Facing the challenges of innovation in the manufacturing sector

The world is rapidly changing, as inevitably is doing the manufacturing sector. New technologies, digitalisation and different forms of innovation, more broadly, are shaping a new era. New skills are required in order to keep this pace. The 2019 WM Report, entitled Skills for the Future of Manufacturing, addressed precisely these aspects.

High-level experts from all over the world shared their know-how and knowledge to outline 10 Key Recommendations. These are aimed at fulfilling a current skill-gap widely affecting the manufacturing scenario. Among these recommendations, a number of them have proved particularly useful, such as the importance of having a life-long learning mind-set, the relevance of investments in workforce education, and the weight of vocational training as a tool to exploit fully the potential of new technologies.

Innovative education, dedicated trainings, and effective policies are all crucial to ensure that relevant skills are being taught and that new profiles with both technical expertise and general know-how will be developed. Such an of environment will excite people to pursue careers in manufacturing and, at the same time, to support social mobility.

These recommendations can become reality once new partnerships and solid collaboration will be enforced. This will be possible by setting aside competition in favour of creating and supporting industrial cooperation and-wide skills initiatives.

Source: World Manufacturing Report 2019