Final Report Summary - TECH-CLINIC SST (Setting-up of effective Technological Clinics to address real knowledge needs of Surface Transport industry)
Executive Summary:
The transport industry is a major employer, with more than 10 million jobs in transport-related sectors of the economy (services, equipment, infrastructure), mostly in the road sector. Maintaining and strengthening the competitiveness of transport operators is the best guarantee for durably high employment. After a long period of restructuring, employment levels are now stabilising, but are still insufficient.
In some sectors, such as rail and road transport, shortages of qualified personnel have appeared. Given the high level of unemployment in most EU countries, this indicates a serious mismatch between educational output and employers' needs, most acutely in engineering and technical skills. It is therefore essential to improve the matching between the students training and the actual needs of the Surface Transport Industry (hereafter STI) by raising the awareness to the main challenges face by the industry in the near future.
TECH-CLINIC SST contributed to change the attitude of young people towards the STI by showing them that it is today an innovative industry, quite active in the development and application of new technologies, showing then lines of opportunities in the educational system, R&D organisations and enterprises, and in particular high-tech SMEs, to explore the potential of job creation in the surface transport sector.
The main strategic objectives of TECH-CLINIC SST initiative are:
* To offer young people (namely students) the opportunity to have real work experience in STI making use of the knowledge acquired during their studies;
* To raise awareness of young people about the work opportunities in the STI and about the importance of stimulating their creativity towards surface transport industry;
* To contribute to the promotion of entrepreneurial spirit among students, as entrepreneurship plays a vital in the labour market;
* To offer students the opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience, helping the development of the confidence, knowledge, critical thinking, skills and understanding of young people towards surface transport industry.
* To give the SMEs the opportunity to map their specific knowledge needs and participate actively in the process of finding the best solutions to meet those needs;
* To make SMEs aware of the importance of the contribution that highly skilled young people can offer them in terms of knowledge;
* To make SMEs aware of the importance of having highly skilled young people working closely with them and of how their input contributes to increase SMEs' competitiveness level and development;
The work performed during the project was focused in two main activities:
* To give senior students some practical work experience and the opportunity to work closely with STI by solving 9 specific knowledge needs of this sector. A total of 90 senior students and 9 Surface Transport SMEs (from Germany, Hungary and Sweden) will be involved in this specific objective.
* To raise awareness of young people about the importance of surface transport in our society through the organisation of 5 young 'Cafes Scientifiques' addressed to young students from early school to university in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Hungary and Sweden.
Café Processes and Technological Clinics proved to be very effective methods to share opinions and knowledge or to create methods of resolution and to solve problems of diverse complexity. Both processes have been used within the project TechClinic SST to foster knowledge transfer between enterprises, universities and students and to contribute to solve problems that had been raised by involved enterprises.
Main results achieved:
15 Tech-Clinics in Sweden (6), Hungary (3) and Germany (6)
6 Cafés Scientifiques done in: Sweden, Hungary (2), Germany, Spain and Portugal.
300 students directly involved in the both actions above
108 SME's involved in the project
15 Solutions for the Knowledge needs identified
The transport industry is a major employer, with more than 10 million jobs in transport-related sectors of the economy (services, equipment, infrastructure), mostly in the road sector. Maintaining and strengthening the competitiveness of transport operators is the best guarantee for durably high employment. After a long period of restructuring, employment levels are now stabilising, but are still insufficient.
In some sectors, such as rail and road transport, shortages of qualified personnel have appeared. Given the high level of unemployment in most EU countries, this indicates a serious mismatch between educational output and employers' needs, most acutely in engineering and technical skills. It is therefore essential to improve the matching between the students training and the actual needs of the Surface Transport Industry (hereafter STI) by raising the awareness to the main challenges face by the industry in the near future.
TECH-CLINIC SST contributed to change the attitude of young people towards the STI by showing them that it is today an innovative industry, quite active in the development and application of new technologies, showing then lines of opportunities in the educational system, R&D organisations and enterprises, and in particular high-tech SMEs, to explore the potential of job creation in the surface transport sector.
The main strategic objectives of TECH-CLINIC SST initiative are:
* To offer young people (namely students) the opportunity to have real work experience in STI making use of the knowledge acquired during their studies;
* To raise awareness of young people about the work opportunities in the STI and about the importance of stimulating their creativity towards surface transport industry;
* To contribute to the promotion of entrepreneurial spirit among students, as entrepreneurship plays a vital in the labour market;
* To offer students the opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience, helping the development of the confidence, knowledge, critical thinking, skills and understanding of young people towards surface transport industry.
* To give the SMEs the opportunity to map their specific knowledge needs and participate actively in the process of finding the best solutions to meet those needs;
* To make SMEs aware of the importance of the contribution that highly skilled young people can offer them in terms of knowledge;
* To make SMEs aware of the importance of having highly skilled young people working closely with them and of how their input contributes to increase SMEs' competitiveness level and development;
The work performed during the project was focused in two main activities:
* To give senior students some practical work experience and the opportunity to work closely with STI by solving 9 specific knowledge needs of this sector. A total of 90 senior students and 9 Surface Transport SMEs (from Germany, Hungary and Sweden) will be involved in this specific objective.
* To raise awareness of young people about the importance of surface transport in our society through the organisation of 5 young 'Cafes Scientifiques' addressed to young students from early school to university in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Hungary and Sweden.
Café Processes and Technological Clinics proved to be very effective methods to share opinions and knowledge or to create methods of resolution and to solve problems of diverse complexity. Both processes have been used within the project TechClinic SST to foster knowledge transfer between enterprises, universities and students and to contribute to solve problems that had been raised by involved enterprises.
Main results achieved:
15 Tech-Clinics in Sweden (6), Hungary (3) and Germany (6)
6 Cafés Scientifiques done in: Sweden, Hungary (2), Germany, Spain and Portugal.
300 students directly involved in the both actions above
108 SME's involved in the project
15 Solutions for the Knowledge needs identified
