April 2021

• Poland: Cognitive flexibility is an important skill for a job interview in the aviation sector – pilot workshops in Aviation Valley!

The pilot training for future aviation industry workers in Rzeszów, Poland was organized on the 11^th   of March 2021 by INNpuls Sp. and Aviation Valley, in cooperation with Podkarpackie Centre of  Innovation. The workshop focused on soft skills at work for Industry 4.0 in the aviation sector, especially cognitive flexibility.

Engaging exercises and active discussion, carried by an expert in areas of management and coaching, trying to find an answer to the following questions: What kind of employees does Industry 4.0 need? Intrapersonal skills at work – can this be learned? How to use intrapersonal skills for interpersonal communication?

The event supported sharing and introducing the future generation of aviation employees to online courses and interactive materials helping in the development of soft competencies.

There were 71 participants taking part in the online event including 45 students from technical universities in Rzeszów, poznań, Wrocław, Jasło, and Oxford, 15 students and teachers from VET schools, and 11 representatives of aviation companies. Additionally, the workshops were streamed live to two class groups of students at Technical University in Rzeszów. The positive feedback and active participation in the Q&A session of students showed us that they understand the need for soft skills starting from the first step such as a recruitment interview for any post in the aviation sector.

• Spain: Testing the Sky4.0 Moodle 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 international 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 students were 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. The 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. After the students explored the course, an open discussion of 30 minutes took place to get some constructive feedback.

The students found the course easy to follow but considered that having the possibility to interact with a teacher and other students during the course would be useful. They did find Moodle important for developing soft skills, incorporate soft skills in their lessons, and facilitate everyone to streamline their routine tasks. Also, they pointed out that a key to success is to make user-friendly courses and activities.

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. And 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.

Turkey: Pilot workshop for future employees of aviation sector – Critical thinking

The Turkish National Multiplier Event took place on the 15^th of April 2021 and was hosted in the online format from İzmir, Turkey using the Webex platform.

This event main objectives were designed to:

• Give information about the Sky4.0 project and the critical thinking soft skill;
• Introduce the moodle platform and inform the students how to use that platform;
• Give a brief definition and develop a basic understanding of critical thinking and problem-solving;
• Get feedback from students by performing some activities.

The group invited to the Sky 4.0 NME consisted of students from Ege University Aviation Higher Vocational School. In total, the meeting counted with the participation of 34 students and 1 ACA member company consultant.

During the meeting, the participants were informed about the project’s objectives and given a short explanation about soft skills and industry 4.0. To increase public participation some questions were explored using the Padlet platform. The comments and discussions were very effective and helped to create a clear understanding of the subject.  Before closing up, there was a Q&A session where was collected the students’ points of view regarding soft skills and the course itself.

The overall feedback was excellent! The students were very interested in the concept and stated their willingness to take the course soon. The attendees shared some thoughtful suggestions of improvement about the moodle platform for blind and hearing-impaired people. Also, some minor improvements were suggested.

• Portugal: intellectual curiosity

The national event is planned to happen in May 2021, we will soon come back with the news about the session!

The Sky4.0 partners have worked relentlessly to prepare a set of resources that are top-notch material to ignite your soft skills growth!

BOOSTING YOUR SOFT SKILLS!

With industry 4.0 revolutionizing the way companies and industries operate, soft skills are an aspect that should not be overlooked! Within Sky4.0 a set of training materials for self-development but also curricula for training have been developed that can support the individuals´ needs but also the companies´ needs to elevate the soft skills of their human capital! With direct target Aeronautical companies, the materials are accessible to everyone, and the majority of them have been designed transversally so can easily apply to your case as well! Let the training start!

⇒ Check out the amazing set of resources prepared by Sky4.0 partners HERE !

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.

On the 30^th and 31^st of March, the Sky 4.0 project presented the Webinar: “The Educational Revolution: Active Learning for Industry 4.0 in Aviation”.

In our two-day Webinar, we focus on active learning, a learning approach where the student is engaged in the learning process, and building their understanding by interacting with the learning materials and knowledge. But why? – You might wonder… For us, Active Learning is the solution to deal with the new challenges of Industry 4.0! By applying Active Learning in our training and teaching moments, we can prepare our current workers and future workers to deal with change, disruption, and innovation, to not only navigate the 4^th Revolution but to successfully lead its implementation and development!

Sky 4.0 fully incorporates active learning, developing all the training materials with moments of reflection, hands-on activities, and group collaboration! Our mantra is the “Trainee/Student on the Centre” since that’s the only way we can improve and work on ourselves!

During our webinar, we explored the importance of changing the way we learn! First with our Roundtables, where our experts highlighted the importance of preparing our workers to be lifelong-learners, of upgrade our Education System to its 4.0 version, and of the importance of the soft skills (the human’s best asset in the technological world and that can NOT be taught in a two-hour lecture)!

In our workshops, we not only highlighted the importance of an active learning process but also showed how Sky4.0 integrates such methodology into unique on-site activities (self-activities and also trainer-led).

It was such a great moment of innovation, sharing, and LEARNING! As the wises usually say “Life is about the journey, not the destination” and in Sky 4.0 we are enjoying the ride, so join us because our flight is not done yet!

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.