The 4th industrial revolution is coming at a worldwide scale, opening up new horizons driven by new-generation digital technologies. This change of paradigm has a profound impact in our economy and society, transforming products, processes and business models in every industry.The Feet IN 4.0 project takes this pillar as its backbone for the development of skills among the future and current workers of the footwear industry. And why is the Feet IN 4.0 project focused on the footwear industry?- The footwear industry is characterized as one of the most handcrafted industries in Europe. In 2016, the European Footwear Sector was represented by 20.300 companies and 286.651 direct employees, with exports to third countries having increased by 40% in quantity and 90% in value from 2009 until 2016.- However, the workforce in the footwear industry is still characterized by people with low-qualifications and even none or severe lack of ICT competences and knowledge. Despite of all efforts, there still are a remarkable number of footwear workers who are infoexcluded. To bring this target group to the digital era is essential to the success of the footwear sector but also to achieve a positive impact in cultural and economical terms and also to assure their social inclusion.The Feet IN 4.0 project intends to incorporate the industry 4.0 in the footwear sector, having as specific targets employees, managers and other key people who have direct connection to the sector and are excluded from or have limited access to the centres of knowledge. The Feet IN 4.0 project was oriented to create new and innovative learning contents that can help trainees to overcome the future challenges arising from the uptake of industry 4.0 in the footwear industry. At the time of the project application and still to this day, Industry 4.0 it is not only a reality in the footwear industry but in all business activities. Nevertheless, the specific characteristics of this sector of activity (namely low skilled workers, info-excluded and high demanding handcrafted jobs), makes this industry the ideal group to test innovative solutions that supports workers in the process of improvement of their digital skills. That way, by creating a training tool kit that combines a more traditional teaching materials (theoretical and practical content) with virtual and augmented reality that replicates the future tasks that workers will need to be engaged, those same workers become more prepared to keep up with the technological innovation linked to their functions. As result, Feet IN 4.0’s results helps them retain their jobs with high productivity. As so, this project provides open access, innovative and free training materials that enables workers in in the new digital era.The main target groups of the project are:(1) Footwear Workforce;(2) VET teachers, trainers, coaches and other stakeholders directed connected and working in the footwear industry;(3) Potential training providers;(4) Employers and HR managers in Footwear companies;(5) Employment services and social parties;The activities of the project directly involved more than 250 participants. In terms of results with relevance for the public we highlight:-Study on Industry 4.0 applied to the footwear industry in Europe-Methodology for applying Industry 4.0 in future profiles for Footwear Industry -The FEET IN 4.0 Training Tool KitOne of the project main expectation was to support continuous training and lifelong learning namely in the digital area. In addiction to developing innovative theoretical and practical training resources, the partners of this project are still working to obtain credit validation (ECVET) of the skills acquired in the training given, as well as making evaluation of learning outcomes in order to ensure the quality of the training provided (EQAVET).

Europe employs more than 278.000 people in more than 21.000 companies, mainly SMEs, adopting a development strategy based on higher quality of products and services, flexibility, short time to market, product differentiation and added value producing 3,2% of the 24.3 billion pairs worldwide (figures 2019 www.worldfootwear.com ). It is a very manufacturing intensive sector with more than 35% of the employees over 50, which highlights strong need of attracting motivated and qualified young talent to replace the future retirements. The Pact for Skills in TCLF (S4TCLF https://www.s4tclfblueprint.eu/ ) as a consequence of the European Skills Agenda, outstands the need of addressing innovative ways of delivering IVET and CVET to capture and maintain a younger generation of employees inside the sector and calls the attention to the urgent need of a digital transformation at the level of training/education.All these factors are currently further amplified by the impact of COVID-19.A survey performed by S4TCLF project to VET providers and High-Education institutions providing VET on the impact of COVID-19 in the training/learning activities resulted in the following findings:- Urgent need of changing the ways of delivering training, opting preferentially by “at distance” approaches- Difficulties in “delivering practical training”- Difficulties from trainers and teachers in adapting their own practices to the new “normal” due to the lack of digital literacy and materials adapted to the new approaches. difficulty in keeping trainees and student within the courses, calling the attention to the need of creating attractive pedagogical resources and environment.- VET providers surveyed also confirmed that after COVID-19 the training approach will change definitely compared to the past and nothing will be as it was, highlighting the priority of developing robust Digital teaching and learning approaches. Therefore, CTCP Portugal, CTCR Spain, POLICALZ Italy, TUIASI Romania, IPS Poland, together with CEC, the umbrella association, and a specialist on digital education, joined efforts to face up this European challenge, for the development of a Footwear virtual “learning by doing” approach targeted to:1st- Trainers/teacher/coaches in footwear sector willing to promote, develop, accompany and assess innovative digital training2nd- Students/trainees in footwear related IVET and CVET or others willing to go for a career in footwear sector and to know more about footwear manufacturing operations,And the expected contributes are at 4 levels:1-Preparation of VET Providers and HE providing VET and their correspondent staff, including trainers, teachers and coaches, for the implementation of comprehensive digital strategies for the learning By Doing in Footwear Manufacturing, including approaches, methodologies and autonomation in contents development.2-EU network of VET providers and HE providing VET to excel in the digital delivering of practical training, toward the development of the practical skills, in footwear manufacturing, including IT educational experts and Umbrella Association.3-Creation of a free complete digitally environment for training/teaching/leaning of practical skills in Augmented reality and correspondent contents.4-Creation of a joint international digital course certified at National level and recognized at EU level for the development of practical skills in Footwear manufacturing.The expected results will be in 3 groups and will be released in English plus the 5 languages versions of the partnership: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Romanian.1- Joint International course for digital “Learning by Doing” on Footwear manufacturing for the practical learning on Footwear manufacturing, integrally anchored in digital strategies. 2- Joint virtual Shoe Fab Lab and correspondent contents in Augmented Reality (AR) This also includes a course for trainers, teachers and coaches on how to use authoring tools (for the development of innovative and attractive contents in AR. 3-Common methodology on training/teaching/coaching for training itineraries based on augmented reality (AR) which includes manuals for trainers/teachers, coaches and trainees and training opportunity for end users (students and trainees in IVET and CVET).

<< Background >>Sustainable development is a core principle of the EU Treaty and a priority objective for the EU. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the UN and the European Green Deal, represent, for the leather industry, enormous opportunities and challenges.The transition to a business model that focuses on sustainability requires first aware and trained human capital. Leather professionals and businesses, especially micro-enterprises and SMEs (as are most leather businesses in Europe and Turkey), are insufficiently trained for a successful implementation of sustainability and its measures. Furthermore, well-informed policy making and enforcing institutions with the necessary tools and policies are needed to successfully integrate social, economic, and environmental strategies and initiatives into the industry at a local level. This is especially true for the leather industry often, mistakenly, considered as obsolete and unable to follow technological progress.<< Objectives >>The SULEAP project aims to:- remedy the detected lack of knowledge on sustainability implementation in the leather industry and broaden the knowledge of target groups about the practical implementation with innovative training tools and platforms- raise the awareness of the direct beneficiaries and target groups (professionals, staff and manager in Leather making SMEs and policymakers), as well as indirect beneficiaries (associations, authorities, staff and managers from other relevant industries) about the risks and benefits of sustainability in the leather production- present the opportunities that are emerging for the sector and support them in the transformation of the leather industry into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive industry.<< Implementation >>The project will start with the creation of the Standard Skills’ Profile of the sustainability-minded leather professional in an SME, followed by mapping the existing industry standards and schemes for certifications operating in the area of leather sustainability; both will provide the partnership the necessary insights to deliver the curriculum and project results that better fits the needs of the target groups. The partnership will design and implement an online training course, which will be the core of the project, to enable professionals, staff and managers of leather SMES businesses to better understand what sustainability is and what is asked of them in order to be compliant with the various requirements of the industry and their customers. The training content will be offered on the open-access e-learning, supplemented with the Self Evaluation Tool that will guide the users to the appropriate steps to upgrade their knowledge towards a sustainability-compliant business transition. A freely available to all multilingual Resource Toolkit to be used to support further improvement and scaling up of leather production towards sustainability will also be developed, which will include:- A Guide to Environmental and Social Compliance to Leather Standards & Legislation, to provide users a direction on their path towards sustainability, and-Factsheets for Sustainability in Leather, to motivate and persuade about the benefits, risks and solutions available regarding sustainability. A common Policy Recommendation paper will be also created and sent to key people and important stakeholders in each country so that the advancement of the Leather Sustainability in each national context will be promoted. Finally, during the project an intense Training Activity addressed to the project’s direct target groups, using the blended learning approach to enhance the participants’ knowledge in the aspects of sustainability in the leather supply chain and to finalise, validate and put in practice the outcomes of the project results will be carried out.<< Results >>At the end of the project, a set of project results will be available:An open access e-learning platform, complete with a Self-Assessment Tool to guide users to the appropriate learning modules; for those completing the Training Course, primarily professionals, staff and managers of leather SME businesses, but also any person interested to know about sustainability in leather, will be able to better understand what sustainability is and what is asked of them in order to be compliant with the various requirements of the industry and their customers.A Resource Toolkit, comprising two main components:- A Guide to Environmental and Social Compliance to Leather Standards & Legislation, a document that will provide users a direction on their path towards sustainability, and-Factsheets for Sustainability in Leather, to motivate and persuade about the benefits, risks and solutions available regarding sustainability.Finally, a common Policy Recommendation paper, consisting of good examples of policies from each partner country, successes and challenges, and recommendations for a course of action based on the information, experiences and lessons learned in the course of the project to policymakers and high-level stakeholders in each partner country.

Over the last years, the European footwear sector has been changing in the way it demands more specialised expertise and new skills suitable to company’s specific requirements towards new business models, innovative and high-tech technologies, design and styling, environment issues etc.Furthermore, in order to remain competitive, businesses must be able to adapt to changes. The latest updated assessment of the needs for skills in European footwear industry, performed by European Sector Skills Council for textile, clothing , leather and footwear (TCLF) industry in 2014 hasidentified various drivers of employment and skills that are influencing and shaping the TCLF sector, including the footwear sub-sector too, such as: regulation and multi-level governance, demographic and population change, environmental change, economics and globalisation, technological change, changing values and identities, consumer demand. The TCLF 2014 Report reveals that “five times more jobs are to be opened for highly qualified employees than for low-qualified employees by 2025”. Within this context, the necessary qualification requirements for working in the European footwear industry must be redefined in order for the labour market to be reinvigorated with skilled professionals that will offer their full potential to the industry. dicSHOEnary aims to provide the technical language infrastructure necessary for strengthening the international communication of the shoe industry and for the establishment of new partners and to support the current and enthusiastic managers of the sector according to the expectations of the most current and necessary language skills and training needs.In order to do so, dicSHOEnary will produce a set of 3 intellectual outputs that materialise the project objectives, supported by management activities and an exploitation plan that will ensure the dissemination of its results even after the project has ended. The activities include: a) Need Analysis& State of the Art Report, b) Language guide in 10 languages with 3000 vocational terms e) Interactive web portal The dicSHOEnary partnership was established on the basis of combining the different backgrounds, experience and expertise of 10 partners from 9 countries, who have had experience in implementing transnational projects, in the field of vocational training, or in the field of footwear industry, in order to complement one another regarding their role in the project.dicSHOEnary aims to reach a large number of persons inside and outside the partnership, using different communications activities and channels by promoting the project and its results among European involved and/or interested organizations, and, at a national and regional/local level, bypromoting the project results among target organisations and end-users. Almost 1500 persons are estimated to be able to be informed about the project and benefit from its activities, including VETs, policy-makers, associations and organisations dealing with footwear, universities, research centres, managers of the sector and potential ones and trainers.The intellectual outputs developed by dicSHOEnary will be concrete and transferable, so that they can be exploited even after the project conclusion, both by the partners and by other stakeholders.The research activity implemented during dicSHOEnary can be the starting point for implementing research activities in the field. Managers and potential managers will be offered the opportunity to access the dicSHOEnary on the platform even after the end of the project and the world of Education, Research and Industry will have the opportunity to be part of a community which will be set the ground for developing innovative footwear products, new projects and common initiatives.

The main output of the project will be two training and innovation centers which will be set up in four universities in Russia and Mongolia, which will provide training services for tanneries, support the design and the implementation of curricula for university studies, and also implement research on the use environmentally friendly technologies for tanning raw materials and recycling of collagen-containing waste. The centers will have the form of innovation hubs which will solve the problems that are acute for the leather industry community of the EU, Russia and Mongolia.The established centers will be equipped with modern analytical and testing equipment, professional literature, magazines, and regulatory documents in force in Russia, Mongolia and the EU. These centers will act also as technology brokers for local leather industry. The partners of the EU, as well as trade unions (the Russian Union of Leatherworkers and Shoemakers and the Mongolian Tanning Association) of the two countries will help in the establishment of the centers and the evaluation of their work. The specific aim of the project is to create the appropriate environment for the establishment of the universities as innovation hubs for Leather industry in Russia and Mongolia. Towards this aim the following activities will be implemented: • 4 training and innovation centers in leather sector (1 in each HEI in region 4 & 6)• online Platform for Transferring Research and Innovation through project based training and also for Supporting the Collaboration between industry and academia• re-engineering model for leather industry management systems for a better adaption to the new era• a bouquet of scouting and brokerage services will be offered along with networking and match-making activities that will directly link needs with the technology and business offering