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The Learn & Fly ERASMUS+ project team completed elaboration of the Careers KIT describing 60 different aviation professions: from designing, through manufacturing to air transport and flight operations. The young generation, mainly 15-17 years old students, were also engaged in aircraft construction projects. The challenge here was to inspire them to follow the carrier within the aerospace sector. That is why, as a project team, we had asked aviation professionals to provide testimonies for different occupations and their career paths. This way students could learn more about the real work environment.

Back then, we wanted to know what matters most for these professionals in mostly technical professional experience. We were also curious what message they would like to pass on to young future industry workers – youngsters, students, and interns. Now, reviewing these testimonies again, we were genuinely stroked by how often our respondents talk about…soft skills!

Is it surprising? Maybe a little bit, because in the survey we have not mentioned any social or personal soft skill nor even have asked about social or personal development. The questions we had asked were as follows: a. What do you like most about your professional work? b. What surprised or pleased you the most at work? Why would you recommend this career path to others? c. What difficulties did you encounter at work and how did you deal with them? d. Which part of the educational path was the most important? e. Other interesting experiences related to the industry?

In Poland, we have gathered 25 complete testimonies of Polish professionals working in diverse positions and with different specializations in Aviation Valley companies. The majority – 17 out of 25 of respondents mentioned soft skills as a part of their professional experience and as important as their technical and operational knowledge.

Many of the respondents described ABILITY OF ADAPTATION TO CHANGE as typical for the aviation sector:

• I was surprised by the rapid rhythm of work and changes of priorities – you have to make decisions dynamically. – Metallurgist
• It requires you to focus, be flexible, and be responsible. It is [working in aviation] full of challenges, but you also would not be bored here. – Junior Metallurgist
• Continuous risk identification, process risk management, and keeping it at an acceptable level. – Safety Manager

Others underlined the importance of COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY and TEAM BUILDING SKILLS:

• I was positively surprised by how warm I was received by the employees who were willing to help and teach me. It is worth trying your hard at aviation, but it is a job that requires knowledge and openness to new challenges. – Junior Constructor
• Professional work also allows me to improve on what I have learned before as well as get to know and develop new solutions and technologies. Working in an aviation company also allows me to meet new people, cultures. – Mechanical Engineer of Aircraft Engines
• The most interesting aspect of the work is creativity, the ability to implement and verify your ideas, continuous development, and direct contact with highly specialized industries. – Construction Engineer of Special Tools (Director of the department)
• Interpersonal skills and creativity in the introduction of new solutions, good practices, or instructions for conduct are of great importance in my work. – Quality Control Engineer
• There are several advantages to working at the airport, including the ability to work in English, communing with airplanes and other aircraft, the ability to prove yourself in emergencies requiring quick decisions, and acting under time pressure. – Airport Operational Officer

But that were pilots who expressed how INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY and  complexity of skills required for the job is important:

• For me, the most important part of the educational path was self-improvement and goal realization (…). – Commercial Pilot (F.O. Airbus A320/321)
• The implementation of the aviation task is associated with the involvement of all skills, abilities, attention – in one word – all resources. – Rescue and Military Pilot (Major Rank)
• In pilot education the most important are: fluency in English, spatial orientation, and the ability to the permanent acquisition of information and skills. The last is very important for processing this information for decisions to be made. – Commercial Pilot (First Officer)

ANALYTICAL AND CRITICAL THINKING was also an important part of at least 10 testimonies such as:

• The aviation industry is very demanding, which means that all tasks should be carried out very conscientiously and accurately. (…) Together with our colleagues, we create a well-coordinated team that solves the task together and help each other. – Intern in Strength Analysis Department

Aeronautics requires mostly skills in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and the challenges related to them are well-defined and ambitious and give most of our respondents a strong feeling of purpose in their work. Nevertheless, coming changes related to Industry 4.0, are primarily the transition to a different level of communication between the organization and its environment. Therefore the Qualification Map for the aviation sector will need to include more and more soft skills. The industry workers already give these skills the importance which is going to grow stronger in coming years.

¡Los socios de Sky4.0 han trabajado incansablemente para preparar un conjunto de recursos que son material de primera categoría para impulsar el crecimiento de tus soft skills!

¡MEJORANDO TUS SOFT SKILLS!

Con la industria 4.0 revolucionando la forma en que operan las empresas y las industrias, las soft skills son un aspecto que no debe pasarse por alto. Dentro de Sky4.0 se ha desarrollado un conjunto de materiales de capacitación para el autodesarrollo, pero también planes de estudio para la capacitación que pueden apoyar las necesidades de los individuos, y las necesidades de las empresas para elevar las soft skills de su capital humano. Con compañías aeronáuticas como publico objetivo, los materiales son accesibles para todos, y la mayoría de ellos han sido diseñados de forma transversal, por lo que también se pueden aplicar fácilmente a todos los casos. ¡Que empiece el entrenamiento!

⇒ ¡Vea el increíble conjunto de recursos preparados por los socios de Sky4.0 AQUÍ!

Durante estos últimos meses, tres de cada cuatro socios de Sky4.0 realizaron eventos multiplicadores nacionales donde presentaron materiales interactivos e introdujeron a los futuros empleados de la aviación a través de cursos online enfocados en el desarrollo de habilidades blandas. Cada país especializó su enfoque en una habilidad especial en particular:

• Polonia: La flexibilidad cognitiva es una habilidad importante para una entrevista de trabajo en el sector de la aviación: ¡talleres piloto en Aviation Valley!

La formación piloto para futuros trabajadores de la industria de la aviación en Rzeszów, Polonia, fue organizada el 11 de marzo de 2021 por INNpuls Sp. y Aviation Valley, en cooperación con el Centro de Innovación Podkarpackie. El taller se centró en las habilidades blandas en el trabajo para la Industria 4.0 en el sector de la aviación, especialmente la flexibilidad cognitiva.

Ejercicios envolventes y discusión activa, realizados por un experto en áreas de gestión y coaching, tratando de encontrar una respuesta a las siguientes preguntas: ¿Qué tipo de empleados necesita la Industria 4.0? Habilidades intrapersonales en el trabajo: ¿se puede aprender? ¿Cómo utilizar las habilidades intrapersonales para la comunicación interpersonal?

El evento apoyó el intercambio y la introducción a la futura generación de empleados de la aviación a cursos en línea y materiales interactivos que ayudan en el desarrollo de competencias blandas. En el evento online participaron 71 participantes, incluidos 45 estudiantes de universidades técnicas de Rzeszów, Poznań, Wrocław, Jasło y Oxford, 15 estudiantes y profesores de escuelas de FP y 11 representantes de empresas de aviación. Además, los talleres se transmitieron en vivo a dos grupos de estudiantes de la Universidad Técnica de Rzeszów. La retroalimentación positiva y la participación activa en la sesión de preguntas y respuestas de los estudiantes nos mostraron que comprenden la necesidad de habilidades blandas a partir del primer paso, como una entrevista de reclutamiento para cualquier puesto en el sector de la aviación.

• España: probando el curso en Moodle Sky4.0 sobre pensamiento analítico

El evento tuvo lugar el 1 de octubre de 2020 en formato online a través de una sesión de Teams. El principal objetivo de este evento internacional fue presentar y probar el curso Sky 4.0 Moodle sobre pensamiento analítico. El grupo invitado a la sesión Sky4.0 estaba formado por estudiantes del Máster de Ingeniería Aeroespacial de la UPM y un reducido equipo de estudiantes Erasmus de la ETSIA (École Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancées, Bidart, Francia). En total, el encuentro contó con la participación de 37 alumnos y 4 docentes. Durante el encuentro, se informó a los estudiantes sobre los contenidos que se han desarrollado para cada una de las habilidades blandas y se les invitó a experimentar con el curso de pensamiento analítico. El curso se instaló localmente en el servidor Moodle de la universidad para que el estudiante pudiera acceder a él como normalmente accedería a sus cursos académicos. Después de que los estudiantes exploraron el curso, se llevó a cabo una discusión abierta de 30 minutos para obtener comentarios constructivos. Los estudiantes encontraron el curso fácil de seguir, pero consideraron que sería útil tener la posibilidad de interactuar con un maestro y otros estudiantes durante el curso. Encontraron que Moodle era importante para desarrollar habilidades, incorporar habilidades en sus lecciones y facilitar a todos la optimización de sus tareas rutinarias. Asimismo, señalaron que una de las claves del éxito es realizar cursos y actividades fáciles de usar.

La retroalimentación general sobre el curso fue excelente. Se sugirieron algunas mejoras menores en el diseño y correcciones de errores. En general, los estudiantes encontraron adecuada la duración del curso y consideraron las actividades útiles e interesantes. Y aunque los participantes ya estaban familiarizados con la idea del pensamiento analítico, los conceptos abordados por el curso y el enfoque del curso les resultaron nuevos.

• Turquía: taller piloto para futuros empleados del sector de la aviación – Pensamiento crítico.

El evento multiplicador nacional tuvo lugar el 15 de abril de 2021 y se realizó en formato online desde Esmirna, Turquía, utilizando la plataforma Webex. Los objetivos principales de este evento fueron diseñados para:

• Dar información sobre el proyecto Sky4.0 y la habilidad de pensamiento crítico;
• Introducir la plataforma moodle e informar a los estudiantes cómo usar esa plataforma;
• Dar una definición breve y desarrollar una comprensión básica del pensamiento crítico y la resolución de problemas;
• Obtener comentarios de los estudiantes mediante la realización de algunas actividades.

El grupo invitado al Sky 4.0 NME estaba formado por estudiantes de la Escuela Vocacional Superior de Aviación de la Universidad Ege. En total, el encuentro contó con la participación de 34 estudiantes y 1 consultor de la empresa miembro de la ACA. Durante la reunión, se informó a los participantes sobre los objetivos del proyecto y se les dio una breve explicación sobre las soft skills y la industria 4.0. Para aumentar la participación del público, se exploraron algunas preguntas utilizando la plataforma Padlet. Los comentarios y discusiones fueron muy efectivos y ayudaron a crear una comprensión clara del tema. Antes de cerrar, hubo una sesión de preguntas y respuestas donde se recogieron los puntos de vista de los estudiantes sobre las soft skills y el curso en sí.

La respuesta general fue excelente! Los estudiantes estaban muy interesados en el concepto y manifestaron su voluntad de tomar el curso pronto. Los asistentes compartieron algunas sugerencias reflexivas de mejora sobre la plataforma moodle para personas ciegas y con discapacidad auditiva. Además, se sugirieron algunas mejoras menores.

• Portugal: curiosidad intelectual

El evento nacional está planeado para mayo de 2021, ¡pronto volveremos con las noticias sobre la sesión!

Because “practice makes perfect”, a group of Spanish and French students of Aerospace engineering with very promising results and a high level of acceptance has tested the Sky 4.0 Moodle course on analytical thinking.

The event took place on the 1^st of October 2020 in the online format through a Teams session. The main objective of this national event was to present and test the Sky 4.0 Moodle course on analytical thinking.

The group invited to the Sky4.0 session consisted of students from the Master of Aerospace Engineering at the UPM and a reduced team of Erasmus students from the ETSIA (École Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancées, Bidart, France). In total,  the meeting counted with the participation of 37 students and 4 teachers.

During the meeting, the attendants were briefed on the project and its objectives and outcomes. A brief explanation was made on the relevance of soft skills for future workers in the aerospace industry, and on the soft skills that have been found more relevant by the project. Students were also briefed about the contents that have been developed for each one of the soft skills, and they were invited to experiment with the course on analytical thinking.

This course was settled locally into the Moodle server of the university so the student could access it like they usually would access their academic courses. They went through the course and tried to do each activity for two periods including individual work with the platform, and interactive workshop. After that, an open discussion of 30 minutes took place about the course to get feedback from the students.

The overall feedback about the course was excellent. Some minor improvements to the layout and corrections of errors were suggested. In general, the students found the duration of the course appropriate and considered the activities useful and interesting. Even though the participants were already familiarized with the idea of analytical thinking, the concepts tackled by the course and the approach of the course were new to them.

Moreover, the students found the course easy to follow, without any teacher support or guide, but consider that having the possibility to interact with a teacher and other students during the course will be useful. Students did find Moodle important for developing soft skills, incorporate soft skills in their lessons, and facilitate everyone to streamline their routine tasks. Finally, they pointed out that a key to success is to make user-friendly courses and activities.

Los días 30 y 31 de marzo, el proyecto Sky 4.0 presentó el Webinar: “La Revolución Educativa: Aprendizaje Activo para la Industria 4.0 en Aviación”.

En nuestro seminario web de dos días, nos enfocamos en el aprendizaje activo, un enfoque de aprendizaje en el que el estudiante participa en el proceso de aprendizaje y construye su comprensión al interactuar con los materiales de aprendizaje y el conocimiento. ¿Pero por qué? – Quizás se pregunte… ¡Para nosotros, el Aprendizaje Activo es la solución para enfrentar los nuevos desafíos de la Industria 4.0! Al aplicar el Aprendizaje Activo en nuestros momentos de capacitación y enseñanza, podemos preparar a nuestros trabajadores, actuales y futuros, para enfrentar el cambio, la disrupción y la innovación, no solo para navegar por la 4ª Revolución, sino para liderar con éxito su implementación y desarrollo.

¡Sky 4.0 incorpora completamente el aprendizaje activo, desarrollando todos los materiales de capacitación con momentos de reflexión, actividades prácticas y colaboración en grupo! Nuestro mantra es el “Enfocados al Estudiante” ya que esa es la única forma en que podemos mejorar y trabajar en nosotros mismos.

Durante nuestro seminario web, exploramos la importancia de cambiar la forma en que aprendemos. Primero con nuestras Mesas Redondas, donde nuestros expertos destacaron la importancia de preparar a nuestros trabajadores para ser aprendices de por vida, de actualizar nuestro Sistema Educativo a su versión 4.0, y de la importancia de las habilidades blandas (el mejor activo del ser humano en el mundo tecnológico y que NO se puede enseñar en una conferencia de dos horas).

En nuestros talleres, no solo destacamos la importancia de un proceso de aprendizaje activo, sino que también mostramos cómo Sky4.0 integra dicha metodología en actividades únicas en el sitio (actividades propias y también dirigidas por capacitadores).

¡Fue un gran momento de innovación, intercambio y APRENDIZAJE!

Como los sabios suelen decir «La vida se trata del viaje, no del destino» y en Sky 4.0 estamos disfrutando del viaje, ¡así que únete a nosotros porque nuestro vuelo aún no ha terminado!

How do we make decisions? What does it mean to think in a flexible way? Here is a little puzzle on cognitive flexibility for you. Take a look: Taking decisions – connecting the dots!

The workshops organized by the Sky4.0 partners,  INNpuls and Aviation Valley, that took place in Poland on the 11th of March were an enormous success! More than 100 students participated in this session and were always motivated to learn and exchange knowledge.

As for us…We continue to support the development of your soft skills, especially cognitive flexibility.

Have a look at a little puzzle which is a small sneak peek at the cognitive flexibility Moodle Course for future industry workers.

Sky 4.0 relies on Moodle for encouraging young talents in aerospace to improve their soft skills

Today, the learning process exploits a variety of electronic platforms, which, on the one hand, significantly increase the pool of students, but, on the other hand, hinder the development of soft skills, if the courses are not properly designed. Even more, the COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly accelerated this digital immersion.

Preparing students to face the challenges of the 21st century requires improving their soft skills by taking them beyond traditional classroom teaching and incorporating these values also in virtual learning. In the first instance, soft skills can be developed through active and interactive methods during in-class learning, but they should also be developed as well through well design interactive activities embodied in the electronics platforms that are currently part of the training and learning process.

To achieve this objective, we have built a kind of soft skills mentor supported by Moodle, to prepare young talents for the exciting yet challenging world beyond the technical subject studied in the classroom.

Moodle is a virtual learning platform that functions as a repository of course content and activities that can be used to teach soft skills. Moodle is one of these electronic tools commonly used for academic activities all around the world. It has become a standard, and students are well familiarized with it. Although up to now, Moodle has been mainly used for teaching and learning hard and technical skills, the synergies and scale factor of using Moodle for developing soft skills are huge.

This is not the first initiative promoting the development of soft skills supported by Moodle but it is the first one that concentrates on the soft skills required from future workers by industry 4.0. We are convinced that this approach to soft skills for young people will set the basis for future developments in this area.

Join the Webinar “The Educational Revolution: Active Learning for Industry 4.0 on Aviation” on 30^th and 31^st of March at 11:00 (CET)

Sky4.0 is an Erasmus+ project that aims to help Aeronautical companies from different European countries to meet the challenges of Industry 4.0 by improving the soft skills of their human resources. Nowadays, to keep up with the fast pace of the world we need to daily work on ourselves, we need to “upgrade” to our best version! And how can we do that? By learning! Learning is the key to our personal development!

In Sky4.0 we acknowledge the importance of continuous development and realize how sometimes can be difficult to go through this journey of growth. Therefore, in this Webinar, we want to reach not only you – the trainer, teacher, and/or leader – who is worried about improving the team’s productivity and motivation but also you – the individual – who wants to learn new skills!

Probably now you’re wondering… but how can I do that?

The answer is ACTIVE LEARNING! To learn something we need to be engaged in the learning process…the era of being seated down listening to the teacher for several hours is gone! Due to Industry 4.0, our days are going faster and faster, we are more connected than ever and are always receiving lots of information. And so, training is important to keep up with the pace of the industry!

We know how the process of learning can be tough, especially when the target is not concrete, but something within us… So, in our project’s materials, the trainee is in the center!

In this Webinar, we will present our Erasmus+ project Sky4.0, its goals, and the main results so far. Afterward, with a strong panel of experts, we will discuss the impact of Industry4.0 on the Aeronautic Sector and Educational System. To conclude, we will explore how the training of soft skills can be potentiated through the focus on each trainee’s individuality! We will work on:#Active Learning #Soft skills for Industry 4.0 #The Generations #Future of Education #Future of Industry 

The webinar is free and open to all! We promise to make it as interactive as possible!

⇒  Register here! ⇐

Check out the agenda of the event:

Sky4.0 and skill-UP are two ERASMUS+ projects that focus on the innovation and development of new skills and good practices in the aerospace and aviation sector.

In today’s world, there is an incredible amount of competition for jobs and people are realizing that a college degree is not enough to make it into the job market! Skill-UP and Sky4.0 are here to help current and future aeronautic workers navigate the labour market by understanding the necessary competences one needs to have.

Skill-UP aims to define the knowledge, skills, and competences that future workers from the aeronautic sector are required to have. Afterward, the project will develop VET training programs to cooperate on the innovation of the sector and the skilling, upskilling, and reskilling of workers in the air transport industry, a portfolio of training assessment tools, and a knowledge centre platform designed to collect all outputs of the project.

The first result of skill-UP is already available and consists of a detailed report “From Theory to Practice: Understanding user-profiles and training needs” focused on perceiving how theoretical and practical knowledge acquired through education and training prior to employment is later applied in the workplace. Also, another task of this report was to develop Personas, namely the target users of the future aviation VET training programs, to describe the competences (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) needed to undertake the essential tasks in the future operational scenarios and related training needs.

Sky4.0 wants to help improve the development of soft skills among the human resources of aeronautical companies and future workers of the sector. Therefore, with the cooperation of projects like skill-UP, it’s possible to improve the knowledge of current aerospace and aviation employees and fight the gap in pre-employment training by promoting the acquisition of skills and competences that students might need in their future employment at industry 4.0 companies.

Both projects are developing materials and new procedures that are going to provide helpful insights into the future of aeronautic and its workers. Let’s continue flying together into the future!

• Find out the conclusions of the skill-UP report here. 
• Follow the link to learn more about the skill-UP project: https://www.skillup-air.eu/
• Explore the resources developed in the sky4.0 project here.