Education for Next Generation Manufacturing

摘要

Manufacturing education is a major driver for promoting excellence in manufacturing in the years to come. As such, it should address a number of emerging challenges related to industry, academia and the society in general. It should define and set new education paradigms, with the direct involvement of all stakeholders. In this context, this keynote paper discusses a number of key issues of manufacturing education, such as embedding entrepreneurship and innovation spirit within the education system, promoting interdisciplinary thinking and working in multicultural environments, providing the means of balancing the loss of a large number of low-skilled jobs, by training high-level personnel for new manufacturing jobs, and promoting an integrated approach of education, research and technology transfer. Reference is made to the Teaching Factory initiative, which emerges as a promising breakthrough for integrating the factory environment with the classroom concept. A number of concerted actions linking human and societal needs to both the industrial and education systems are further discussed. A European multi-level view on these actions is presented. The possible role of IMS for the co-ordination of such actions, at international level, is further discussed.