| Marketing Report
Introduction and background
Globalisation is a catchword of 21st century, characterised in borderless information spreading via Internet and creation of new economic consortiums. Simple management scheme “manufacturer — trade mark owner — wholesaler — reseller” has changed to “subcontractor – contractual manufacturer – trade mark owner – wholesaler and distributor” multi-way realisation. In manufacturing it causes also changes in qualification structure and characteristic skills of labour force.
Enterprises and trade unions are interested in certain vocational standards and specifying skills level of employees. Academic world and vocational education providers cannot react to these changes correspondingly without knowing the real needs of industry world. Hence the gap between the needs and reality of labour force structure and quality exists. By stimulating contacts and cooperation between the different factors both in business and educational systems, synergies can be successfully achieved to realise the abovementioned main criteria.
INNOMET is hence an acronym for a project which aims is to develop an innovative database model for adding innovation capacity of labour force and entrepreneurs of the metal engineering, machinery and apparatus sector. Project is funded by the European Commission Leonardo da Vinci II programme during the period of 2003-2004.
This project focuses on a new monitoring tool ensuring qualified labour force for enterprises in the machinery, metal engineering and apparatus sector in terms of local and European needs.
The primary objective of this INNOMET project and the INNOMET tool as such is to increase the responsiveness of education institutions to business demands and to improve the access of vocational and higher educated specialists into labour market. For that purpose it is proposed to introduce an integrated virtual database system for educational and industrial needs in the sector, which includes links to existing educational opportunities, e.g. different levels of study programmes, as well as private sector qualified labour force and mapping of the industrial needs for human resources.
The INNOMET system aims to improve the links and cooperation between education providers (the existing vocational and higher education system) and private sector with their demand for labour force. Through sectoral interaction and cooperation, the objective is also to improve and complement the existing study and training programmes (higher and vocational education) and improve access to re-training, life-long learning and e-learning platforms of the sector, as well as to labour market.
INNOMET project partners are: – Tallinn City Enterprise Board, Estonia, project promoter (http://ettevotja.tallinn.ee) – Federation of Estonian Engineering Industries, coordinator (http://www.emliit.ee) – Tallinn Technical University, Estonia (http://www.ttu.ee) – Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden (http://www.kth.se) – Turku Adult Vocational Training Centre, Finland (http://www.tuakk.fi) – Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary (http://www.bme.hu) – IAL Piemonte (training center), Italy (http://www.ialpiamonte.it)
1. Why INNOMET – problem, concept and solution
According to the sectorial study (PW Partners 2002), in Estonia the main weaknesses are lack of highly qualified workers, low co-operation between companies, and absence of clear national and international cooperation networks. Although the sector has lack of qualified labour force, Estonia has too high rate of unemployed people (12 %), so improvement of existing educational system as well as re-training and improved qualification award system and cooperation is needed.
In Hungary, the dominant problems in this sector are also related to the shortage of skilled labour force and improvement of co-operation between education institutions and industry. Therefore, development of new programmes and tools of learning of vocational education, training and re-training are needed.
In Finland there is a need to promote co-operation between the enterprises in the field and educational organisations in order to improve the requirements of labour demand and quality. In addition, the proposed database model as a databank will offer a good possibility to see how similar issues are taken care of in the other partner countries. Finally a databank will enable the enterprises that participate in the network to get in touch and make new contacts with each other.
In Sweden labour cost is high and product lifecycles are becoming much shorter than the lifecycles of the manufacturing systems. It is essential to develop knowledge about sectoral cooperation networks and mediums, human competence systems and flexible manufacturing systems. New tools as the sectoral interaction medium and the digital database test-version - sectoral cooperation model and “virtual system of human competence in manufacturing” also bring increased possibilities to design and manage flexible manufacturing systems apart from being an important tool for manufacturing education.
In Italy, the demand for qualified labour force in enterprises of metal, machinery and apparatus sector is increasing in the last few years, while there is low offer of high expertise and no interest in young people to work in the sector. That is particularly evident for machine tool operators, maintenance operators and welders. There are also differences between SME-s (small and medium-sized companies) and large industries.
The presence of the automotive sector is quite evident in Italy in Piemonte region; therefore, many small enterprises have become service agencies of Fiat. These small enterprises have special difficulties in recruiting manpower. There is an evident need to offer improved opportunities to learn in order to become a specialist in practice in a concrete field of the sector.
Dominant problems in this sector are similar in Europe, e.g. lack of qualified labour force, in the same time high unemployment rate, changing market situation when education system needs to be constantly up-dated and correspond to changing labour force demand.
The proposed system has a valuable trans-national value-added, as none of the above-mentioned countries have developed an integrated sectoral model for cooperation and improvement of capacity of educational system and labour force demand.
There is a clear need for a tool for active cooperation and coherence between enterprises (demand) and education providers (supply). Network monitoring of educational and industrial needs
As a result a knowledge supply chain is created. The user interacts with the control module, the role of which is to work out the search strategy on the basis of initial data given by user, via user’s interface.
The knowledge base connects in a certain field manufacturing enterprises, consultancy firms, educational organizations and universities to handle local resources for larger subcontract orders and production volumes. Such a network increases directly the competitiveness of enterprises located in periphery regions. In long-term, the system can also provide comparative know-how and practical examples how similar issues are dealt in different European countries.
The sectoral co-operation system and networking model helps to activate the labour market, transparency of labour force demand, lack of qualified labour force and links between all the different organisations of the sector locally and internationally. Pooling sector-wise information from different parties – companies, education institutions, students, and trainees is a very innovative approach. In implicit way, proposed system provides a set of tools: dynamic web-based sectoral job and trainee information (demand in private sector), dynamic profiling of sector companies for analysing existing qualified labour force quantitative and qualitative level and human resource needs with current situation.
The integrated database system for educational and industrial needs in the sector includes also a database of existing educational opportunities – different levels of study programmes; industrial needs for human resources based on the employee qualification standards. The system connects in a certain field manufacturing enterprises, consultancy firms, educational organisations and universities to handle regional resources for larger subcontract orders and production volumes.
It focuses on enhancement of the competence of students, employees and industry to act successfully on the European market in order to strengthen the competitiveness of the European industry, especially the manufacturing industry. This will bring together a critical mass of “customers of education” and “suppliers of education” for resolving above-mentioned shortcomings. Such a system increases directly competitiveness of the enterprises located in periphery regions. Elaborated model is usable with minor changes in any other industry field.
INNOMET database could also serve as a dynamic and constantly up-dated study on human resources in the sector if a relevant pool or so called critical mass of companies are included in the system. Companies will be motivated to renew information in certain periods, as INNOMET tool can be effectively used for companies’ own human resources evaluation and development. The system can also be made use of in the development of trans-national skills’ passports in Europe.
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