1. MATES Maritime Alliance for fostering the European Blue economy through a Marine Technology Skilling Strategy
Sector Skill Alliances ERASMUS +
KA2 Cooperation and innovation and Exchange of good practices
Lucía Fraga Lago
Blue skills Expert Group, Industry-Education Cooperation subgroup
2018, January the 16th
+ info:
Coordinated by

2. NEW SKILLS AGENDA FOR EUROPE
Quality and relevance of skill
Upskilling pathway
Key competences framework
VET as a first choice
Digital skills and Jobs coalition
Visibility and comparability
Revision of EQF
Skills profile tool for 3rd country nationals
Skills intelligence
Revision of EUROPASS
Analysis of brain drain
BLUEPRINT FOR SECTORIAL COOPERATION ON SKILLS
Initiative on graduate tracking
Sector Skills Alliances are an instrument to contribute to the New Skills Agenda for Europe, and in particular to improve the quality and relevance of Europe’s Vocational Education and Training. The Blue Print for sectoral cooperation on skills is one of the 10 actions of the New Skills Agenda for Europe and the call KA2, above referred
Sector Skills Alliances between education and training providers and the world of work aimed at promoting employability, contributing to the creation of new sector-specific or cross-sectoral curricula, developing innovative methods of vocational teaching and training and putting the Union transparency and recognition tools into practice.

3. MATES GOAL AND MAIN NUMBERS
ENCOMPASS THE MARITIME TECHNOLOGIES WITH A STRATEGY FOR TACKLING SKILLS’ SHORTAGES
4 YEARS OF ACTIVITY: 2018 – 2021
17 PARTNERS, 8 EU COUNTRIES
4,9 M€ BUDGET
80% CO-FINANCED BY ERASMUS + PROGRAM
11 PILOT ACTIONS
1 LONG TERM STRATEGY & ACTION PLAN
MATES’ objective is to develop a skills strategy that addresses the main drivers of change to the maritime industry, in particular shipbuilding and offshore renewable energy, which are strongly linked and require of new capacities built to succeed in an increasingly digital, green and knowledge driven economy.

4. SOCIETY - OCEAN LITERACY
MARITIME TECHNOLOGIES IN MATES
Life Long Learning
Professional Training
Vocational Training
Higher Education
Secondary Education
Shipbuilding
Offshore Renewable Energies
Related Manufacturers & developers
Engineering
Consultancy
R&D
Operations & Maintenance
Environmental Services
Logistics
(,,,)
Platforms and training mechanisms
Mobility
Professional profiles
Design of trainings
Digital skills
Green skills
Innovation skills
SERVICES
EDUCATION & TRAINING
INDUSTRY
Skills’ Gaps-
STRATEGY & ACTION PLAN
SOCIETY - OCEAN LITERACY
Blue growth governance & public sector activities
MATES will enhance competitiveness and innovation capacity of the maritime technologies value chain by filling specific skills´ gaps between education offer and industry needs
The maritime technologies value chain is understood in its broad sense, focusing on two pillar industry sectors, shipbuilding and off-shore energy, with their intersections and all associated activities and services

5. THEMATIC APPROACH Cross-cutting integration of Ocean Literacy
GOAL: Match demand and supply of skills
INDUSTRYLED // DEMAND DRIVEN
SHIPBUILDING
OFFSHORE
RENEWABLES E
SKILL GAPS on the managerial and operational level
Digital skills
Green skills
Automation
Robotics
Big Data & Data Analytics
Cloud computing
3D Printing
Internet of Things
Sustainable practices
Reduction of carbón emissions
Recycling
Efficient use of ressources
21st Century skills
Revision of specific technical CV
Specific occupational profiles:
Skills
Proficiency level
From a thematic perspective a special attention will be paid to the gaps regarding: Digital (and data enabled) skills, Green skills ,and innovation and knowledge management skills (the so called 21st century skills).
Ocean literacy will act for MATES project as a transversal and multidirectional content in all workpackages:
- Boosting the transfer of scientific knowledge to the industry sectors, integrating the industrial perspective in literacy delivery and widening the industrial perspective about the new possibilities that ‘maritimIZED’ CVs can yield for blue growth and jobs.
- Raising awareness about the maritime industry’s careers among society, research and education communities, in order to attract youngsters to select future maritime professions.
OCEAN LITTERACY
Transfer scientific knowledge to/from industry Raising awareness about the maritime industry’s careers among society
Funds rising
Knowledge Transfer
Innovation / Knowledge management
Entrepreneurship

6. PARTNERSHIP: 17 partners form 8 countries
Partnership will have a node in all major European sea-basins including the outermost region of Azores.

7. PARTNERSHIP COMPLEMENTARITY
The complementarities of the profiles and their position in relation to skills needs and delivery, this is relevant to assure an efficient implementation of work, but also to harness the future sustainability of the network and its long term commitment towards the strategy

8. Long-term Industry lead Action Plan
PROJECT STRUCTURE
WP2: Baseline Strategy& foresight
WP3: Prioritisation and action lines
WP4. Practical Pilot Experiences (PEs)
Mobility
New curricula and professional profiles
New trainings
Digtal skills
Green Skills
Innovation Management
Ocean Literacy
Maritime Hackaton
WP5: Critical revision and Long-term industry-led Action Plan
WP6: Dissemination and outreach
WP7: Quality control and risk management
WP8: Overall coordination & management
WP1: Stakeholders’
mobilisation
PLAN
Preliminary strategy for bridging current and future skills needs
Do: Test
Check
ACT
Long-term Industry lead Action Plan
MATES will adopt the well-known Edwards Deming Circle for permanent improvement: Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) that will be improved with the elements of Agile technologies for a dynamic market response: The work plan will start with the mobilisation of stakeholders beyond the project to broaden the partnership capacity to carry-out the work, assure sustainability, multiply impact, and obtain continuous feedback. They will be invited to contribute to assess the current and future situation of the sectors and its implications for the labour market regarding skills’ needs and employability.
From a comprehensive assessment and foresight analysis a prioritization of action lines will be made in a preliminary strategy document (Plan) and a number of Pilot Experiences will be planned and launched to contribute to these action lines and test the strategy (Do).
Critical revision of the pilots and their results confronted with the preliminary strategy design will allow a fine tuning (Check) and the set-up of a Long-Term Action Plan (Roadmap).
The action plan will assign responsibilities and reflect commitment by those partners and external stakeholders which will harness and mainstream the strategy and its recommendations in the long term (in the horizon of the 2030) (Act).
The project activity will provide continuous feedback to the initial Plan to enable agility and continuous improvement. Acknowledging the relevance of past efforts to set the scene for this proposal, the project is planned to concentrate most of the efforts and time of the partnership in the accomplishment of practical pilot experiences. This work plan design is also fundamental to guarantee that the project touches the ground of the regional and local context and actors and generates impact at this level, underpinning also the Regional Specialisation Strategies (RIS3). This is essential to get sufficient involvement of key actors in these contexts to upscale the strategic design (at EU level and with long term perspective) and assure sustainability.

9. ELEMENTS FOR THE PROPOSED STRUCTURE
Diagnostics: State of Play of the sectoral skills gaps.
Foresight activities: future scenarios considering State of Play and main trends.
Design of solutions and priority actions:
Key elements to be taught for target groups: unemployed, low to middle-skilled workers and university graduates.
Appropriate mixed training schemes: combining local and blended training with on-the-job learning and e-learning
Competence profile of trainers and new occupational profiles needed.
Knowledge and competences assessment schemes.
Innovation ecosystems around the maritime technologies and sectors with upgraded capacities and skills and increased mobility options
PLAN:
PRELIMINARY STRATEGY FOR BRIDGING CURRENT AND FUTURE SKILLS NEEDS
Diagnostics. Desktop analysis of all relevant documents and materials which allow an updated description of the current state of play of the sectoral skills gaps.
Foresight activities: design of scenarios that consider the description of the state of play and trends driven by different factors: technology, economy, environment, social perspectives, policy and governance aspects, etc.
Design of solutions and priority actions:
Identify key elements to be taught to increase new knowledge and new technologies awareness, ocean and digital literacy and productive skills for each target group of the project (unemployed, low to middle-skilled workers in shipbuilding and offshore energy value chain and university graduates)
Develop and implement appropriate mixed training schemes (combining local and blended training with on-the-job learning and e-learning)
Define the necessary competence profile of trainers and new Ocupational Profiles needed.
Develop knowledge and competences assessment scheme and tests to effectively manage and assess training and upskilling progress by trainees;
Enhance innovation ecosystems around the maritime technologies and sectors with upgraded capacities and skills and increased mobility options.
This first activities will conform the first Deliverable: A PRELIMINARY STRATEGY PLAN FOR BRIDGING CURRENT AND FUTURE SKILLS NEEDS

10. ELEMENTS FOR THE PROPOSED STRUCTURE
DO: 11 PILOT EXPERIENCES
TOPIC:
DOP: Definition of new Occupational Profiles
ED2MIT: Education and Training for Data Driven Maritime Industry
MOOC Training COURSE
Freeboard & The Magnus effect: Simulate industry spaces in learning centers
Green mov: exchanges on green technologies
Green Maritime Hackathon
MOL2:Maritime on the Loop of Ocean Literacy
Renewable Energies Crash Courses
Summer school
GOAL:
Recognition & identification of skills
Reskilling/upskilling workforce
Innovation in training
Contact academy – industry
Attractiveness of maritime careers
Seek technical solutions
Visibility
Training of Trainers
Improve clients knowledge
Specialization
Test the most promising training/learning schemes for each target group as pilot experiences (second group of deliverables) covering the three pillars for the proposal (shipbuilding, ocean renewables and ocean literacy).

11. DISSEMINATION & OUTREACH
ELEMENTS FOR THE PROPOSED STRUCTURE
ACT: LONG TERM INDUSTRY LED ACTION PLAN
CHECK:
Monitoring
Assessment
Critical revision
Capitalize ressources
Mobilize Funding
Ensure sustainability and Scalability
DISSEMINATION & OUTREACH
The monitoring and assessment of the pilot’s performance and impact, will allow the design of
Long-term Strategic Action Plan to capitalize on existing resources, mobilize funding and ensure the sustainability and scalability of the project results; this scaled-up action plan will need to include a time-frame, committed actors and the identification of potential funding sources.
A sound dissemination and outreach plan, with a strong input from Ocean Literacy partners, will be essential to:
underpin the strategy,
increase the attractiveness of maritime technologies professions and careers and raising awareness about them among societal and education communities to attract young talent to rejuvenate the industry.
assure the strategy’s future uptake.
Embed the industrial perspective in ocean literacy initiatives,
Spread an updated image for the maritime technologies in the blue economy, with a convincing message that the sector has a high-tech future with a long-term positive perspective.

12. ACT AS CONSULTANCY EXPERTS
ORGANIZATION
Mobilization: A stakeholders network integrating partners and external experts will be organized in THEMATIC GROUPS:
Delivering education and training activities
Representing the industry (companies, associations, trade unions, etc.) and sectoral umbrella organizations at EU Level.
Research organizations to identify technological trends and anticipating the future scenarios
Administrations with capacity uptake the strategy and institutionalize it
Key Agents
THEMATIC GROUPS
Digital skills
Green Technologies
Innovation Management
Shipbuilding
Offshore activities
Ocean literacy
Gender balance
ACT AS CONSULTANCY EXPERTS
Revision of activities
Validation processes
Evaluation of results
The project mobilises a network of main stakeholders in the fields of shipbuilding and offshore renewable energies and connected activities, green technologies, digital skills, open access, ocean literacy and innovation management. Additionally a Thematic group on Gender Balance and Inclusiveness will be established to guarantee an appropriate follow up of the project’s policy on gender balance, equity and inclusiveness.
The implication of multiple stakeholders with relevant background, beyond the partnership, will start from the very beginning of the project and their points of view will feed all the following activities in the project, contributing to the legitimacy and soundness of the strategy.
From a technical perspective, Thematic Groups will also be proposed as an internal body to deliver expert’s advice and assist any activity focused on one of their Thematic issues. These groups will also assist the measurement of the project impact through indicators associated to core themes.

13. Thematic Groups Management Commitee Steering Board Project Secretariat
ORGANIZATION
Thematic Groups
Management Commitee
Steering Board
Project Secretariat
A core group, the Management Committee (MC), will deal with operational management. For technical monitoring and orientation, the MC will be assisted by WP Leaders and representatives of Thematic Groups. WP Leaders will get their support for monitoring activity from Task Leaders. The strategic orientation of the activity and the main decisions will be discussed and decided by the Steering Board (SB) that will involve a representative of each partner organisation. Finally, a project secretariat will be in charge of dealing with the administrative and financial issues, with the collaboration from all partners.
The MC will be chaired by the Project Coordinator (CETMAR) and integrated by the technical staff for the partners with a consultancy profile: AQUATT, AQUATERA, INDIGOMED, AQUALEX, one partner from the industry (ASIME) one partner from Universities and Research Centres (WEGEMT) and one partner from administration (XUNTA). They will focus on overall technical performance, being involved in the daily activity of the project. When needed, they will use the Thematic Groups as an advisory body for the project. The steering will meet every six months (before the SB Meeting) or more frequently through digital means if deemed necessary.
SB, will be chaired by the project coordinator and Co-chaired by ASIME (to assure the strategic decisions in the project are made under an industry-led perspective). The SB will involve all partners and meet twice per year, but may also be consulted in between meetings if needed, using mail or any other digital system. This structure will decide the strategic orientations of the project. Meeting hosts will be rotating along the partnership countries and institutions, assuring that the partnership organises meetings covering all the European sea-basins.
Project Secretariat made by the project coordinator assisted by one administrative staff person at CETMAR, and a financial/administrative representative designated by each partner organization. This secretariat will focus on daily operational aspects in relation to funding, legal issues management and administrative burden.

14. EVENTS 6 REGIONS: Galicia-North Portugal (CETMAR- ASIME-FORUM OCEANO)
Azores (FRCT)
Ireland (AQUATT-AMC)
Scotland (AQUATERA)
Flanders-Netherlands (Univ Ghent/Univ Amsterdam)
Mediterranean (Greece: IndigoMed & CERTHIT).
EVENTS
REGIONAL WS: 3
WP1- Stakeholder mob: M4
WP2-Baseline strategy: M12
WP5- Long Term Plan: M44
INTERNATIONAL WS: 2
WP2-Baseline strategy: M15
WP5- Long Term Plan: M47
Bruxelles
Porto

15. NEXT ACTIVITIES PROJECT START: 1-1-2018
Presentation to DG MARE (Blue skills expert group): January 2018
Coordinators’ meeting with Commission: Brussels, January Kick off Meeting: Brussels, 7-8 February 2018
Organization of LOCAL WORKSHOP for Stakeholder mobilization:
April 2018
Presentation at European Maritime Day: Burgass, 31 May-1 June 2018
Proposal of participation in a workshop and presentation of the Industry implications: Training and new skills demand in offshore energies and shipbuilding, by the Galician Association of Metallurgical Industries (ASIME)