CECIMO visits the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Center

This week CECIMO visited the AMRC Training Center in Sheffield for a meeting within the scope of the NAMA Erasmus+ project. The project, co-funded by the European Commission, aims at tackling the numerical skills gaps of the advanced manufacturing workforce in Europe.
To collect data on these numerical training and skills gaps, a survey was recently conducted by the project partnership with 215 respondents, including advanced manufacturing workers, students, education providers and employers. According to survey results, algebraic expressions, formulas and functions and 3D geometry are the three most important areas where further training is needed. Costing a project, interpreting large data sets and using mathematical diagrams are the most apparent skills gaps in the manufacturing workforce.
“It is surprising to see that according to education providers and employers, training and skills gaps are much stronger than what workers and students think”, explained Emir Demircan, Project Manager at CECIMO about the survey results. For instance while project costing, interpreting data sets and using mathematical diagrams are named by education providers and employers in large numbers (around 75% of respondents), workers and students named such skills to a much lesser extent (around 45% of respondents). This can be interpreted as a sign that a common understanding is missing among the advanced manufacturing stakeholders about the needed training and skills.
Given that, the NAMA project consortium will develop various training materials for education providers and interactive tools for learners and employees. These will be accessible for free on the project portal and will allow meeting different numeracy training and skills needs in the advanced manufacturing workforce. Please contact Emir Demircan, Project Manager at CECIMO, for questions about the NAMA project (emir.demircan(at)cecimo.eu) or visit www.nama-project.eu

AMRC students at training with machine tools