Impact

Friction Stir Welding European Qualifications

Impact

Through the partners in this project, the outcomes of the FSW-TECH project will, in time, be actively disseminated beyond the Project Consortium, including the whole of the 31 EWF members throughout Europe, and the wide contact network of VÚZ - PI SR, both in Slovakia and in the rest of Europe.

Due to the European scale of this project, the consortium expects to have a direct impact on the identified target groups and relevant stakeholders at the European level. As the dissemination and exploitation strategy targets all the countries in Europe, not only project countries, the impact of FSW-TECH will be the same for all the European countries.

The expected impact of FSW-TECH to the national VET systems will also be the same for all the consortium countries. In fact, it is expected that the VET national system from the partner countries will suffer significant improvements and an overall modernisation after six months of the begging of the project. This short-term impact is related to the added value of the partnership, which involve different stakeholders (HE institutions, VET organisations, companies and European association) in the training process in order to make VET more responsive to new challenges in the sector. The partners will not only be responsible for addressing three professional profiles and being the first VET providers to offer this new Qualifications to the market, but also by addressing these profiles the consortium is creating the basis for the development of new professional profiles related to the FSW and the industrial sectors where it is used.

We believe that the impact of FSW-TECH on the target groups (companies, professionals, VET providers; universities; trainers, teachers and HE students) and other relevant stakeholders will be substantial and will remain as long as the FSW process/technology last. To prove this fact, the EWF Guidelines and harmonised education, training and qualification system have continuously been used by all the European Countries, since its creation in 1980.

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Concluding, the impact will include:

  • SMES and large companies using aluminium fabrication (transports, construction and packaging industries) - will benefit with high qualified personnel working for them as 3 new professional profiles will be created in response to the actual mismatch between the market need and the training offer;
  • Professionals working for those companies - can update knowledge and skills required to carry out their tasks properly, thus having a greater opportunity for employment;
  • Both professionals and companies - will benefit from the creation of jobs by companies involved in FSW (considering the market availability of highly qualified personnel); as well they will benefit from the development of a harmonised training system and Guidelines for EFSW-O, EFSW-S and EFSW-E, which will allow international recognition and validation, promoting transparency and mobility within Europe;
  • VET System (VET providers, teachers and trainers) - will benefit from the creation of the EFSW-O, EFSW-S, EFSW-E and Profiles Curricula Toolbox that will assist the implementation of a innovative training curricula (work-based methodology and ICT tools); VET quality will improve as the Curricula includes EQF and ECVET Trainer Kit, based on EQF learning outcomes, defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competences, and allocation of ECVET points, taking into account European recommendations; finally, VET providers will definitely be acknowledge for promoting new learning opportunities, having an increment in their volume/hours of training as the new courses are being delivered at national level.
  • Universities - can directly benefit from the implementation of FSW learning units in their master's degrees or through the development of short courses and continuous training courses, thus being responsible for introducing higher education students to the use of the emergent FSW technology.
  • Other sectors - can benefit from the qualified personnel working with FSW technology and the creation of FSW professional profiles, as the technology is also being applied in fabrications with a new generation of materials such as steels, nickel-alloy and titanium alloys. Thus, the project results can have a higher impact spreading into the Energy and Manufacturing sectors.
  • EWF partner countries - can integrate the lessons learnt from transferring and adapting the existing contents (based on previous projects) to their realities and needs;
  • Other relevant stakeholders (Invited companies from the steel sector, Industry, National Authorities for VET National and EU VET Networks) - can benefit from the exploitation of the developed results.