Participation in the Conference "Skills and Jobs in the Future-Proven Steel Industry"

Last May 28th, the Steel Pole participated as a speaker in the conference organized by the European project "ESSA - European Steel Skills Alliance", in the session of regional perspectives, showing lines for the deployment of strategies for the skills of the future in the steel sector.

The session, moderated by Tata Steel, first presented the regional ecosystem developed by the company in the Netherlands, then the 3 invited regions presented the actions developed by specialized clusters (Asturias, Basque Country and the central region of Sweden). In the case of Asturias, the Steel Cluster presented the lines of development underway within the association, such as the different editions of CALDIA, the incorporation of specialized modules where competencies in digital skills are incorporated. The Manzana del Acero (Steel Block) infrastructure was also highlighted, as a location for the analysis and validation of technologies on a semi-industrial scale in a collaborative environment.

Another of the points emphasized during the intervention of the Steel Pole is the development of analogous activities, and of interest for the deployment of technologies with impact on the steel industry such as additive manufacturing, where our partner IDONIAL participates in the development of an international qualification system through specialized training centres, where the entity is working on being the first centre in which to incorporate these capabilities to train operators as well as designers, inspectors and supervisors.

In the same session, ArcelorMittal highlighted the value of the ArcelorMittal University campuses (including the one in Asturias), as nodes to validate and develop the deployment of the ESSA project tools, of which it is a partner. During the conference, the importance of a coordinated strategy between the different administrations and actors involved was also highlighted, in order to achieve the implementation of a series of actions aimed at responding to the needs of workers in the steel and metal-mechanical industry. In this sense, the link between the industry represented in the cluster, the alignment with the smart specialization policies defined by the regional administration, the coordination with other entities such as Platea (Spanish Steel Technology Platform) and ESTEP (European Steel Technology Platform, and partner of the ESSA project), and the actions to promote innovation and collaboration promoted by the Steel Cluster, pursue the same goal, to improve the competitiveness of companies and to value the actions developed in Asturias with global impact.