Introducing a Unified Contemporary Approach Towards a Manufacturing Education Suited for the Needs of the 21st Century

In recent years, European and global manufacturing, in general, face a common problem which is summarized under the term “skills gap”. The aim of the current paper is to present two innovative projects that are targeted towards facing this phenomenon. In more detail, we are going to present the innovative methodological approaches introduced both by the “ActionPlanT: European Forum for ICT in Factories of the Future” project and the “Manuskills” project. On a second level, the paper aims at creating a link between the two projects and lead to the introduction of a unified approach towards manufacturing education that will capture and fulfill the needs and prerequisites of the 21st century.