academic curricula for university students and industry workforce, jointly defined and offered by University and Industry professors.

Keywords:

Innovative education methods, skills and knowledge requirements in industry.