MetaIndustry4 held from the 2nd til the 6th of March the cycle of workshops and conferences aimed to attract and manage talent in the metal industry, framed under the European Erasmus+ project, “AttTrak: Employer empowerment to attract, transfer and keep yooung people in metal industries”. The project, consisting of a partnership from Germany, Italy, Poland and Lithaunia along Spain, pursue the goal of empower companies in order to attract, tranfer and keep the youngest talents, increasing added value in businesses and the industry.

This workshop week, the first international week organised by MetaIndustry4, was the fourth meeting of the partnership, and the main goal has been keep working on the development and streghten of the skills of innovation, human resources and general managers in metal industries, in order to improve recruitment and employees development. Also, thanks to the project, partners have been able to know the needs and teaching systems of VETs and counselling services, to attract and keep young students in the metal sector. The goal is to empower companies to hire young talents, make them suitable to work in this industry and prepare them to future challenges.

Along this week, many issues have been addressed, such as the teaching system in this sector, taking as a model the German system of dual training. The German expert, Michael Bose, Project manager about digitization of VET in SME’s for the cooperative network of the Automotive in Berlin and the federal state of Brandenburg, was the person in charge of showing teachers and policy makers in VET matters and employment issues, how does the German system works.

​​​​​​ In the same way, the italian expert Luca Fumagalli, researcher in the inteligent manufacturing of 4.0 industry lab, showed to the educational community what are the skills and competences needed to improve the relationship between schools ans bussines. Warned about the important role of 4.0 Industry, and having his expert point of view, the question how to guide companies in order to efficiently recognize its real issues and needs, was answered on his conference. It has to occur at the same time as the training centres develop a more flexible and versatile way of training.​​​​In the bussines side, the main goal for the lithuan expert Vidmantas Tütlys, director of the VET and Reaserch centre of Vytautas Magnus University, was to define the main characteristics and features of a company’s culture able to attract talent and produce added value to a changing industry in constant evolution. The time of the polish expert, Elwira Rusilowicz-Lipinska, specialist in Employer Branding, was also focus on business. During her workshop, she motivated the audience to draw their “employee idea” in order to determinate worker’s needs in three fields: knowledge, relations and tools. She approached the role of marketing in the human resources area, what makes easier the attraction and managment of talent through employer branding.

The keys to attract young talents into the metal industry were told by Javier Cueli, director of the Professional Training education in the region of Asturias. He was focused on the role of the environment and the counselling services, based on a non-stop work between work counselling and the education community. Cueli sumarized the issue in 5 main rules to follow: give possitive messages about VET; the possitive colaboration between education centres and enterprises; adapt the VET education to a changing environment, along with the students, and finally “link” potential students to the industrial sector.

The workshop week finished with more than a hundred people attending, leaving a very possitive impact in all the school and business communities, thanks to the exchange of experiences and knowledge.