Erasmus+ project to provide mould manufacturers with speciality plastics training
The objective of the MOULD4PLAST project is to provide mould manufacturers with speciality plastics training to meet the high demand for professionals with this profile in the sector.
The training programme, which is aimed at both professionals in the sector and students undertaking vocational training, was designed to build on the courses already available in a number of countries.
The European moulding industry requires professionals who specialise in plastics. AIMPLAS, the Plastics Technology Centre, has been involved in the MOULD4PLAST project to develop a comprehensive range of training programmes for both professionals in the moulding industry and students undertaking vocational training, so the content has been designed as a continuation of the mould manufacturing courses already offered in a number of countries.
Thus, the programme content is designed to allow professionals in the sector to increase their knowledge of the specific features of plastics and improve their technical skills relating to the concepts and tools used in the plastics sector. In addition, guides and tools based on a practical approach have been created and tailored to the target audience and the different countries, and to European collaboration and learning networks.
The training guides will allow training centres to plan and develop the content of courses. To this end, a survey has been conducted on the content, skills and competences required by stakeholders, and the student profiles, content and format type have been defined based on the responses. Thus, a combination of face-to-face, online, theoretical and practical activities will be offered, and innovative content and tools used. This will allow the programme to be tailored to the specific characteristics of each sector in each country.
A pilot course was conducted over the summer in all participating countries and involved more than 40 experts and students (approximately 10 from each country).
Other centres are participating in the project, which is co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme and coordinated by the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry. These include the 3S Research Laboratory in Austria, the Valencian Association of the Automotive Industry in Spain and the Moravian-Silesian Automotive Cluster (AUTOKLASTR) in the Czech Republic.
The course is hosted on the Moodle platform. You can view the website at www.mould4plast.eu.
