European Explosives sector implementation of occupational standards Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Explosives sector implementation of occupational standards

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship)

Project Summary

The Project EUExImp activities was related to the need of up-skilling the workforce in the European explosives sector and to ensure that the companies and stakeholders in the sector will maintain or develop their competitiveness to ensure the survival on the global market, prevent job losses and maintain a safe industry. The project goals comply with the Horizon 2020 targets to ensure that skills and qualifications can be more easily recognised, within and across national borders, as the project will focus on one specific sector on the European market, the explosives sector. The project aims were to develop support structures dedicated for education and training initiatives targeted for the industry. The target was twofold,
1. Implement selected key-roles from the occupational standards, specifically developed for the explosives sector in Europe, in five industry partner organisations in UK, Estonia, and Portugal, Sweden and Germany and 2. To develop easy to use and easy to understand tutorial materials, such as a step-by step guidance material for process management and a handbook of good practice.

The participating partners were:

• KCEM, Sweden – Project promotor
• PICRITE, United Kingdom
• University of Coimbra, Portugal
• Dresdner Sprengschule, Germany
• Tallinn Technical University, Estonia
• Event Horizon, United Kingdom
• SAAB Bofors Test Center, Sweden
• MAXAM Deutschland GmBH, Germany
• GJR Pirotecnica e Explosivos, Portugal
• Voglers Eesti, Estonia

During the project, two International Conferences/Workshops were organised, the first in Telford UK and the second at Arlanda Sweden. This series of Conferences will continue after the project. Information about forthcoming conferences will be found on the projects webpage, www.euexcert.org. Three newsletters have been issued by the project and the latest newsletter can be found the webpage.

The main work of the project was to implement the selected Key-roles at the industrial partner and to develop the step-by-step guidance material and the handbook. The Key-roles have been implemented. Some partners have gone even further and used the opportunity to Certify Key personal, Educate and Qualify Assessors and Design new courses. The process to implement the key-roles is described in the Handbook which also contains the step-by-step guidance material. The Handbook has been published at the projects webpage. The main chapters of the Handbook are:

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• FOREWORD
• ENDORSEMENTS
• CONTENTS
• NORMATIVE REFERENCES
• OVERVIEW
• BACKGROUND
• HOW TO USE THE HANDBOOK
• CHAPTER 1 – QUALIFICATIONS
• CHAPTER 2 – MAPPING AN EXISTING TRAINING COURSE
• CHAPTER 3 – DESIGNING A TRAINING COURSE
• CHAPTER 4 – MAPPING A ROLE PROFILE AGAINST THE STANDARDS
• CHAPTER 5 – INTEGRATING OCCUPATIONAL STANDARDS WITH EXISTING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
• CASE STUDIES
• EUExImp Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing Occupational Standards

The Handbook has been endorsed by representatives/organisations in Estonia, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom and USA.

The experiences, the principles, the process and methods from the project can also be used when an industry or organisation wants the implement standards in other industrial sectors than the explosives.

The EUExcert Association which was established in an earlier project will, together with national organisations, promote the outcomes of the EUExImp project and also organise Conferences in the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 357635 Eur

Project Coordinator

KCEM AB & Country: SE

Project Partners

• UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA
• PICRITE Ltd
• TALLINNA TEHNIKAULIKOOL
• G.J.R. – Pirotecnia e Explosivos, SA
• Event Horizon Pyrotechnics Limited.
• Voglers Eesti OÜ
• Dresdner Sprengschule GmbH