"The motivation of the project is the confirmation that ICT is an important factor to maintain competitiveness, since not only do they facilitate the design and development of new efficient products, but they also provide intelligence to the production plant. The contribution of ICT Its objective is to improve the efficiency, adaptability and sustainability of manufacturing systems, as well as its better integration in business processes in an increasingly globalized industrial context. SME technicians in the plastic sector involved in manufacturing management have a lot of experience, acquired over the years, and they know how to deal with the problems they usually face. However, they are not sufficiently familiar with the application of advanced ICT tools to their work, within the new paradigm of manufacturing model, which results in a reduction of the competitiveness of their companies. Technicians must be trained in Digital skills. and high-level ICT in order to apply them to new manufacturing models and to increase the overall efficiency of the industry, as well as its own performance.Fundamental objectives:• Improve the digital and ICT skills of SME Technicians in the plastic sector.• Promote learning based on work, with a training methodology based on ""learning-doing"" focused on the application of concepts and tools to real cases of each company.The participating entities were: 4 associations of the plastics industry, Valencian Association of Plastics Businessmen AVEP (Spain), Consorzio per la Promozione della Cultura Plastica PROPLAST (Italy), Associação Pool-Net - Portuguese Tooling & Plastic Network Pool-Net (Portugal), Gospodarsko Interesno Zdruzenje Grozd Plasttehnika PCS (Slovenia) and 2 universities, Universitat Politècnica de València - Center for Research in Management and Production Engineering CIGIP-UPV (Spain), Université de Bordeaux UB (France).The training elements have been classified in 6 Modules:• M1: Demand forecast. Predicting the future demand of the company's products.• M2: Aggregate Production Planning. Decide the levels of production capacity in a long-term planning horizon.• M3: Master Production Planning. Decide the amount of products to be produced in each period with a mid-term planning horizon.• M4: Sequencing of Production Operations. Decide the order in which different products will be manufactured and assembled in a short-term planning horizon.• M5: Procurement Planning. Determination of the acquisition of raw materials in a medium and short term horizon.• M6: Distribution Planning. Establishing the delivery of goods and services to meet customer demand, including order management and transportation management.A total of 60 multimedia training elements were developed (videos with animation / narration) in English, of which 20 were translated into the different languages ​​of the consortium associations (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Slovenian). The translated training elements have been the corresponding to the introduction, basic concepts and tools in each Module.Five ICT tools were selected for practical training: E-forcst (M1), WinQSB (M2), LEKIN (M4), Frepple (M3 and 5) and ODL Studio (M6). For each tool and Module a guide has been developed. practice of use, with data from a case study.An e-Training platform was created using Moodle, one of the most widely used Learning Content Management (LCMS) in the world. In the e-Training platform, 1 course was created for each of the project languages ​​(including English) ), composed of the 6 Modules, which contain the multimedia training elements, the guides to use the tools, questionnaires, forums and wikis.The Validation Pilot Actions were programmed in batches of 2 weeks for each Module. In the first week the session 1 was developed, consisting of 4 hours of self-learning by the students, using the multimedia training elements and 1 hour of webinar with the teacher; and the session 2 in which the students attended a practical 3h classroom day in which the teacher trained them in the use of the tool. In the second week, the self-learning of the use of the tools for the resolution of a problem was developed. with data from the companies themselves during 4h; and session 3 was a 3h face-to-face practical day in which the teacher solved the doubts that had arisen in the resolution of the real case and closed the Module with the lessons learned. The students who validated the pilot actions were:• Spain: 52• Italy: 62• Portugal: 54• Slovenia: 59• France: 14"

In the REPurpose project, local, post-consumer waste is upcycled to new functional "REP polymers" targeting the high-value market of thermoplastic elastomers that nowadays encounter recycling problems. New building blocks derived from biomass or enzymatically degraded polyolefin or paper and cardboard waste will be incorporated giving the REP polymers unique features: i) tuneable elastomeric properties avoiding the need for additives, ii) production, processing and recycling on existing equipment thus avoiding the need for huge CAPEX investments, iii) controllable degradation in different habitats, and iv) unprecedented indefinite recycling, outcompeting fossil carbon with every recycling step. REPurpose’s X-factor hence lies in the non-fossil content steering REP to higher value than the original plastic waste fractions: the first biodegradable and recyclable elastomeric polycondensates in the world. Combining the functional strength with the leverage in ecology in higher-end applications, will create a considerable market traction when good marketing, production and servicing are surrounding this innovative REPurpose platform. To enable this development, the REPurpose consortium is spanning the value chain from i) waste handler, recyclers and regulatory framework advocates over ii) specialty bio- or waste-based building block producers, iii) technology developers for REP polymerisation, processing and detection, to iv) end users for consumer goods, automotive and building and construction, all advised by experts in safety- and sustainability-by-design, life cycle assessment, business modelling and Responsible Research and Innovation. Four universities and research centres, a non-profit organisation, six SMEs (including two start-ups) from seven EU countries and the UK address the research challenges and pave the way for bringing the innovation to the broad public and creating a resilient and sustainable European plastics industry.

The Textile, Clothing, Leather, and Footwear (TCLF) industries in Europe with an annual turnover of €195 billion in 2019, employs 2 million workers in 220.600 companies, 99% SMEs concentrated in Italy, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Germany and Spain, more precisely in a few regions. TCLF has now to tackle with the challenges presented by the new digital era at a higher level, within a framework of transition to a greener, circular economy increasing the resilience of the organizations involved. The new METASKILLS4TCLF proposal, allying 30 partners, is robust and ambitious, responding to all objectives of the Alliances for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills (implementing the “Blueprint”), crosses the PACT4SKILLS TCLF pillars, and, with the compromise of consolidating and updating part of the former Skills4Smart TCLF Industries 2030 project outcomes, namely skills strategy, curricula and contents, results in a stronger and a wider scope cooperation, anticipating and responding to new skills gaps with innovative educational multilevel resources and delivering methodologies, involving new actors in the educational scene of TCLF across Europe, raising attractiveness and inclusion, preventing that “no talent is wasted”, together with a strong dissemination campaign and sustainability plan.The new outcomes will be:-Strong skills partnership with relevant stakeholders-Skills Intelligence for Forecasting and Monitoring TCLF Emerging Skills Needs-New modular training curricula/training modules “Inside Fashion” (both for initial education & training and upskilling-reskilling of the workforce), all tested in due piloting opportunities-Innovative modular contents, VR training and learning tools and update the ones developed in the former blueprint -A European Virtual Reality Campus-A train the trainers and teacher package to strengthening skills supply to demand -An awareness raising campaign on attractiveness and inclusion in the TCLF industries and correspondent tools.