Press Release: EU Industry Days

Brussels, 8 February 2019 – We must better anticipate the skills needs of the future and attract ICT talent to the manufacturing sector. This is what was underlined during a stakeholder session organised by CECIMO on “Manufacturing and 4.0 Skills” during EU Industry Days 2019, which gathered around 1500 participants.

Roland Feichtl, the President of CECIMO, opened the debate by highlighting the need to invest in people and put in place the right talent development strategies for transversal, technical and soft skills in society which can unlock market potential and build competitiveness.

Our distinguished speakers – Barbara Colombo, Vice-President of FICEP Group; Kristina Dervojeda, PwC; João Santos, DG Employment, Social Affairs, and Inclusion; Jens Redmer, Google; Jean-Hugues Rodriguez, Airbus and Andrew Hodgson, Siemens Digital Factory – addressed the societal aspects of digitisation and how to prepare talent for the digital transformation.

The major takeaways from the event are the following:

1. Become better at anticipating the skills needs of the future – especially in the area of data analytics and digital security – and design the right curricula for technical schools.
2. Work together in partnerships and make the most of the best practices that already exist at EU level, i.e. the European Alliance for Apprenticeships and Digital Skills and Job Coalition.
3. Make small-scale, traditional industry relevant to ICT talent by using digital solutions on the shop floor. Entry barriers have never been lower for manufacturing SMEs.
4. Learn to learn. Invest in people, incentivise and empower them with training and life-long learning; let them drive success and innovation in manufacturing.
5. Be agile. The most important non-technical skills for the future will be flexibility and adaptability.

A special report, including the best practices discussed at the event, will be available on the CECIMO website.

About CECIMO
CECIMO is the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries and related Manufacturing Technologies. We bring together 15 national associations of machine tool builders, which represent approximately 1500 industrial enterprises in Europe (EU + EFTA + Turkey), over 80% of which are SMEs. CECIMO covers 98% of the total machine tool production in Europe and about 39% worldwide. It accounts for more than 150,000 employees and a turnover of nearly €24 billion in 2015. More than three quarters of CECIMO production is shipped abroad, whereas half of it is exported outside Europe.