Accelerating automotive green and digital skills with micro-credentials

ongoing

The green and digital transformation is accelerating technological innovation in ways that impact business processes and business models, driving changes in occupational profiles and skills demand. These changes are profound, affecting how companies operate and compete. The twin transition impacts not just job roles (existing and new ones), leading to a convergence between sectors of the economy such as automotive and ICT, but also the tasks within specific jobs, necessitating a more granular analysis and mappings of skills demand considering a task and competence-based approaches. In this context, using micro-credentials (MCs) can facilitate upskilling initiatives developed to support workers' and jobseekers' access to learning opportunities that can further improve their career and employment prospects, keeping pace of the rapid technological evolution. Our proposal aims to develop a skills anticipation approach to identify emerging skills needs in a granular way in the automotive maintenance and repair sector, focusing on the semi-skilled, skilled, and technical workforce (EQF levels 3 to 5). This will be linked to a scalable MCs system designed around governance, pedagogy, assessment, and financial sustainability. The project will also create reskilling and upskilling pathways with short courses for lifelong learning, codesigned with stakeholders. It will explore why MCs should be trusted and adopted by VET systems to address the twin transition, enhancing resilience and efficiency. The project will examine potential challenges and opportunities in training quality, assessment reliability, and integration with traditional qualifications, aiming to support MCs sustainability in various VET ecosystems.