Pile-UP
Europe is struggling with an ageing labour market. At the same time, the influx of young people is falling and the level of education required by companies has also increased. Combine this with the fact that there are approximately 76 million low-skilled Europeans, and it is clear that lifelong learning and retraining are a priority, which is also included in the EU2020 agenda.
The Pile-UP project focusses on this problem. Pile-Up stands for Process Industry Learning Unit Project, and aims to increase the mobility of technicians (primarily process operators and maintenance technicians) from the European chemical industry.
There is a major shortage of skilled personnel in this sector, and companies are already actively looking for workers in neighbouring countries. They are often trained on-the-job to reach the required level. To increase this mobility, it is necessary to know exactly which skills the industry needs, and which skills a technician already has. Pile-UP aims to develop universally applicable European learning outcomes, based on ECVET (European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training). In this way, differences in training and qualifications between countries can be circumvented.
These 'learning outcomes' are part of a coherent set of knowledge, skills and competences that can be assessed and validated. The main objectives of Pile-UP are briefly outlined below:
- To develop the 'learning outcomes' on the basis of innovative working methods;
- Renewing the existing profiles for 'All-round Process Operators' and 'Maintenance Technicians';
- To achieve a common understanding of these competence profiles;
- Creating groups of learning outcomes for:
- All-Round Process Operator EQF level 3
- Maintenance Technician EQF level 4;
- Testing the learning outcomes in theory and practice;
- Disseminating the results and insights so that they can be applied by industry.
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