danube-inco.net€¦ · Skills for Key Enabling Technologies in Europe State-of-Play, Supply and Demand, Strategy, Recommendations and Sectoral Pilot This study was carried out for

Skills for Key Enabling Technologies in Europe

State-of-Play, Supply and Demand, Strategy,

Recommendations and Sectoral Pilot

March 2016 EN

Skills for Key Enabling Technologies in Europe State-of-Play, Supply and Demand, Strategy,


This study was carried out for the European Commission by

PricewaterhouseCoopers EU Services EESV Woluwe Garden 18 BE-1932 Sint-Stevens-Woluwe Belgium

For further information on this report, please contact: Dr. Kristina Dervojeda Project Manager and Senior Expert Tel.: +31 88 79-3228 Email: [email protected] Anton Koonstra Engagement Partner Tel.: +31 88 792-3303 Email: [email protected]

DISCLAIMER

The information and views set out in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the Commission. The Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this study. Neither the Commission nor any person acting on the Commission’s behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Unit: GROW-F3 KETs, Digital Manufacturing and Interoperability Contact: André Richier E-mail: [email protected]

European Commission B-1049 Brussels

EUROPEAN COMMISSION


State-of-Play, Supply and Demand, Strategy,


Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs COSME Programme - KETs, Digital Manufacturing and Interoperability

2016


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LEGAL NOTICE

This document has been prepared for the European Commission however it reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://www.europa.eu).

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2016

ISBN 978-92-79-57240-1 doi:10.2873/516853

© European Union, 2016 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

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CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................. 10

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 16

1.1. The importance of KETs skills for Europe ........................................... 16

1.2. KETs Skills Initiative ........................................................................ 17

1.2.1. General objectives ............................................................... 18

1.2.2. Specific objectives ............................................................... 18

1.2.3. Expected impact ................................................................. 18

1.3. Defining KETs skills ......................................................................... 19

1.3.1. Understanding the complex nature of KETs............................. 19

1.3.2. Distinguishing between skills, knowledge and competences ...... 20

1.3.3. Individual vs. collective competences .................................... 21

1.3.4. General vs. specific competences .......................................... 22

1.4. Key sources of KETs-related skills ..................................................... 22

1.5. Key challenges related to KETs skills ................................................. 27

1.5.1. Educational programs not aligned with industry needs ............. 27

1.5.2. Need for a regular (re-)training ............................................. 28

1.5.3. Need to replace the outgoing workforce ................................. 29

1.5.4. Low awareness about KETs among students ........................... 30

1.5.5. Unattractive image of KETs .................................................. 30

1.5.6. Limited opportunities to study KETs ....................................... 31

1.5.7. Brain drain to other countries ............................................... 32

1.6. Conclusions .................................................................................... 32

2. SKILL REQUIREMENTS FOR KETS ......................................................... 34

2.1. How the findings were derived .......................................................... 34

2.2. Competences relevant to KETs ......................................................... 35

2.2.1. Six categories of KETs competences ...................................... 35

2.2.2. Individual KETs competences ................................................ 38

2.2.3. Collective KETs competences ................................................ 46

2.3. Competences unique to KETs ........................................................... 50

2.4. Illustrative job profiles for KETs ........................................................ 50

2.4.1. General trends in KETs job profiles ........................................ 51

2.4.2. Specific job profiles ............................................................. 52

2.5. Skill requirements for the future: what we need to teach students already today ................................................................................. 63

2.6. Conclusions .................................................................................... 65

3. DEMAND AND SUPPLY ANALYSIS OF KETS SKILLS ............................... 67


3.1.1. Key assumptions ................................................................. 68

3.1.2. Estimating demand for KETs skills ......................................... 70

3.1.3. Estimating supply of KETs skills ............................................ 72

3.1.4. Calculating the share of KETs in STEM employment ................. 73

3.2. Estimating demand for KETs skills ..................................................... 74

3.2.1. Total demand for KETs skills in Europe assuming a constant share of KETs ..................................................................... 74

3.2.2. Demand for KETs professionals ............................................. 75


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3.2.3. Demand for KETs technicians and associate professionals ........ 76

3.2.4. Break-down of total demand for KETs skills by skill levels ........ 77

3.2.5. Forecasting total demand with increased significance of KETs in the future ....................................................................... 78

3.2.6. Forecasting demand for KETs professionals and KETs technicians and associate professionals with increased significance of KETs in the future .......................................... 79

3.3. Matching supply with demand for KETs skills ...................................... 80

3.3.1. A possible gap between demand and supply for highly-skilled KETs workers ............................................................ 80

3.3.2. A possible gap between demand and supply for medium-skilled KETs workers ............................................................ 83

3.3.3. Supply of graduates for KETs come from a pool of STEM field graduates that is larger than the predicted additional demand for KETs skills ......................................................... 86

3.4. Conclusions .................................................................................... 88

4. GOOD PRACTICES AND MECHANISMS TO SCALE THEM UP ................... 90


4.2. How KETs skills-related challenges are currently being tackled worldwide ...................................................................................... 91

4.3. Key good practices from the United States ......................................... 93

4.3.1. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) ............................... 93

4.3.2. The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership ............................... 94

4.3.3. National Centre for the Biotechnology Workforce ..................... 95

4.3.4. NCBioImpact ...................................................................... 96

4.3.5. Joint School of Nanoscience and Nano-engineering .................. 98

4.4. Key good practices from East Asia .................................................... 98

4.4.1. SIMTech’s Knowledge Transfer Office (Singapore) ................... 99

4.4.2. Taiwan’s Nanotechnology Human Resource Development Programme ....................................................................... 100

4.4.3. Japan’s International Centre for Young Scientists (ICYS) ......... 101

4.4.4. Korean Nanotechnology Initiative (KNI) ................................ 102

4.4.5. Taiwan’s nanotechnology consortium .................................... 102

4.5. Key good practices from Europe ...................................................... 103

4.5.1. The MINATEC innovation campus (France) ............................ 104

4.5.2. Nanofutures within WING (Germany) .................................... 105

4.5.3. Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (The United Kingdom) ......... 105

4.5.4. Pro-Viking’s Advanced Manufacturing Virtual Graduate School (Sweden) ................................................................ 106

4.5.5. National Centres of Competence in Research (Switzerland) ..... 107

4.6. Mechanisms to make these good practices a widespread reality throughout Europe ......................................................................... 108

4.6.1. Making financial means available on a scale that corresponds to the method through which these means are allocated and implemented .................................................. 109

4.6.2. Establishing and leveraging large-scale facilities with state-of-the-art equipment .......................................................... 111

4.6.3. Connecting with local educational institutions and creating networks of universities and teachers ................................... 112


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4.6.4. Bringing academia and industry together physically, campus-style ..................................................................... 113

4.6.5. Tempting young researchers with autonomy and state-of-the-art facilities ................................................................. 114

4.6.6. Encouraging the engagement of local government in bottom-up approaches ........................................................ 114

4.6.7. Recognising the role of highly visible leaders with experience both in academia and in industry ......................................... 115

4.7. Conclusions ................................................................................... 116

5. KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF VISION PAPER ................................................... 117

5.1. Objectives and key considerations ................................................... 117

5.2. Key directions for action ................................................................. 118

5.2.1. Stream A: Ensuring a good alignment of educational programmes with industry needs (quality) ............................ 118

5.2.2. Stream B: Facilitating regular (re-)training of current employees (quality) ............................................................ 119

5.2.3. Stream C: Raising awareness about KETs in the society (quantity) ......................................................................... 119

5.2.4. Stream D: Improving the image of KETs as a field to work in (quantity) ......................................................................... 119

5.3. Key measures to tackle KETs skills challenges ................................... 120

5.3.1. A6 Embedding technical multidisciplinarity in the curriculum .... 121

5.3.2. A7 Embedding non-technical courses in technical curricula ...... 122

5.3.3. A9 Updating the skills of teachers/professors ......................... 123

5.3.4. A10 Promoting innovation in teaching ................................... 124

5.3.5. B5 Convincing companies that the return on training and skills development investment is sufficient to offset the costs .. 125

5.3.6. C5 Developing a targeted communication strategy to increase awareness on KETs ................................................ 126

5.3.7. D3 Raising the quality of infrastructure and improving working conditions ............................................................. 127

5.4. Conclusions ................................................................................... 128

6. SECTORAL PILOT RESULTS .................................................................. 129

6.1. Objectives and approach................................................................. 129

6.1.1. Sectoral pilot objectives ...................................................... 129

6.1.2. Our approach in a nutshell .................................................. 129

6.2. Sectoral pilot in France ................................................................... 131

6.2.1. Status quo analysis ............................................................ 131

6.2.2. Proposed recommendations and stakeholder feedback ............ 132

6.2.3. Next steps ......................................................................... 133

6.3. Sectoral pilot in Germany ............................................................... 134



6.3.3. Next steps ......................................................................... 136

6.4. Sectoral pilot in the United Kingdom ................................................ 137



6.4.3. Next steps ......................................................................... 139


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6.5. Observations across the sectoral pilots ............................................. 140

6.6. Conclusions ................................................................................... 142

ANNEX A: CORE KETS COMPETENCES, KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS ............... 144


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Executive Summary

This report represents the Final Report for the “Vision and Sectoral Pilot on Skills for Key Enabling Technologies” (hereafter “KETs Skills Initiative”) prepared by PwC EU Services for the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (hereafter “DG GROW”) of the European Commission (hereafter “the Commission”). The report outlines the results of all three Phases of the KETs Skills Initiative including state-of-play analysis of specific skill requirements for KETs, developing Vision Paper, as well as preparing and organising sectoral pilot.

KETs have been defined by the European Commission as knowledge intensive technologies associated with high R&D intensity, rapid innovation cycles, high capital expenditure and highly skilled employment. KETs enable process, goods and service innovation throughout the economy and are of systemic relevance. KETs currently include the following six areas of technology: micro-/nanoelectronics, nanotechnology, photonics, advanced materials, industrial biotechnology and advanced manufacturing technologies.

The growth potential of KETs heavily relies on both the quality of skills possessed by the current and future employees, as well as the number of people qualified, available and willing to work in KETs. Therefore, skills imbalances in KETs are likely to significantly diminish KETs growth potential and employment effects. To this end, the High-Level Expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies invited the EU to engage in a radical rebalancing of resources and objectives in order to retain critical capability and capacity in KETs.

In its Final Report1 of June 2011, the first HLG recommended that KETs skills should be promoted within the framework of the regional policy through the European Social Fund. The HLG also called for the creation of a European Technology Research Council (ETRC) to promote individual excellence in technologically-focused engineering research and innovation.

In its status Implementation Report, the second HLG invited to put in place a European-wide education and training plan for KETs. The HLG also highlighted the need to ensure a pool of skilled multi-KETs technologists through the Future and Emerging Technologies Programme (FET)2. Finally, the HLG emphasised the need for the EC, Member States and regions to address the current KETs-related skills imbalances in a comprehensive and integrated manner across all technical levels in various KETs domains

To this end in January 2014, the European Commission has launched an initiative aiming to address the skill requirements for KETs. KETs Skills Initiative focuses on the current and anticipated needs of employers and the ways to best satisfy those needs. It aims to develop a shared international multilevel vision on how to address the skill requirements for KETs. The initiative also produced specific recommendations and a basis for a European action plan, including a roadmap for 2016-2020. A sectoral pilot was organised as a trial run for recommendations.

1 Final Report of the First High-Level expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies, June 2011 2 Status Implementation Report of the Second High-Level expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies,

July 2013


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The results of the KETs Skills Initiative aim to help design a coherent European strategy on skills for KETs, particularly for multi-KETs building on existing efforts of Member States and stakeholders. This horizontal strategy would aim at aligning efforts so as to make best use of public resources in a targeted and results-oriented manner.

Our analysis suggested that the key challenges leading to a mismatch in KETs skills in Europe include: (1) a need for a regular (re-)training of current employees; (2) educational programmes being not fully aligned with industry needs; (3) high replacement needs of employers, or needs to attract new people to replace the outgoing workforce, i.e. both retiring employees and people going to other sectors; (4) low awareness of KETs when students make critical choices; (5) relatively unattractive image of KETs as a field to work in; (6) limited opportunities to study KETs; and (7) ‘brain drain’ of highly qualified people to other countries.

Below we outline the key conclusions of each of the activity streams within the KETs Skills Initiative.

Analysis of skill requirements for KETs

Our analysis of skill requirements for KETs showed that:

• KETs rely on a balance of both technical and non-technical competences. • Technical competences can be considered the ‘heaviest’ category in terms of

required knowledge and skills due to the knowledge-intensive nature of KETs. • Other relevant but non-technical competences include quality, risk & safety;

management & entrepreneurship; communication; innovation and emotional intelligence.

• A high diversity in skill requirements for KETs can never be covered by a single person or even a company. ‘Smart’ combinations of people with diverse profiles are needed, many of them coming from domains not directly related to KETs.

• Specific knowledge and skill requirements for KETs vary depending on the industry/application area and the employer. Large companies generally look for people with a higher degree of specialisation than SMEs.

• Even in case of ‘soft’ roles like marketing and sales, KETs companies in general prefer to hire technical people with basic business skills rather than business people with basic technical skills.

• Besides individual competences, KETs also heavily rely on collective competences such as multi-disciplinarity, collective quality assurance & risk management, collective management in general, interdependence, integration, and collective emotional intelligence.

• Rather than some particular competences, it is a combination of the previously mentioned individual and collective competences, linked to an endless number of potential application areas, what makes KETs skill requirements unique. KETs commercialisation trajectories are linked to knowledge and skills from literally every field of life.

• KETs heavily rely on people from general STEM domains. At the same time, business support roles are typically filled by non-technical people. However, in terms of total employment, they form a minority in KETs.

• Competences coming from STEM are reported to be insufficient. KETs require STEAM, with Arts included, which refers to creativity that can lead to innovations.

• Popular degrees are Master’s and Bachelor’s, with an important role for PhDs within the Technological Research pillar, and for people with vocational education within Competitive Manufacturing.


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• In order to maintain a competitive position in KETs, we need to teach our students learning-to-learn skills, alertness, adaptability, continuous experimentation and ability to thrive on failures, and particularly collective competences, including integration skills.

Demand and supply analysis of KETs skills

Due to an absence of comprehensive and harmonised employment data for KETs (which are required for the analysis of demand and supply of KETs skills), the calculations presented below should be considered approximate estimates serving mainly as an indication. These estimates enable a more detailed analysis of quantitative skills landscape for KETs in Europe; however, none of the numbers presented below should be considered to be exact/backed-up by prominent statistical sources.

The following conclusions can be drawn on the basis of our analysis of supply and demand of the current and future demand and supply for KETs skills:

• Demand for KETs skills in 2013 equalled an estimated total of 2,234,000 technical KETs professionals and associates. This includes jobs at all skills levels within the KETs fields.

• Highly-skilled KETs employment accounts for 55% of total employment, followed by 37% medium-skilled employment and 8% low-skilled employment.

• When considering the future demand for KETs skills, our estimates show that between 2013 and 2025 an additional 953,000 KETs professionals and associates with technical skills are needed to satisfy demand.

• On average, between 2013 and 2025, there will be an additional demand of 79,000 KETs workers per year. Put differently, between 2013 and 2025, an increase in demand for KETs skills of 43% is expected.

• The key share of the extra demand is made up by replacement demand (e.g. due to retirement or moving to other sectors) with a total of 772,000 KETs professionals and associates. Expansion demand (i.e. new jobs) is estimated to be a relatively small share of total additional demand for KETs skills till 2025, with a total of 181,000 KETs jobs.

• Most of jobs related to additional demand (62%) will require highly skilled people, though there is also a relatively strong increase in demand expected for medium skilled people in KETs (30% of additional demand).

• The data show potential for a skills gap, both for high and medium skills: o A possible gap in the range of approximately 21,000 to 83,000 highly-

skilled KETs employees per year and 10,000 to 44,000 medium-skilled KETs workers per year, depending on how the field develops.

o This is under the assumption that KETs will continue to grow in significance relative to the STEM occupational fields. The ranges also take into account that proportionally more STEM graduates could be attracted to KETs when the field relatively grows in size.

• However, there is also a potential surplus if the share of KETs in STEM employment remains constant over time.

o Under this assumption, our calculations show an average surplus of highly-skilled KETs graduates per year in the range of 12,000 to 37,000 and an average surplus of medium-skilled KETs graduates per year in the range of 15,000 to 28,000 up till 2025.

• Numbers aside, trend analysis shows that medium-level KETs skills potentially face both an increase in demand and a decrease in the number of graduates, which could further aggravate the current situation;


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o Companies facing difficulties in attracting medium-level KETs skills right now are likely to find it increasingly more difficult to attract qualified professionals with these skills in the future.

Nevertheless, our estimations show that ample supply of STEM graduates is anticipated in the future to satisfy the demand for KETs skills. However, currently, most of these graduates do not flow to KETs, which can partially be explained by a relatively unattractive image of KETs as a field to work in.

Analysis of good practice initiatives and mechanisms to scale them up

Our analysis of good practice initiatives suggested that:

• Most initiatives focus either on multi-KETs, nanotechnology, or photonics, and are implemented in North America, East Asia or Western Europe.

• Top-down initiatives are prevailing in Europe and East Asia. Bottom-up initiatives are most predominant in the United Sates.

• The identified KETs skills-related initiatives particularly focus on challenges that relate to the need for regular re-training of current employees, to educational programmes not being fully aligned with industry needs, and to the limited opportunities to study KETs.

• Challenges related to the fact that a major part of the current staff will soon retire, and that KETs careers are not perceived as being attractive and prestigious, are less often addressed by KETs skills initiatives.

• The analysed world regions demonstrate a clear difference in focus areas when it comes to tackling specific challenges.

• Key KETs skills initiatives in the United States typically are heavily funded at the Federal level, or feature capital intensive research and education facilities that are managed by university networks or industry-academia partnerships.

• Key good practices in East Asia typically focus on up-skilling the national KETs labour force, either through sourcing talent from abroad or, more common, investing heavily in KETs skills amongst domestic workers.

• Key initiatives in Europe are typically driven by government, and implemented in collaboration with educational institutions. These initiatives most often target higher education students and PhD students, and focus on increasing both the possibilities and the appeal of studying KETs, and on aligning educational tracks with industry needs.

• The mechanisms of how to make these good practices of KETs skills initiatives a widespread reality in Europe include:

o Making financial means available on a scale that corresponds to the method through which these means are allocated and implemented;

o Establishing and leveraging large-scale facilities with state-of-the-art equipment;

o connecting with local educational institutions and creating networks of universities and teachers;

o Bringing academia and industry together; o Attracting young researchers by offering them autonomy and state-of-

the-art facilities; o Stimulating the role of local government and their engagement in

bottom-up approaches; and o Recognising the role of highly visible leaders with experience both in

academia and in industry.


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Key highlights of Vision Paper

In this report, we present the key highlights of the Vision Paper document prepared by the project team during the second Phase of the KETs Skills Initiative. We sketch the overall vision on skills for KETs in Europe, and address specific measures within the key directions for action regarding both qualitative and quantitative KETs skills-related challenges.

The key highlights of the Vision Paper are:

• For Europe to be able to fully realise KETs growth potential in the future, there is a need to align the supply and demand of KETs skills.

• From a qualitative perspective, Europe needs to ensure a good alignment of skills possessed by the current and future employees with industry requirements.

• From a quantitative perspective, Europe needs to ensure the presence of a sufficient number of people who are qualified, available and willing to work in KETs.

• The development and maintenance of KETs skills in Europe is a complex multi-faceted challenge that requires a complex solution. This complex solution consists of various clusters of measures each targeted at specific aspects of the overall challenge.

• Key directions for action regarding both qualitative and quantitative KETs skills-related challenges include: (1) ensuring a good alignment of educational programmes with industry needs (quality); (2) facilitating regular (re-)training of current employees (quality); (3) raising awareness about KETs in the society (quantity); and (4) improving the image of KETs as a field to work in (quantity).

• While we strongly advocate a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach, priorities can be set within the list of the identified measures for each direction. Seven measures that, based on our analysis and stakeholder feedback, were suggested to be the most crucial areas for action in order to create a European-scale impact are:

o A6 Embedding technical multidisciplinarity in the curriculum; o A7 Embedding non-technical courses in technical curricula; o A9 Updating the skills of teachers/professors; o A10 Promoting innovation in teaching; o B5 Convincing companies that the return on training and skills

development investment is sufficient to offset the costs; o C5 Developing a targeted communication strategy to increase

awareness on KETs; o D3 Raising the quality of infrastructure and improving working

conditions.

Sectoral pilot results

The sectoral pilot aimed to apply the main priority recommendations from the Vision Paper to the context of the three selected MS (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom), and to develop tailor-made action plans for these MS. Based on this exercise, we aimed to identify next steps and initiate action within these leading European MS in a selected KET (micro-/nanoelectronics).


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The main results of the sectoral pilot are:

• Stakeholders from France and Germany indicate that the current supply of engineers is still sufficient to address industry needs. In the UK, short-term shortages of electronics engineers appear to be a bigger challenge already at this point.

• While in Germany, stakeholders report a misalignment in terms of what industry needs in graduates and what universities are able to deliver (quality), stakeholders in France indicate that the skills that new engineers bring to the market are quite well aligned with industry needs.

• With regards to long-term industry needs, however, across all three MS, stakeholders clearly indicate that the number of engineers in the field of micro-/nanoelectronics will be insufficient to address industry needs in the future.

• All three MS are generally characterised by a lack of multinational headquarters and production facilities and a focus on components (not end-products).

• In Germany, unattractiveness of the engineering profession was not identified as a key challenge. This is different in the UK, in which the engineering profession holds less esteem. However, the German nanoelectronics sector is lacking a shining star to attract engineering talent.

• With regards to retraining of the existing workforce, all three MS indicate that current investments in training and development are too low.

• There is a clear need amongst industry for electronics engineers that are not just specialists in their own field of expertise, but that are able to develop client-oriented overarching solutions in multi-disciplinary teams.

• All three MS would benefit from updating the skills of teachers and professors, and the promotion of innovation in teaching.

• Stakeholders from all MS positively received the idea of developing a targeted communication strategy for KETs.

• Many companies active in the nanoelectronics sectors are already struggling with finding enough funds for retraining, let alone making funds available to drive communication campaigns, contribute to educational curricula or develop new tools like educational kits and MOOCs.

• Local, national and European policy makers need to take the initiative to start implementing proposed measures and stimulate large industry to take up their share of the workload.


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1. INTRODUCTION

This report represents the Final Report for the initiative on the “Vision and Sectoral Pilot on Skills for Key Enabling Technologies”, prepared by PwC for DG GROW of the European Commission. The report outlines the results of all three Phases of the KETs Skills Initiative including state-of-play analysis of specific skill requirements for KETs, developing Vision Paper, as well as preparing and organising sectoral pilot.

Chapter 1 sets the scene for the analysis, and specifically addresses the importance of KETs skills for Europe, the objectives of KETs Skills Initiative, definition of KETs skills, as well as the key challenges related to KETs skills in Europe. Chapter 2 provides an overview of specific skills relevant to KETs, including skill requirements for the future. Chapter 3 presents the results of the demand and supply analysis of KET skills, including forecasts till 2025. Chapter 4 highlights good practice initiatives aiming to tackle the key challenges in KETs skills in different regions of the world. This chapter also elaborates on the mechanisms of how to make the identified good practices a widespread reality throughout Europe. Chapter 5 sketches the overall vision on skills for KETs in Europe, and addresses specific measures within the key directions for action regarding both qualitative and quantitative KETs skills-related challenges. Finally, Chapter 6 presents the results of the sectoral pilot, and specifically key skills-related challenges for the micro-/nanoelectronics sector in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and corresponding tailored measures to address these skills challenges in each of the abovementioned Member States.

1.1. The importance of KETs skills for Europe

Industries worldwide are changing with a tremendous pace and are expected to be fully transformed in the next five to ten years. One can say with a great certainty that a significant portion of products and services that will be available on the market in 2020 will be driven by KETs3.

KETs have already penetrated literally all aspects of our lives including energy, climate change, healthcare and security. KETs products are installed in virtually all technical equipment, ranging from dishwashers, microwave ovens and flat screens to machine tools. The use of KETs in cars, trains, aircrafts and ships is constantly expanding. Mobile telephones, PCs, servers and pocket calculators owe their existence to KETs. The development process continues to move ahead. The nations and regions mastering KETs will be at the forefront of managing the shift to a low carbon, knowledge-based economy. Therefore, the deployment of KETs in the EU is not only of strategic importance but is indispensable4.

While KETs enable the growth of the European economy, the development and deployment of KETs themselves are enabled by people with appropriate skills. Those skills cover a wide range of advanced technical capabilities, as well as entrepreneurial and ICT skills, skills related to multi-disciplinarity and creativity, project management and problem solving skills, the ability to work with industrial safety instructions, quality standards, Intellectual Property aspects etc. The growth potential of KETs heavily relies on both the quality of skills possessed by the current

3 Communication of the European Commission “Preparing for our future: Developing a common strategy for key enabling technologies in the EU”, COM(2009) 512 final, Brussels, 30.09.2009.

4 Ibid.


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and future employees, as well as the number of people qualified, available and willing to work in KETs.

At this point, Europe holds a significant share in the growth potential of KETs, which could create new jobs at different occupational levels: for researchers and scientists holding university and post-graduate degrees and also for a range of technicians and specialists with secondary, post-secondary and non-university tertiary education5. However, skills imbalances in KETs are likely to significantly diminish KETs growth potential and employment effects.

Furthermore, the EU is currently facing growing and overwhelming global competition from both developed and emerging economies in particular of North America and East Asia. Although the EU remains in a relatively strong position, there is a clear need for it to reinforce and rapidly develop its KETs industry to compete for the future. To this end, the High-Level Expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies (hereafter “HLG”6) invited the EU to engage in a radical rebalancing of resources and objectives in order to retain critical capability and capacity in these domains of vital European importance7.

1.2. KETs Skills Initiative

In their Status Implementation Report8, the HLG specifically emphasised the need for the EC, Member States and regions to address the current KETs-related skills imbalances in a comprehensive and integrated manner across all technical levels in various KETs domains.

Even though the economic significance of KETs is increasing, many applications are still at the level of research or applied R&D, with numerous trends having growth potential but not being seen as sufficiently concrete. R&D jobs are mainly carried out by higher education graduates and heavily rely on highly skilled workers. In addition, further improvements in middle-skill levels are necessary, i.e. vocational training, to translate research results into production9. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of KETs skill requirements is of vital importance for being able to tackle the issue of growing skills imbalances. Furthermore, a coherent European strategy is necessary in order to fully benefit from the relative strengths of the EU in favour of growth and jobs10.

To this end, in January 2014, the European Commission has launched a dedicated initiative aiming to address the skill requirements for KETs (“KETs Skills Initiative”). KETs Skills Initiative focuses on the current and anticipated needs of employers with regard to KETs skills and the ways to best satisfy those needs. The needs here are of both qualitative and quantitative nature. The initiative builds on the work of the HLG and their recommendations on skills. The current report presents the interim results of this initiative.

5 CEDEFOP (2006) “Identification of skill needs in Nanotechnology”, CEDEFOP Panorama Series 120 6 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/ict/key_technologies/kets_high_level_group_en.htm 7 Final Report of the first High-Level Expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies, June 2011 8 Status Implementation Report of the High-Level Expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies, July 2013,

available at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/ict/files/kets/hlg_ket_status_implementation_report_final_en.pdfRecommendation nr. 7, p. 45

9 CEDEFOP (2006) “Identification of skill needs in Nanotechnology”, CEDEFOP Panorama Series 120 10 Commission’s Communication “A European strategy for Key Enabling Technologies - A bridge to growth

and jobs” COM(2012)341


18

1.2.1. General objectives

KETs Skills Initiative aimed to develop a shared international multilevel vision across various sectors and technologies on how to address the skill requirements for KETs. The initiative needed to generate a holistic vision that can subsequently be translated into concrete actions to tackle the abovementioned challenges in a coherent, consistent, efficient and coordinated manner. The initiative also aimed to produce specific recommendations and inputs for a European action plan, including a roadmap for 2016-2020. Finally, a sectoral pilot was organised as a trial run for recommendations.

The main intention of the initiative was to create a strong platform for action that is well-understood and supported by all key stakeholder groups including policy makers, large companies and SMEs, as well as educators.

1.2.2. Specific objectives

Specifically, the initiative aimed to:

• Develop a clear common definition and conceptual framework for specific skill requirements for KETs (with a particular attention to multi-KETs);

• Analyse the demand and supply of KETs skills (in order to better understand the impact of the existing policies and initiatives at the EU, national and regional levels);

• Propose new approaches (where appropriate) to improve the situation and to identify better ways and more efficient means to foster multi-stakeholder partnerships (in particular those between business, academia and policy makers) to reduce skills imbalances in KETs.

1.2.3. Expected impact

Most actions related to KETs skills are currently fragmented and often have an ad-hoc nature. KETs Skills Initiative aims to contribute by creating synergies between the existing policies and instruments and developing new effective ways to improve the situation.

The results of this initiative aimed to help design a coherent European strategy on skills for KETs, particularly for multi-KETs. Besides representing a policy umbrella for initiatives that address the challenges of KETs skills, this horizontal strategy would aim at aligning efforts so as to make best use of public resources in a targeted and results-oriented manner. Such a strategy would help reversing the trend of European de-manufacturing and accelerate the rate of knowledge transfer, use and exploitation of KETs in the EU in order to stimulate growth and jobs.


19

1.3. Defining KETs skills

For a good understanding of KETs skills, it is first vital to understand KETs themselves.

1.3.1. Understanding the complex nature of KETs

KETs have been defined by the Commission as ‘knowledge intensive and associated with high R&D intensity, rapid innovation cycles, high capital expenditure and highly skilled employment. They enable process, goods and service innovation throughout the economy and are of systemic relevance11. KETs currently include the following six areas of technology: micro-/nanoelectronics, nanotechnology, photonics, advanced materials, industrial biotechnology and advanced manufacturing technologies. KETs have potential for an endless number of application areas in all kinds of sectors and industries.

Specifically, the key characteristics of KETs include the following:

• Knowledge-intensive and associated with high R&D intensity, rapid innovation cycles and highly-skilled employment;

• Multidisciplinary, cutting across many technology areas with a trend towards convergence and integration;

• Operating on a highly competitive market; • Developed within a business environment where SMEs play an important

role, especially by providing inputs and innovative solutions to global companies;

• With research taking place in close proximity to assembly and production sites;

• Requiring the development of high-risk product demonstration and proof-of-concept projects;

• Highly capital intensive, involving lengthy research and innovation development periods, and complex production processes and assembly methods; and

• Associated with extremely high investment risks, which is particularly sensitive for private investors, start-ups and SMEs.

It has been demonstrated that the most innovative products incorporate not a single KET but several KETs simultaneously, a so called multi-KETs approach covering the spectrum of multiple KETs. Such an approach enables common solutions and actions, each of which can then achieve a more significant critical mass, effectiveness, visibility and impact12.

All of the abovementioned characteristics have direct implications for the skill needs in KETs. We will specifically address these implications in Chapter 2 of the current report.

11 Commission’s Staff Working Document “Current situation of Key Enabling Technologies in Europe” SEC(2009) 1257

12 Report of High-Level Expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies, Final Report, June 2011


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1.3.2. Distinguishing between skills, knowledge and competences

The state-of-the-art skills research, as well as prominent frameworks on skills13, suggest that the notion of skills goes hand in hand with the notions of competence and knowledge.

Skill is usually used to refer to a level of performance, in terms of accuracy and speed of performing particular tasks. Skill can be defined as a goal-directed, well-organised behaviour that is acquired through practice and performed with economy of effort14.

Knowledge, in turn, includes (1) theory and concepts, as well as (2) tacit knowledge gained as a result of the experience of performing certain tasks. The notion of knowledge is linked to the concept of understanding. Understanding refers to more holistic knowledge of processes and contexts and may be distinguished as know-why, as opposed to know-what. Know-how is often associated with tacit knowledge and know-what with propositional knowledge, reflected in the distinction between declarative knowledge (knowing what), and procedural knowledge (knowing how)15.

Knowledge here thus refers to what one needs to know to be able to carry out the tasks and duties of a certain job, while skills in this respect are what one needs to be able to do in order to carry out the tasks and duties of a certain job.

Competence, in turn, can be defined as one’s capability to handle certain situations successfully or complete a job16. Competence can thus be considered an umbrella term for being equipped with the relevant knowledge and skills to be able to carry out the tasks and duties of a certain job (using the term ‘competence’ in this way is also in line with the approach of the e-Competence Framework (e-CF)17).

Building on the abovementioned definitions, KETs skills thus refer to the ability to carry out the tasks and duties of jobs in the domain of Key Enabling Technologies. KETs knowledge refers to what one needs to know to be able to carry out the tasks and duties of a KETs-related job. Competence implies being equipped with the relevant knowledge and skills to be able to carry out the tasks and duties of a KETs-related job.

KETs competences can be split into KET-specific and multi-KETs competences, with the first category being relevant to a certain specific KET domain, while the second category includes skills relevant to various/all KETs18. Whether a certain KETs competence is specific or general depends also on an occupational level19.

13 For example, European Qualifications Framework, European e-Competence Framework; analysis by CEDEFOP (2006) “Typology of knowledge, skills and competences: Clarification of the concept and prototype”, CEDEFOP reference series; 64

14 CEDEFOP (2006) “Typology of knowledge, skills and competences: Clarification of the concept and prototype”, CEDEFOP reference series; 64

15 Ibid. 16 Ellstrom P. E., Kock H. (2009) “Competence development in the workplace: concepts, strategies and

effects” in Illeris K. (2009) “International Perspectives on Competence Development. Developing Skills and Capabilities”. London: Routledge, cited in Chryssolouris, G., Mavrikios, D., & Mourtzis, D. (2013). Manufacturing Systems: Skills & Competencies for the Future. Procedia CIRP, 7, 17-24.

17 http://www.ecompetences.eu/ 18 In line with “HLG KETs: Transdisciplinarity, Societal Acceptance and Innovative Regions”, Working

Group 1 Report 19 CEDEFOP (2009) “Skills for Europe’s future: anticipating occupational skill needs”, CEDEFOP Panorama

Series


21

In order to make sure that the labour market requirements for KETs (as for any other field) are addressed in a comprehensive way, it would thus be more appropriate to work with competences rather than only skills, with skills being part of competences. At the same time, given a high popularity of the term ‘skills’ among broader publics, throughout our analysis, we will often employ the term ‘skills’ rather than ‘competence’, while still implying broader capabilities combining both skills and knowledge.

Other relevant terms include skills mismatches, skills gaps and skills shortages.

Skills mismatch here implies the presence of an imbalance of supply and demand of skills on a labour market. Two distinctive types of skills mismatches refer to skills gap and skills shortage.

Skills gap here refers to the difference in the skill required for the job and the actual skills possessed by the employees (we propose to label this type of skills gap as “Type I skills gap”). Skill gap also includes a mismatch between the competence of the trainee or graduating student/learner and the expected competence needs of the employers (we propose to label this type of skills gap as “Type II skills gap”20). This type of skills gap is assumed to arise from course/curricula misalignment.

Skills shortage, in turn, refers to the situation where the demand for employees in specific occupations is greater than the supply of those who are qualified, available and willing to work under existing industry conditions21. While skill gap represents a qualitative challenge, skill shortage corresponds to a challenge of a quantitative nature.

Consequently, skills mismatches should be viewed as an umbrella term for different types of skills gaps and skills shortages.

1.3.3. Individual vs. collective competences

The analysis of skill requirements for KETs heavily relies on the exploration of individual competences, i.e. looking at the relevant knowledge and skills that one needs to have to be able to carry out the tasks of a certain job. This part of the analysis thus focuses on examining specific individual capabilities (i.e. capabilities at the level of an individual) that need to be present in people working in KETs.

At the same time, a highly complex multidisciplinary nature of KETs requires intensive teamwork and active collaboration of multiple people simultaneously. From this perspective, KETs can be better compared to the team sports rather than individual sports, with an extra dimension of needed competences, namely collective competences. The latter refer to the fact that work in KETs requires a team to function as a unit or collective, with collective performance, and therefore the team needs to

20 A mismatch between the competence of the trainee or graduating student/learner and the expected competence needs of the employers is sometimes referred to as skills mismatch. See, for example, “E-skills for Europe: Towards 201o and beyond”, Synthesis report of the European E-skills Forum, September 2004. To avoid any misunderstanding, we propose to employ the term “skills mismatch” exclusively as an umbrella term for different types of imbalances on the labour market, as mentioned above. This use of the term is consistent with the approach of CEDEFOP and other prominent sources.

21 CEDEFOP (2009) “Skill mismatch: identifying priorities for future research”, CEDEFOP working paper nr. 3, available at http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/Files/6103_EN.PDF


22

be competent also at the collective level. These collective competences cannot always be decomposed into an aggregate of individual competences22.

Consequently, in case of KETs, looking at individual competences only would be a one-sided approach, and in our analysis, we will address both individual and collective competences needed for KETs. Detailed overviews of both individual and collective competences are provided in Chapter 2 of this report.

1.3.4. General vs. specific competences

Competences that need to be possessed by KETs workers either at the individual or collective levels can be split in two broad categories: general and specific competences. General competences here refer to the ones that are common for the majority of KETs workers, independently of the respective KET, employer or a specific job profile. These competences thus represent a ‘common core’ of skills and knowledge that need to be present in people to enable them to act successfully within KETs. General competences are typically trained by the educational institutions. The development of these competences needs to be driven particularly by European and national policy makers in close cooperation with other key stakeholder groups. General KETs competences form the key focus of the current analysis.

Specific KETs competences, in turn, are unique to a particular KET, employer and/or a specific job profile. These competences, for example, refer to a highly specialised technical knowledge, but also to skills of working with specific equipment, as well as an in-depth knowledge of non-technical KETs-related domains (e.g. specific legislation, specific sales techniques, detailed quality assurance principles etc.). Although some of the specific KETs competences may be trained by the educational institutions, the majority of them are typically trained on the job. Consequently, training specific KETs competences is often a responsibility of companies/employers themselves.

Both general and specific KETs competences can also be funded by the individuals themselves as their own investment in career and as part of life-long learning.

1.4. Key sources of KETs-related skills

The educational backgrounds of people working in KETs are much broader than specific KETs-related education (e.g. Nanotechnology, Photonics, Biotechnology, Electronics etc.). KETs heavily rely on people from general STEM23 domains (e.g. Computer Science, Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics etc.). Furthermore, a high diversity of educational backgrounds goes beyond STEM, with non-technical people who work in KETs having their background in Law, Economics, Business Administration, Policy Studies, Ethics, and Philosophy etc. Technical education is typically obtained at technical universities, institutes of technology (polytechnics), technical colleges and VET institutions. A wide variety of non-technical institutions delivers people with non-technical skills.

22 Boreham N. (2004) “Collective competence and work process knowledge”, Paper presented to the Symposium on Work Process Knowledge in European Vocational Education and Training Research, European Conference on Educational Research, University of Crete, Greece, September 2004

23 It may be reasonable to refer to STEAM rather than STEM, adding Arts to the equation. The STEAM concept suggests that Arts education is key to creativity, while creativity is an essential component of innovation. For more information, see: http://steam-notstem.com/


23

The type of people needed for KETs also differs depending on the pillars24 of the KETs innovation trajectory. In terms of educational levels, the pool of people working in KETs is also highly diverse. Our analysis suggests that degrees highly demanded by employers generally include Master’s and Bachelor’s (or similar), with an important role also for PhDs within the Technological Research pillar, and a clear need for people with vocational education for Competitive Manufacturing pillar. The importance of educational levels varies from company to company, depending among others on the company size and type of activities (e.g. research vs. manufacturing).

Specifically, several general differences can be observed between the skill requirements for various pillars in KETs (see also Figure 1-1):

• For pillar 1 (Technological Research), top-level scientific knowledge is required, the pillar heavily relies on people with advanced academic degrees.

• In pillar 2 (Product development & demonstration), people with management & entrepreneurship background play a crucial role (e.g. for securing large investments, managing high-risk product demonstration and proof-of–concept projects).

• Pillar 3 (Competitive Manufacturing) often heavily relies on middle-skilled people (vocational training/short-cycle tertiary education).

Our analysis suggests that there is also a fourth pillar in KETs that can be labelled ‘Support infrastructure’. This pillar includes supporting activities such as Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain, Logistics, Legal support etc., facilitating the activities of the main three pillars. This pillar is dominated by people with non-technical skills. However, for some jobs of pillar 4, for example in Sales and After-Sales Services, companies often report the need to explicitly employ people with a technical background. The latter can be explained by a highly technical nature of KETs products requiring a good understanding of technical aspects when it comes to sales and customer support.

24 See Report of High-Level Expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies, Final Report, June 2011; Specifically, technological research pillar is based on technological facilities supported by research technology organisation; product development pillar is based on pilot lines and demonstrators supported by industrial consortia; and competitive manufacturing pillar relies on globally competitive manufacturing facilities supported by anchor companies.


24

FIGURE 1-1: Differences in skill requirements between various pillars in KETs

In Table 1-1, we present the link between the skill levels from the International Standard Classification of Occupations ISCO-0825 with the level of formal education defined in terms of the International Standard Classification of Education (both ISCED-97 and ISCED-1126). The revised version of ISCED of 2011 contains a more detailed classification of the relevant educational levels. The literature sources relevant to KETs but older than of 2011, refer to ISCED 1997. Therefore, we demonstrate the link of ISCO with both the older and the newer versions of ISCED. Finally, we specify a link between the relevant skill levels and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF)27.

25 International Standard Classification of Occupations, International Labour Organization 2012, Geneva 26 International Standard Classification of Education, UNESCO 2011 27 http://ec.europa.eu/ploteus/content/descriptors-page


25

TABLE 1-1: Link between skills and educational levels in KETs

ISCO-08 skill level/ Skill category

Description of main skills (from ISCO-08)

Level of education, ISCED 1997 Level of education, ISCED 201128

Categories of KETs workers (simplified version)

EQF levels29

Level 4/Highly skilled

Performance of tasks that require complex problem-solving, decision-making and creativity based on an extensive body of theoretical and factual knowledge in a specialised field.

Excellent communication skills, the ability to understand complex written material and communicate complex ideals in media such as images, performances, reports, oral presentations and books.

Knowledge and skills for this level are usually obtained as the result of study at a higher educational institution for at least 3 years leading to the award of a first degree or higher qualification.

In some cases, extensive experience and on-the-job training may substitute for the formal education or may be required in addition to formal education.

6 Second stage of tertiary education (leading to an advanced research qualification)

5a First stage of tertiary education, 1st degree (medium duration)

8 Doctor or equivalent level

• 864 Sufficient for level completion (Programmes that lead directly to a doctoral degree only)

7 Master’s or equivalent level

• 766 Long first degree (at least 5 years) (Master’s or equivalent programme)

• 767 Second or further degree (following a Bachelor’s or equivalent programme)

• 768 Second or further degree (following a Master’s or equivalent programme)

6 Bachelor’s or equivalent level

• 665 First degree (3-4 years) • 666 Long first degree (more than 4

years) • 667 Second or further degree (following

a Bachelor’s or equivalent programme)

Engineer PhD.

Engineer MSc.

Engineer BSc. Technologist BSc.

Plant and Machine Operator30 (highly-skilled)

Level 8

Level 7

Level 6

28 International Standard Classification of Education ISCED 2011, UNESCO, available at http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/isced-2011-en.pdf 29 http://ec.europa.eu/ploteus/content/descriptors-page 30 A machine operator works with computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines. These machines cut and shape metal, glass or plastic to create a finished part. According to

the Occupational Information Network, machine operators can also be known as computer-controlled machine tool operators. For a detailed description see http://www.ehow.com/facts_6825681_definition-machine-operator_.html?ref=Track2&utm_source=ask


26

ISCO-08 skill level/ Skill category

Description of main skills (from ISCO-08)

Level of education, ISCED 1997 Level of education, ISCED 201128

Categories of KETs workers (simplified version)

EQF levels29

Level 3/ Middle-skilled (skilled production workers)

Performance of complex technical and practical tasks that require an extensive body of factual, technical and procedural knowledge in a specialised field. Includes performing technical functions in support of professionals.

5b First stage of tertiary education (short or medium duration)

5 Short-cycle tertiary education

• 54 General • 55 Vocational

Technician

Plant and Machine Operator (middle-skilled)

Level 5

Level 2/ Middle-skilled

Knowledge and skills may require a significant component of specialised vocational education and on-the-job training.

Plant and machine operators need at least a secondary school diploma. However, employers may prefer workers with college or vocational school degrees31.

4 Post-secondary non-tertiary education

4 Post-secondary non-tertiary education

• 44 General • 45 Vocational

Plant and Machine Operator (middle-skilled)

Level 4

31 http://www.myfuture.com/careers/education/nuclear-power-reactor-operators_51-8011.00


27

1.5. Key challenges related to KETs skills

Based on stakeholder consultation and desk-research, we were able to identify a number of key reasons for a mismatch in KETs skills in Europe. These reasons can be grouped in two major categories: (1) qualitative challenges related to mismatches between skills of existing employees/graduates and industry requirements; and (2) quantitative challenges related to skills shortages or the reasons why there are not enough people who are qualified, available and willing to work in KETs.

The identified qualitative challenges include the following:

• Educational programmes of both tertiary and vocational education are not fully aligned with industry needs.

• There is a need for a regular re-training of current employees due to rapid developments in KETs, while companies, particularly SMEs, find it challenging to provide such training.

The identified quantitative challenges include the following:

• Many companies point out that the major challenge they are facing to fill the skills gap is to attract new people to replace the outgoing workforce, i.e. both retiring employees and people going to other sectors. The replacement needs have significant qualitative and quantitative implications for the gap in KETs skills.

• There is too little awareness of KETs when students make critical choices. Especially low popularity can be seen among girls while they form half of the future labour market.

• KETs careers are not perceived as being attractive and prestigious. The field has an image of difficult working conditions and limited career opportunities, low financial rewards, relatively ‘boring’ and unattractive work.

• There are limited opportunities to study KETs in Europe. Only a few European universities offer KETs-specific programs (e.g. in nanotechnology).

• There is a ‘brain drain’ of qualified people to other countries.

Below we elaborate on each of the identified challenges in more detail.

1.5.1. Educational programs not aligned with industry needs

While the industry sector has drastically changed over the last two decades, the education and training systems including their curricula have not evolved at the same pace. This has led to a gap between the skills that are supplied by the educational institutions and the skills that are actually required by the industry. Stakeholders report that VET/university graduates are not immediately employable; they need to go through long, time- and money-consuming training process in companies before they can start executing tasks independently32. Educational programs should thus be better aligned with the industry needs.

Specifically, the current educational programs focus mainly on technical skills, while professionals involved in KETs need to demonstrate an adaptive blend of both technical and non-technical skills. Nowadays, given continuous changes in business, cultural, legal and market environments, the non-technical skills become as important as technical skills. Working in multidisciplinary international teams to serve

32 CECIMO (2013) The European machine tool industry’s Manifesto on skills, September 2013


28

customers from various locations across the globe requires skills related to communication, entrepreneurship, negotiation, problem solving etc.33. We will elaborate on the required skills in Chapter 2 of this report.

In terms of technical skills, students often have to work with the software and equipment that are outdated, without having access to the state-of-the-art developments. In terms of non-technical skills for technical people, educational programs in general do not pay sufficient attention to leadership skills, quality management for complex products and processes, innovation and entrepreneurship skills, as well as marketing and sales skills for KETs.

Additionally, the current educational programs often focus on teaching facts and problem-solving skills in a series of narrow topics, while KETs require a multidisciplinary approach implying knowledge of at least the outlines of every field of life that might be relevant to the possible KETs application areas. Consequently, new ways of teaching are needed going beyond the traditional ‘silos’ approach and training the ability to see linkages between previously unconnected fields. Educational programs also often do not sufficiently train the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to real industrial problems, while it is one of the most desirable attributes in new KETs recruits.

Finally, the current educational programs often fail to achieve the right balance between the depth of knowledge within a discipline and breadth across disciplines (general vs. specific knowledge and skills). According to the consulted stakeholders, there is no need for ‘one size fits all’ approach, i.e. there is a clear need for diversity in the degree of specialisation among students. In general, large companies tend to prefer graduates with a higher degree of specialisation, while SMEs look for people with a more general set of skills (but still with the relevant academic background). Certain diversity in terms of general vs. specific knowledge and skills can also be observed between specific KETs, for example, with nanotechnology workers having a more general orientation and materials professionals having a more distinct specialisation. The abovementioned diversity should therefore also be reflected in the educational system.

1.5.2. Need for a regular (re-)training

All specialists in the field of KETs need regular retraining and continuous professional development. Skill requirements in KETs constantly change due to factors like technological development, globalisation, industrial restructuring, increasing role of ICT and new patterns of work organisation. As a result, employers in many sectors have an increasing need for higher levels of competences when it comes to technical specialisation, practical and transversal skills34. Consequently, vocational/tertiary education should be seen a starting base that needs constant advancement throughout the whole career, i.e. life-long learning is vital for skill development in KETs.

At the same time, companies, particularly SMEs, find it challenging to provide such training. Nevertheless, companies of all sizes agree on the importance of life-long learning.

33 CECIMO (2013) The European machine tool industry’s Manifesto on skills, September 2013 34 See also CECIMO (2013) The European machine tool industry’s Manifesto on skills, September 2013


29

Large companies in general agree that not all competences can and should be trained by the educational institutions, and that certain specific skills can be better trained “on the job”. In fact, some large companies prefer to hire individuals with limited experience and to provide them with informal on-the-job training through work in teams and through mentoring by senior colleagues35. This preference can be partially explained by a higher level of specialisation needed by large companies when compared to SMEs.

Small companies, in turn, find it difficult to continuously advance the skills of their employees within the life-long learning approach. Firstly, training is a costly activity, and the resources that SMEs can spend on training are typically highly limited in terms of both time and money. Secondly, there is often a lack of organisational capacity within SMEs36 including human and intellectual resources to provide such training. Small companies can therefore hardly provide the necessary training themselves, and heavily rely on partnerships with local providers of training and local authorities37. Interestingly, SMEs report better skills development outcomes from informal training and skills development activities (particularly through participation in knowledge-intensive service activities) than from formal vocational training38.

Additionally, when it comes to retraining of employees from other sectors, there is a relative hesitation from the company side to do so (it holds for companies of all sizes), especially if the company has to finance it. Often employment agencies are ready to pay for the training as long as there is a guaranteed job; however, it may take one or more years for somebody to get retrained, and companies in general are not ready to wait that long.

1.5.3. Need to replace the outgoing workforce

Many companies point out that the major challenge they are facing to fill the skills gap is to attract new people to replace the outgoing workforce39. The outgoing workforce here refers to both retiring employees and people moving to other sectors.

First of all, there is a relatively large proportion of elderly workers in KETs. In 2012, 39% of the Science and Technology (S&T) labour force in the EU was more than 45 years old40. It is important to realise that a highly experienced individual cannot simply be replaced by a ‘fresh’ graduate. However, an outflow of retiring people implies a natural shift in the competence chain of the company. Hence near-to-retirement people and all the sub-sequent levels move a level higher, opening up more space for ‘fresh’ graduates at the entry levels. In this continuous renewal process, although individual competences may be lost, the collective competence

35 Yawson R. M. (2013) A Systems Approach to Identify Skill Needs for Agrifood Nanotechnology: A Mixed Methods Study, Dissertation, Quinnipiac University - Lender School of Business; University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2273088

36 CECIMO (2013) The European machine tool industry’s Manifesto on skills, September 2013 37 “Skills Development and Training in SMEs”, OECD Skills Studies 2013 38 “Skills Development and Training in SMEs”, OECD Skills Studies 2013 39 See, for example, CECIMO (2013) The European machine tool industry’s Manifesto on skills,

September 2013 40 Innovation Union Competitiveness Report 2013, at: http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-

union/pdf/competitiveness_report_2013.pdf


30

stays relatively intact or immune to the coming and going of individual employees41.

At the same time, the abovementioned renewal process can only be sustained if two key conditions are met: (1) there is a sufficient pool of young graduates who are qualified, available and willing to work in KETs; and (2) the current talent pool can be successfully sustained with minimal losses of talent to other sectors and countries. Given a relatively low interest of young people in KETs42, and a relatively unattractive image of KETs also among experienced professionals, companies working in KETs find it difficult to meet both of these conditions. That makes a replacement need a key challenge that promises to become even more serious in the near future.

1.5.4. Low awareness about KETs among students

Critical career decisions are being made already more than a decade before a student enters the workforce. For example, secondary school students often have to make the decision to take appropriate math and science courses that will prepare them for higher education in science & engineering fields about 14 years before they start working43. However, at that point, children are often not familiar with the development opportunities within KETs. Consequently, the promotion of KETs-related education and careers should start early in the educational process44. Both parents and teachers play a crucial role in this respect.

Furthermore, KETs are even less popular among girls45, and with no sufficient attention to this group at early age, half of the potential future labour market is likely to be overlooked. For science and engineering domains in general, the share of women amounts to 31% of students at first level, 38% of PhD students and 35% of PhD graduates, but to only 32% of academic grade C personnel, 23% of grade B personnel and just 11% of grade A personnel46. Consequently, another challenge for KETs is to reach a better gender balance.

The low awareness of KETs among students amplifies the seriousness of the replacement challenge as explained above.

1.5.5. Unattractive image of KETs

Company surveys report that the weak image of the KETs sector is the most important obstacle encountered by companies when trying to attract people47. Specifically, KETs careers are often associated with relatively low financial rewards and limited career opportunities when compared to other highly-skilled jobs. This image exists in the minds of both students and current labour market


42 See, for example, trends in manufacturing in CECIMO (2013) The European machine tool industry’s Manifesto on skills, September 2013

43 http://www.nanokids.rice.edu/emplibrary/NanoKids_Presentation_English.pdf 44 PwC (2013) “Comparison of European and non-European regional clusters in KETs: The case of

semiconductors”, a study for DG CONNECT 45 Although the number of girls studying KETs has been increasing in many Member States in the last years,

see: http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/she-figures-2012_en.pdf 46 Innovation Union Competitiveness Report 2013, at: http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-

union/pdf/competitiveness_report_2013.pdf 47 See, for example, CECIMO (2013) The European machine tool industry’s Manifesto on skills,

September 2013


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actors. Generous financial benefits and fast career growth opportunities in particularly the services sector often make KETs not the ‘number one priority’ option when it comes to career choices. Consequently, in case of people with a technical background, KETs have to compete for them not only with other technical domains, but also with non-technical sectors, where people with technical background are nevertheless in high demand (e.g. banking sector). It has been estimated that 28% of employed engineering graduates across the EU are not working in the engineering profession48.

Additionally, KETs careers are often associated with high workload and challenging working conditions when compared to other highly-skilled jobs, particularly in the services sector. Finally, KETs careers are often viewed as being less prestigious than some other highly-skilled jobs, for example, in the financial and legal sectors.

This relatively unattractive image of KETs among both students and current labour force amplifies the seriousness of the replacement challenge as explained above.

1.5.6. Limited opportunities to study KETs

In certain cases, companies explicitly look for people with a specific educational background in KETs (i.e. Electronics, Optics & Photonics, Nanotechnology, Materials Science etc.). Currently, only a few European universities offer KETs-specific programs49. At the same time, STEM programmes may offer specific modules that are KETs-oriented.

For example, in case of nanotechnology, Kiparissides et al.50 identified 27 bachelor courses in nanosciences and technologies, 106 MSc/PhD level courses, and five other degree courses in Europe, and 17 bachelors, 35 MSc/PhD, and 25 other degree courses in North America. According to these data, a specialisation in nanotechnology at a postgraduate level after a mono-disciplinary undergraduate education is more common than a specialised nano-education from the undergraduate level. The research of Kiparissides et al. showed that the overall number of courses with “nano” in the title is low compared with the total numbers of courses offered at universities, both in Europe and in North America51.

In Chapter 2 of the report, we will address the key sources of KETs skills, and specifically the relevant educational backgrounds needed to be able to operate within KETs. For now, it is important to emphasise that KETs-related education goes far beyond the dedicated studies specifically focussing on a certain KET such as Electronics, Optics & Photonics, Nanotechnology, Materials Science etc. KETs heavily rely on people from STEM domains (e.g. Computer Science, Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics etc.). Moreover, KETs involve an even higher diversity of educational backgrounds which go beyond STEM, with non-technical people having their background in Law, Economics, Business Administration, Policy studies, Ethics, Philosophy etc.

48 Association of German Engineers (VDI) (2010), European engineering report 49 In case of nanotechology, see Malsch I. (2013) “Nano-education from a European perspective: Nano-

training for non-R&D jobs”, Nanotechnology Review 2013 50 Kiparissides C., and Kammona O. “Nanoeducation Report”, Nanofutures, 2011 (www.nanofutures.info) 51 In Malsch I. (2013) “Nano-education from a European perspective: Nano-training for non-R&D jobs”,

Nanotechnology Review 2013


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1.5.7. Brain drain to other countries

The final KETs-skills related challenge refers to the so called ‘brain drain’ to other countries. Currently, there are no full datasets on the international mobility of KETs workers or on flows of KETs/STEM students between the EU and other world regions. However, surveys on sub-populations of, for example, researchers indicate that the largest direction of their mobility is still between the EU and the United States, with more people moving to the United States than coming to Europe. The main reasons for moving to the United States include better job opportunities, educational choices, and the existence of scientific or professional infrastructure52.

At the same time, the skills-related mobility challenges differ between various European regions. Currently, there is a divergence of economic performance in Northern and Western Europe when compared with Southern and Eastern Europe. This has direct implications for the skill needs in these countries. While countries in Northern and Western Europe face significant shortages of engineers and technicians, a large proportion of people with this background in Southern and Eastern Europe often remain outside the job market53. An intra-European brain drain can currently be observed due to large populations of highly-skilled people (including KETs workers) moving from Southern/Eastern Europe to the North/West54.

1.6. Conclusions

In the introductory part of this report, we showed that:

• The growth potential of KETs heavily relies on both the quality of skills possessed by the current and future employees, as well as the number of people qualified, available and willing to work in KETs.

• However, skills imbalances in KETs are likely to significantly diminish KETs growth potential and employment effects.

• To this end, the High-Level Expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies invited the EU to engage in a radical rebalancing of resources and objectives in order to retain critical capability and capacity in KETs.

• In January 2014, the European Commission has launched a dedicated initiative aiming to address the skill requirements for KETs. KETs Skills Initiative focuses on the current and anticipated needs of employers and the ways to best satisfy those needs.

• KETs Skills Initiative aimed to develop a shared international multilevel vision on how to address the skill requirements for KETs. The initiative also needed to produce specific recommendations and inputs for a European action plan, including a roadmap for 2014-2020. Finally, a sectoral pilot was organised as a trial run for recommendations.

• The results of this initiative will help design a coherent European strategy on skills for KETs, particularly for multi-KETs. This horizontal strategy would aim at aligning efforts so as to make best use of public resources in a targeted and results-oriented manner.

52 Innovation Union Competitiveness Report 2013, at: http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/pdf/competitiveness_report_2013.pdf

53 See also CECIMO (2013) The European machine tool industry’s Manifesto on skills, September 2013 54 http://www.industrialtechnologies2014.eu/session/ws14-nano-science-in-the-southeastern-europe/


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• In our analysis, we address both individual and collective competences needed for KETs. The latter refer to competences that need to be present at the level of teams in KETs.

• KETs heavily rely on people from general STEM domains. At the same time, business support roles are typically filled by non-technical people. However, in terms of total employment, they form a minority in KETs.

• Competences coming from STEM are reported to be insufficient. KETs require STEAM, with Arts included, which refers to creativity that can lead to innovations.

• Highly demanded academic degrees in KETs when it comes to open positions currently refer to Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. PhDs have an important role within the Technological Research pillar, whereas people with vocational education are particularly needed within Competitive Manufacturing.

• The key challenges leading to a mismatch in KETs skills in Europe include: o A need for a regular (re-)training of current employees; o Educational programmes being not fully aligned with industry needs; o High replacement needs of employers, or needs to attract new people to

replace the outgoing workforce, i.e. both retiring employees and people going to other sectors;

o Low awareness of KETs when students make critical choices; o Relatively unattractive image of KETs as a field to work in; o Limited opportunities to study KETs; and O ‘Brain drain’ of qualified people to other countries.


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2. SKILL REQUIREMENTS FOR KETS

In this Chapter, we address the specific skill requirements for KETs. We provide an overview of the identified KETs-related competences, both individual and collective, as well as address the issue of uniqueness of KETs competences when compared to STEM in general. We also present a number of illustrative job profiles for KETs, as well as elaborate on the educational backgrounds of people with KETs skills. Finally, we address the skill requirements for the future and highlight the skills that need to be trained in students already today.

2.1. How the findings were derived

The findings presented in this chapter were derived based on desk-research of existing employer surveys, academic papers and policy studies55, accompanied by stakeholder consultation by means of 30+ interviews and two validation workshops. The main steps in the methodology included:

• Desk-research of the state-of-the-art prominent literature on KETs skills, knowledge and competences;

• Systematisation of collected inputs and identification of common patterns; • Extracting and categorising KETs competences, developing a KETs Skills

Framework; • Examining the identified competences for overlaps and duplications, and

developing common terminology and definitions; • Developing detailed structured overviews of the identified competences,

including descriptions, employed sources and examples of knowledge and skills.

Decisions regarding the inclusion of a certain competence in the framework were made in close consultation with the stakeholders. The selection criteria for the competences were based on their added value to the overall framework, stakeholder interest in these competences and their popularity among employers.

The current analysis relies on the following methodological considerations:

(1) Level of comprehensiveness: trying to capture all KETs-related competences at the very operational level would be a utopian ambition. Instead, we aimed at capturing the main groups of competences and offering a platform for the continuous operationalization of those competences depending on the specific context.

(2) Level of flexibility: whenever needed, the framework has to be able to incorporate additional elements or adjust the original ones. Given the high complexity of the KETs domain, there is a good chance that not all relevant competences will be captured by the initial version of the framework. Furthermore, the KETs domain is changing with a tremendous pace, and new competences are likely to become relevant in the near future. We are convinced

55 For example, Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology; Green L., Jones B., Miles I. (2008) “Skills for Innovation”, INNOGRIPS Mini Study 03, Global Review of Innovation Intelligence and Policy Studies; Abicht L, Freikamp H, Schumann U. (2006) “Identification of skill needs in nanotechnology”, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training; “Skills and the future of Advanced Manufacturing: A Summary Skills Assessment for the SSC Advanced Manufacturing Cluster”, SEMTA, December 2009; Hardcastle A., Waterman-Hoey S. (2010) “Advanced Materials Manufacturing, Sustainability and Workforce development”, Washington State University


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that developing the KETs skills framework should not be viewed as a one-time exercise. It is important to recognise that further revisions of the framework will need to follow, and the design of the framework has to provide sufficient flexibility for the necessary future modifications.

(3) Level of granularity: given a highly complex nature of KETs, it will only be possible to achieve comprehensiveness if we work with competences that are general enough and can be applied in different contexts, industries and sectors, to a broad range of occupations and career levels. Therefore, the competences presented below are not tailored to the needs of specific application areas (e.g. aerospace, automotive, construction, security, energy, textiles etc.). At the same time, too general definitions of competences would jeopardise the added value of the framework. Therefore, a balance needed to be found in the degree of granularity of competence definitions. The selected level of granularity is general enough to be relevant to all KETs domains and reflect the core of the required competences, and, at the same time, specific enough to identify the detailed categories and sub-categories of competences, with corresponding examples of skills and knowledge.

(4) Focus on commonalities vs. differences: individual KETs are strongly interconnected, with relatively blurred boundaries between them. These aspects have direct implications for the skill needs. While respecting the differences between KETs, we aim to focus as much as possible on the commonalities across KETs competences, thereby following a multi-KETs approach.

(5) Focus on relevant vs. specific competences: the current analysis focuses on KETs-relevant rather than exclusively KETs-specific competences. The main reasons for this approach are as follows: (i) hardly any general competences can be identified that are relevant exclusively to KETs; (ii) the added value of a comprehensive analysis is a compilation of all the relevant competences in one place that could then be used by policy makers, educators and employers without the need to consult multiple fragmented sources.

2.2. Competences relevant to KETs

In the current section, we present a complete overview of competences that were identified as being relevant to KETs. As outlined in Chapter 1, in our analysis, we make a distinction between individual and collective KETs competences. We thus emphasise that in KETs, not only individuals, but particularly teams/collectives need to be competent, and that collective competences are more than a sum of individual competences.

2.2.1. Six categories of KETs competences

After developing an initial compilation of KETs competences and clustering them based on their relationship patterns, the following six categories of competences were identified (see also Figure 2-1):

(1) Technical: competences related to practical subjects based on scientific principles (e.g. programming, computational thinking, mathematical modelling and simulation, top-down fabrication techniques etc.);

(2) Quality, risk & safety: competences related to quality, risk & safety aspects (e.g. quality management, computer-aided quality assurance, quality control analysis, emergency management and response, industrial hygiene, risk assessment etc.);

(3) Management & entrepreneurship: competences related to management, administration, IP and finance (e.g. strategic analysis, marketing, project management, R&D management, IP management);


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(4) Communication: competences related to interpersonal communication (e.g. verbal communication, written communication, presentation skills, public communication, virtual collaboration);

(5) Innovation: competences related to design and creation of new things (e.g. integration skills, complex problem solving, creativity, systems thinking); and

(6) Emotional intelligence: the ability to operate with own and other people’s emotions, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour (e.g. leadership, cooperation, multi-cultural orientation, stress-tolerance, self-control).

FIGURE 2-1: Six categories of KETs competences


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These categories have been developed based on the common patterns identified in the course of the analysis. Rather than employing the typologies from existing skills frameworks, the objective was to formulate competence categories that are reported to be particularly relevant for KETs. The selected approach is thus based on a so called grounded theory method or building a theory through the analysis of empirical data.

As can be seen from the Figure, our analysis suggests that KETs rely on a balance of both technical and non-technical competences. Technical competences can be considered the ‘heaviest’ category in terms of required knowledge and skills due to a highly knowledge-intensive nature of KETs. However, the competences needed to successfully operate within KETs go far beyond the technical field and also cover a wide range of non-technical/transversal areas. As presented above, these non-technical competence areas include competences related to quality, risk & safety; management & entrepreneurship; communication; innovation-related competences and emotional intelligence.

When it comes to quality, risk & safety, KETs present an environment where workers need to operate with a high level of accuracy as the equipment is highly expensive, and errors are costly. This accuracy requires a specific mind-set, the ability to concentrate over a long period of time, attention to detail, and the ability to work in an environment with stringent and specific quality and safety procedures. This type of competence is particularly relevant to middle-skilled professionals involved in manufacturing.

The complex commercialisation trajectories within KETs, including high-risk product demonstration and proof-of-concept projects, also heavily rely on advanced management skills. The latter include market analysis and strategy development in a chaotic and unpredictable environment, the need to acquire and manage large investments due to highly capital-intensive nature of KETs, the need to coordinate multidisciplinary international teams, the need to manage complex processes with high risks and strict deadlines etc.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, KETs can be compared to team sports, where collective actions of individuals play a decisive role in achieving the final result. Given the importance of teams in KETs (which are typically formed from people with diverse professional and cultural backgrounds), communication-related competences represent another key competence category for KETs. Communication here refers to all kinds of interpersonal exchange of information, including verbal and written communication, but also virtual collaboration or communication in virtual teams. The latter refers to the ability to work productively, drive engagement and demonstrate presence as a member of a virtual team56.

Innovation competences refer to the ability of KETs workers to use and integrate various disciplines into joint solutions to complex problems, the ability to find new patterns and connections between multiple fields, where these patterns and connections have never been found before. Innovation competences are central for KETs, the very nature of which is defined by their multi-disciplinarity and (potential) connection to an endless number of application areas.

Finally, emotional intelligence is related to the ability to operate with own and other people's emotions, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour, including the use of intuition or so called ‘gut feeling’ about market-related and other

56 “Future Work Skills 2020”, Institute for the Future for the University of Phoenix Research Institute, 2011


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developments. Emotional Intelligence emphasises the central role of human aspects in innovation.

The identified six categories of KETs competences are relevant to both individual and collective levels of analysis. In the next sub-sections, we will address the differences between the two levels.

2.2.2. Individual KETs competences

The competences presented in this sub-section illustrate the relevant knowledge and skills that an individual needs to possess to be able to carry out the tasks of a certain job in KETs.

In the course of the analysis, 110+ relevant competences were identified, illustrating a high diversity of skill requirements in KETs. This high diversity is a natural reflection of a complex nature of KETs connecting a wide range of disciplines and having potential for an endless number of application areas. Needless to say, no individual can master all these competences simultaneously. Furthermore, specific skill requirements for KETs workers vary depending on the application area, meaning that not all of the identified competences are (to the same extent) relevant to all KETs commercialisation trajectories. Finally, some skill-sets are so specialised that there is just a handful of people with such skill-sets in the whole world.

As mentioned above, in our analysis, we focused on the competences that are general enough in a sense that those can be applied to different contexts, industries and sectors, and to a broad range of occupations and career levels. Therefore, the competences presented below are not tailored to the needs of specific application areas (e.g. aerospace, automotive, construction, security, energy, textiles etc.); nor do they reflect the needs of specific occupations (e.g. nano-analyst, optoelectronics engineer, specialist in laser technology etc.) or seniority levels (e.g. technician, entry-level engineer, project engineer, senior executive etc.). Additionally, while respecting the differences between KETs, we aimed to focus as much as possible on the commonalities across KETs competences, thereby following a multi-KETs approach and extracting a set of core multi-KETs competences. The framework offers a platform for the continuous operationalization of those competences depending on the specific context.

Table 2-1 provides a concise overview of the identified competences at the individual level. The Table also indicates the relevance of these competences to each of the three pillars57 of the KETs innovation trajectory. Annex A of this report offers detailed descriptions of the identified competences, as well as examples of relevant knowledge and skills.

57 See Report of High-Level Expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies, Final Report, June 2011


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TABLE 2-1: KETs competences at the individual level

Nr Competence

Pillars

Technological research

Product development

Competitive manufacturing

1 TECHNICAL 1.1 Technical background

1. Chemistry 2. Physics 3. Engineering (incl. Systems Engineering) 4. Electronics 5. Biology 6. Optics 7. Photonics 8. Computer science 9. Nanoscience

10. Materials Science 11. Mathematics 12. Statistics 13. Metrology

1.2 Design 14. Design Methodology 15. Operations Analysis 16. Systems Analysis 17. Computer-Aided Design (CAD) 18. Multidisciplinary design optimisation 19. Process Layout & Optimisation 20. Life-cycle analysis 21. Scalability analysis

1.3 ICT skills 22. Computer skills 23. Programming 24. Computational thinking

1.4 Modelling and simulation 25. Mathematical modelling and simulation 26. Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) 27. Non-destructive testing 28. Real-time modelling and simulations

1.5 Equipment handling skills 29. Equipment Selection 30. Installation 31. Equipment running skills 32. Operation Monitoring 33. Troubleshooting skills 34. Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO)

1.6 Manufacturing 35. Process improvement tools 36. Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) 37. Systems Evaluation 38. Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) 39. Product labelling and packaging 40. Top-down fabrication techniques 41. Bottom-up fabrication

techniques/Synthesis


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Nr Competence

Pillars


Product development


42. Micro-assembly 43. Macro-assembly

1.7 Diverse other technical competences 44. Systems integration 45. Characterisation and analysis 46. General Lab Skills 47. Specific Lab Skills

2 QUALITY, RISK & SAFETY 2.1 Quality

48. Quality management 49. Computer-Aided Quality Assurance (CAQ) 50. Quality Control Analysis

2.2 Risk & safety 51. Risk Assessment 52. Working conditions/ Health and safety 53. Emergency Management and Response 54. Industrial Hygiene 55. Equipment Safety 56. Ethics

3 MANAGEMENT & ENTREPRENEURSHIP 3.1 Business development

57. Strategic analysis 58. Technology strategy 59. New Product and Process Development

(NPPD)

60. Marketing 61. Customer Focus

3.2 Operational management 62. Project Management 63. Time Management 64. Teamwork skills 65. Coaching & Developing 66. Delegation skills 67. Monitoring 68. Risk Management 69. Management of Personnel Resources 70. Management of Financial Resources 71. Supply chain management 72. Cost modelling skills 73. Generation of shop floor work

instructions

74. Procurement skills 3.3 Entrepreneurship

75. Deal negotiation skills 76. Acquisition of funding 78. Intellectual Property (IP) management 79. International regulatory affairs

4 COMMUNICATION 80. Interpersonal skills 81. Verbal communication 82. Written communication 83. Presentation skills 84. Public communication


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Nr Competence

Pillars


Product development


85. Virtual collaboration 5 INNOVATION

86. Integration skills 87. Design mind-set 88. Continuous experimentation 89. Complex Problem Solving 90. Creativity 91. Systems thinking

6 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 6.1 Self-management

92. Persistence 93. Passion, enthusiasm and curiosity 94. Sense of responsibility 95. Stress tolerance 96. Attention to detail 97. Adaptability 98. Ability to thrive on failures 99. Balancing life and work demands

100. Self-discipline 101. Self-control 102. Proactivity 103. Continuous improvement orientation 104. Active Learning 105. Alertness 106. Judgment and decision making

6.2 Social skills 107. Friendliness/Being respectful of others 108. Leadership 109. Integrity 110. Cooperation 111. Multi-cultural/global orientation

Difference between three pillars

In our study on “Open innovation and enabling technologies: Analysis of conditions for transfer of knowledge” (service contract nr NMP1-SC-2011-IN0002) prepared for Directorate-General for Research & Innovation of the European Commission58, we showed that the innovation cycle for KETs products is not a linear system. Instead, it is a continuous iterative process consisting of parallel complementary activities and implying multiple loops. These activities can be grouped into bigger parallel clusters of activities corresponding to the three pillars proposed by the HLG (see also Figure 2-2 in sub-section 2.5).

Once these activities start, they continue happening in an evolving manner reinforcing each other through multiple feedback loops. For example, once technological research starts, it continues all the way to the beginning of the manufacturing process and beyond. Examples of feedback loops related to technological research refer to

58 http://ec.europa.eu/research/industrial_technologies/pdf/how-to-convert-research-into-commercial-story-part2_en.pdf


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incorporating feedback from designers, engineer community and users during product development and demonstration, and manufacturing activities.

The complex nature of relationships between these pillars has direct implications for the skill requirements and the relationships between the specific skills. Instead of three distinctive skill-sets corresponding to each pillar, the empirical evidence shows a clear interrelationship of required skills among these pillars, with multiple connections and significant overlaps. As can be seen from Table 2-1, the majority of the identified competences therefore are relevant for all three pillars; however, the extent of their relevance may differ from pillar to pillar.

Below we elaborate on each of the six categories in more detail.

Technical

The technical category of KETs-related competences can be split into several sub-categories related to technical background, design, ICT skills, modelling and simulation, equipment handling skills, manufacturing skills and diverse other technical competences. Once again, it is a general overview of required competences at the individual level that goes far beyond the limits of a single individual. The exact definitions of specific competences are provided in Annex A of this report.

Technical background is required for the majority of jobs in KETs. What kind of technical background is needed depends on the needs of a particular job, often with a wide variety of technical backgrounds being relevant for the same job. The higher the degree of specialisation of a job profile in question, the more specific educational background is usually required (although, lack of relevant educational background can often be compensated by sufficient work experience in the required field). Backgrounds with a more general orientation typically include physics, mathematics, engineering, computer science and chemistry. Backgrounds in electronics, photonics, nanoscience and materials science are linked to a higher degree of specialisation both during the educational process and on the job.

The employers report the need for different degrees of specialisation, with large companies having a tendency to prefer people with higher specialisation than SMEs. At the same time, this generalisation should be treated with a great caution, as some large companies massively employ people with a more general technical background, while some SMEs rely on specialists with a highly narrow field of expertise. Therefore, in terms of technical background, KETs workers ‘come in all shapes and sizes’, and this diversity is a natural reflection of a high complexity of the KETs domain.

Design-related competences refer to the skills and knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of technical plans, blueprints, and models. Technically challenging and complex products developed within KETs require mastering advanced design skills including a good knowledge of design methodology, operations and systems analysis, Computer-Aided Design (CAD), multidisciplinary design optimisation, scalability analysis and life-cycle analysis. The latter refers to the ability to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life from-cradle-to-grave.

Furthermore, given a heavy reliance of KETs on the state-of-the-art ICT solutions, including advanced CAD tools, tools for prototyping and testing, tools for manufacturing and process optimisation etc., individuals working in KETs typically need to master cutting-edge ICT skills. The latter include basic computer skills, but also varying degrees of programming skills and computation thinking. Computational


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thinking here means the ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and to understand data-based reasoning59.

Additionally, modelling and simulation competences prove to be particularly relevant for the product development pillar (Pillar II) in KETs. These competences refer to skills and knowledge of, for example, mathematical modelling and simulation, Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE), non-destructive testing and real-time modelling and simulations. Non-destructive testing here includes a wide group of techniques used to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage, thereby increasing the efficiency of product evaluation, troubleshooting, and research60.

The competitive manufacturing pillar (Pillar III) in KETs implies organising and running highly complex manufacturing processes that has direct implications for the skill needs. The general manufacturing-related competences include skills and knowledge related to process improvement tools, Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM), systems evaluation, product labelling and packaging etc. Specific KETs-related manufacturing techniques include, for example, bottom-up and top-down fabrication in nanotechnology, as well as micro- and macro-assembly in micro-nanoelectronics, photonics and advanced manufacturing. It is important to note that a wide variety of specific manufacturing techniques exists, depending on the KETs domain and/or specific application area (e.g. coating and surface functionalization, diamond-based ultra-precision processing etc.). These techniques are not included in this framework due to their highly specific nature.

Diverse other relevant technical competences include, for example, characterisation and analysis, general and specific lab skills and systems integration. Systems integration competence here refers to the ability to link together different systems and software applications physically or functionally, to act as a coordinated whole61. It is particularly relevant to the complex research, development and manufacturing environment of KETs and builds on skills in software, systems and enterprise architecture, engineering, interface protocols and general problem solving. The role of a systems integration engineer typically is to develop a workable solution for complex problems based on inputs from a broad range of other engineers.

As mentioned above, the technical competences can be considered the ‘heaviest’ category in terms of required knowledge and skills due to a highly knowledge-intensive nature of KETs. However, the competences needed to successfully operate within KETs go far beyond the technical field and also cover a wide range of non-technical/transversal areas. Below we address the skill needs in these areas at the individual level.

Quality, risk & safety

KETs products often have to meet a wide range of stringent quality requirements including safety, efficacy, potency and purity. Before offering the product to the consumers or releasing it into the environment, it first needs to be tested for the compliance with its label claims and regulatory filings. All these aspects require companies to give quality assurance a central role in the manufacturing process, with direct implications for the skill needs.

59 “Future Work Skills 2020”, Institute for the Future for the University of Phoenix Research Institute, 2011 60 Cartz, Louis (1995). Nondestructive Testing. ASM International. 61 CIS 8020 – Systems Integration, Georgia State University OECD


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In order to coordinate the quality assurance task, companies typically employ dedicated quality assurance specialists (also called quality auditors and quality assurance associates). These workers maintain quality systems, such as laboratory control, investigation management, materials management, document control and training to ensure control of the manufacturing process62. However, the actual implementation of quality assurance is the responsibility of all individuals in the company, requiring from all of them the possession of basic quality assurance skills. The latter are typically acquired by means in-house trainings and are accompanied by detailed quality assurance manuals.

At the same time, the guidelines regulating KETs-related manufacturing processes are constantly changing as new technologies and applications become available. Existing regulations are often not applicable for dealing with novel technologies, and hardly any quality standards exist for new applications63. Furthermore, new advancements in KETs often lead to the creation of radically different manufacturing realms, where product quality must be kept at the levels that have never been reached before64. For example, in case of nanoelectronics, manufacturing happens at the molecular level, with the physics of nanoparticles being principally different from that of large levels and with billions of nanoscale components being produced at one time. Such aspects require rethinking of today’s quality assurance paradigm. A new family of process controls, instrumentation, and criteria are now needed for a compliant, reliable, and cost-effective manufacturing65. That, in turn, leads to new quality-related skill requirements in KETs.

Additionally, laboratory settings and manufacturing facilities in KETs are often full of potential hazards that include but are not limited to electrical, radiation, chemical and thermal risks66. Consequently, KETs workers, and particularly the ones being in direct contact with the abovementioned hazards, have to follow a series of safety trainings, and strictly defined safety procedures. The latter include, for example, the need to wear appropriate personal protective equipment, practice good housekeeping, never work alone, and have a mentor when using a new piece of equipment67.

Management & entrepreneurship

Three distinctive sub-categories of competences can be distinguished within Management & Entrepreneurship category at the individual level, namely, business development-, operational management- and entrepreneurship-related competences. Below we address each of them in more detail.

Business development includes competences that allow companies to recognise market opportunities and develop cost-effective responses, which, in turn, help companies to ensure that they fend off the competition and capture the profits68. Business development requires from individuals possessing knowledge associated with the concepts of strategy, and the way organisations build their competitive

62 See also http://www.aboutbioscience.org/careers/qualityassuranceassociate 63 Zukersteinova A. (2007) “Skill needs in emerging technologies: Nanotechnology”, CEDEFOP report 64 http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/nanotechnology/its-time-for-a-nanoelectronics-quality-standard 65 http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/nanotechnology/its-time-for-a-nanoelectronics-quality-standard 66 http://www.camd.lsu.edu/msds/cleanroomtraining.htm 67 http://www.camd.lsu.edu/msds/cleanroomtraining.htm 68 “Sector Skills Insights: Advanced Manufacturing”, UK Commission for Employment and Skills, Evidence

Report 48 July 2012


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advantage on technology69. Additionally, it heavily relies on skills and knowledge associated with bringing new products and processes to the market. As a large portion of KETs-related products, processes and markets are still at the development stage, getting these products to the market quickly will be strategically imperative, and new product development skills will be crucial for increasing the rate of growth of the KETs sector70. Finally, business development builds on knowledge associated with the application of state-of-the art marketing tools, techniques and concepts to the management of new products71. The latter is closely linked to customer focus, or demonstrating concern for meeting internal and external customer’s needs in a manner that provides satisfaction for the customer within the resources that can be made available72.

KETs are associated with the management of highly complex commercialisation trajectories, including high-risk product demonstration and proof-of-concept projects, as well as management of highly challenging and often unprecedented manufacturing processes. These aspects require from KETs managers advanced operational management skills. The management here refers to all types of resources including personnel, finance and materials, but also work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption. The latter is called supply chain management, which is becoming increasingly important for KETs dealing with complex (and thus risky) global supply chains. Other key competences include project management and time management skills, teamwork, coaching & development, delegation, monitoring, risk management etc.

Finally, entrepreneurship competences here refer to the one’s entrepreneurial ability in a broader sense or one’s entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour, rather than exclusively to starting own business. Entrepreneurship in a broader sense includes, for example, one’s ability to effectively engage in deal negotiations and reach a favourable agreement. It also involves one’s ability to attract various sources of funding (e.g. public grants, venture capital etc.). This sub-category also includes (basic) knowledge of Intellectual Property Rights and of International Regulatory Affairs.

Communication

KETs commercialisation trajectories and manufacturing processes involve large numbers of people coming from various organisations and with a wide variety of professional and cultural backgrounds. Consequently, there is a clear need for KETs workers to be able to effectively interact with each other and understand each other’s often-divergent terminologies and goals73. Interaction in KETs, as in other high-tech domains, may take multiple forms including verbal and written communication, public speaking and virtual collaboration. Strong communication skills belong to the type of skills that need to be present in all KETs workers (in contrast to many of the abovementioned competences that typically have to be mastered by specialists in those fields).

69 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 70 See also “Sector Skills Insights: Advanced Manufacturing”, UK Commission for Employment and Skills,

Evidence Report 48 July 2012 71 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 72 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 73 http://theinstitute.ieee.org/career-and-education/career-guidance/big-opportunities-for-those-who-

think-small


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Innovation

Innovation competences are competences related to the design and creation of new things by means of using and integrating various disciplines into joint solutions, by finding new patterns and connections between multiple fields, where these patterns and connections have never been found before. Since the nature of KETs is defined by their multi-disciplinarity and (potential) connection to an endless number of application areas, innovation competences are central to KETs. Such competences, for example include having a design mind-set, taking risks with approaches and solutions that have never been applied or attempted before, as well as continuously striving to improve upon a current situation or condition, in an endless cycle. It also includes complex problem solving and systems thinking. Finally, for KETs workers, it is crucial to have the desire to delve into new areas74, to question what everyone else accepts as a fact, to ask the “why” questions and challenge existing ideas75.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is related to one’s ability to operate with own and other people’s emotions, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour76, including the use of intuition or so called ‘gut feeling’ about market-related and other developments.

Two main categories of emotional intelligence skills presented here include self-management and social skills. Self-management skills focus on the individual’s ability to control own behaviour, and include, among others, persistence, passion and enthusiasm, attention to detail, adaptability, self-discipline etc. Social skills, in turn, refer to the ability to manage the emotions of others, including friendliness, leadership, integrity, multi-cultural orientation.

Interestingly, as reported by the stakeholders, it is often an insufficient development of emotional intelligence that serves as a key reason for employers to end contracts with some of their workers. Our interview findings suggest that KETs employers in general would rather hire a less skilled worker with high emotional intelligence than a highly skilled person who is lacking it77. It can partially be explained by the fact that the technical skills needed to be proficient in a given position can also be taught by the company itself, while training emotional intelligence is a much harder thing to do.

2.2.3. Collective KETs competences

This sub-section addresses the competences that need to be present at the collective level, i.e. at the level of teams in KETs. It includes complex international teams of professionals coming from multiple organisations and sectors, which is particularly relevant for KETs. As mentioned in Chapter 1, collective competences are more than a combination of individual competences, i.e. it is more than a sum of knowledge and skills of individual people in the team and how they function as members of that team. Collective competences emerge when individual workers are able to function

74 Invernizzi, N. (2011) “Nanotechnology between the lab and the shop floor: what are the effects on labo?” Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 13(6), 2249-2268.

75 http://ideastations.org/science-matters/steam-rising/hot-jobs-nanotechnology 76 Based on Coleman, Andrew (2008). A Dictionary of Psychology (3 ed.). Oxford University Press 77 See also https://www.wetfeet.com/articles/how-recruiters-use-your-emotional-iq-in-an-interview


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with a sense of awareness of one another, as well as awareness of multiple structures, processes and resources in the system that either support or inhibit them from working together78. Collective competences heavily rely on trust and open communication within the group in question.

Below we address the key collective competences within each of the six categories presented above. These competences include multi-disciplinarity, collective quality assurance & risk management, collective management in general, interdependence, integration, and collective emotional intelligence. As this is a relatively new domain in skills research, and particularly in the context of KETs, the list of the identified collective competences should be considered illustrative rather than exhaustive, and it is likely to be extended in the future as a result of follow-up research.

Multi-disciplinarity

KETs are driven by large international multidisciplinary teams formed by people with highly diverse technical and non-technical backgrounds. Given a highly complex nature of products, services and processes in KETs, the notion of multi-disciplinarity almost as a default implies the involvement of various people, to overcome the limitations of knowledge and skills of a single individual. KETs thus heavily rely on ‘smart’ combinations of people with a wide range of profiles, with many of them coming from domains not directly related to KETs, particularly when it comes to specific application areas.

Our analysis confirmed that the notion of multi-disciplinarity in KETs goes beyond summing up diverse knowledge and skills of individual team members. It also implies developing and using a collective knowledge base, collectively exchanging that knowledge and developing new knowledge together. Together, individuals are able to redefine problems by going beyond their own knowledge boundaries and develop solutions based on a new understanding of complex situations79. It would be hardly possible to achieve that new understanding of complex situations solely at the individual level.

Collective quality assurance & risk management

As mentioned before, complex products, services and processes in KETs are associated with stringent and constantly changing quality assurance requirements. Multiple people are involved in the implementation of these requirements, with the final quality being as high as the lowest quality level at the individual stage of the value chain. The need to comply with specific quality requirements in KETs often goes beyond the boundaries of a single organisation, and involves quality assurance of partnerships, consortia and whole value chains. The latter requires developing collective quality assurance systems for gathering evidence, evaluation, review and self-assessment across all partnership members and to maximise the synergies in a partnership, as well as to minimise inconsistencies and weaker performance80. Consequently, quality assurance in KETs in its very essence has a form of large-scale systems, frameworks and processes that is more than a sum of individual quality-related performances.

78 Based on “Collective competence: More than a collection of competent individuals”, Royal College, The ICRE Blog, published on 3 June 2014, available at: http://icreblog.royalcollege.ca/2014/06/03/collective-competence-more-than-a-collection-of-competent-individuals/

79 Based on the definition of “Multidisciplinary Approach (of study, of research)” available at atlas.eu 80 LSIS “Initial Quality Assurance – Outline and Checklist”, retrieved on 18 July 2014


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Collective quality assurance implies the ability to strategically work together, across various teams and organisations, to create, develop, maintain and improve quality assurance arrangements. It also involves a collective ability to identify barriers to collaborative quality assurance and develop solutions based on mutual trust between partners. Finally, it includes collective development of plans for quality improvement across the partnership and creating effective mechanisms for monitoring the outcome81.

As for risk management, in KETs, it is challenged by a large amount of uncertainties about the benefits, growing public concerns and future directions of KETs applications. Because of these uncertainties, traditional risk management principles (including acceptable risk, cost-benefit analysis, feasibility analysis, and precautionary principle) often are not applicable to KETs. The very nature of KETs requires creating a new risk management model. Risk management experts increasingly invite companies and broader stakeholder groups to follow a so called cooperative risk management approach82 implying a multi-actor and multi-component oversight model. This new model would address risks that are identified by multiple actors, from academic researchers to manufacturers to government agencies, by applying a wide range of advanced and completely new risk management techniques83. Similarly to quality assurance, risk management in KETs is also a collective task that, besides cutting-edge individual risk management competences, heavily relies on a collective risk management competence.

Collective management

As mentioned above, KETs are associated with complex commercialisation trajectories, including high-risk product demonstration and proof-of-concept projects, and highly advanced manufacturing processes. Therefore, KETs require complex management systems coordinated by multiple individuals within different types of organisations of the value chain and across the value chain. Specifically, in terms of business development, turbulence in KETs changes the fundamentals of finding new business opportunities, thereby making it increasingly difficult to recognise the most promising ones. KETs managers and organisations need to cultivate new collective competences allowing them to leverage difficult-to-predict business opportunities on a continuous basis84. That includes the promotion of risk-taking culture, out-of-the-box thinking and collective rather than exclusively individual performance (the latter also implies putting the collective performance principles central to the reward system). Collective management also needs to take into account factors like systemic risk and the differences between individual agendas85.

Interdependence

Working in teams requires communication and cooperation between individual members, the effectiveness of which, in turn, depends on the team’s ability to

81 LSIS “Initial Quality Assurance – Outline and Checklist”, retrieved on 18 July 2014 82 See, for example, Marchant G.E., Sylvester D.J., and Abbott K.W. “Risk Management Principles for

Nanotechnology”, available at https://www.law.upenn.edu/institutes/regulation/papers/MarchantRiskManagementPrinciples.pdf

83 Based on Marchant G.E., Sylvester D.J., and Abbott K.W. “Risk Management Principles for Nanotechnology”, available at: https://www.law.upenn.edu/institutes/regulation/papers/MarchantRiskManagementPrinciples.pdf

84 Based on Yaniv Z. “Nanotechnology, managing a high-tech company in turbulence”, available at: http://www.appliednanotech.net/news/pdf/nanotechnology_turbulence.pdf

85 Based on http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/people/staff/slowinski/mgtcxsys/


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overcome the fragmented nature of different orientations, agendas and perceptions of its members86. Teams in general, and in KETs in particular, need to develop interdependence, i.e. the ability of a team to unite its members under a common ‘umbrella’ and enable their effective interaction. Interdependence is thus a collective competence that develops when teams build a sense of community. In interdependent teams, everybody is aware of collective goals and makes sure their work is directly contributing to the achievement of these goals. Other characteristics of a team with high interdependence include high levels of team member information sharing and facilitation of each other’s success87.

Integration

The very nature of KETs and their applications implies finding new patterns and connections between multiple fields where these patterns and connections have never been found before; and integrating various fields into joint solutions. Similarly to multi-disciplinarity, this ability to use and integrate various fields into joint solutions to complex problems is best achieved at the collective level. Teams with collective integration skills are able to find the “glue” that binds knowledge and skills of their members, connects to external knowledge base, and creates new results by building on the abovementioned knowledge.

Collective emotional intelligence

Collective emotional intelligence here is closely associated with a team’s culture and the values that are being promoted and actually practiced within the team. Collective emotional intelligence is therefore closely related to the notion of a team spirit, and similarly to the individual level, it includes aspects such as passion and enthusiasm, sense of responsibility, adaptability, continuous improvement orientation, and alertness. The latter refers to the awareness of the latest trends and the ability to act on them rapidly. Another example refers to the level of the multi-cultural orientation of a team, i.e. openness towards other cultures and acceptance of cultural differences.

Collective emotional intelligence also implies making collective sense of events88. For example, in order to deal with a certain (technical) problem in a competent way, teams first need to develop a good sense of the situation, with individual thoughts and emotions being placed into the structure of collective experience89. The collective re-interpretation of the problem by means of formal and informal discussions leads to a collective understanding of it and is a fundamental step towards developing a (collective) solution. Finally, collective emotional intelligence can also be associated with a so called ‘gut feeling’ of the team about market-related and other developments.

Although collective emotional intelligence, similarly to other collective competences, by no means is unique to KETs, our analysis shows a prominent role of these competences


87 http://www.corevalues.com/team-cultures/interdependence-the-glue-that-binds-teams-builds-success/ 88 Based on Boreham N. (2004) “Collective competence and work process knowledge”, Paper presented to

the Symposium on Work Process Knowledge in European Vocational Education and Training Research, European Conference on Educational Research, University of Crete, Greece, September 2004

89 Based on Boreham N. (2004) “Collective competence and work process knowledge”, Paper presented to the Symposium on Work Process Knowledge in European Vocational Education and Training Research, European Conference on Educational Research, University of Crete, Greece, September 2004


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in the success of KETs teams. In the next sub-section, we explicitly focus on the issue of uniqueness of competences relevant to KETs.

2.3. Competences unique to KETs

Before identifying competences that are unique to KETs, it is first important to understand what makes KETs unique when compared to other STEM domains. As presented in Chapter 1, the key characteristics that unite KETs include their knowledge-intensive and multidisciplinary nature, highly competitive and difficult-to-predict markets, an important role of SMEs, development of high-risk product demonstration and proof-of-concept projects, being associated with high investment risks, while also being highly capital intensive. The abovementioned characteristics, however, when analysed on their own, are not unique to KETs, and can be found also in other science & engineering fields. We therefore suggest that rather than specific characteristics, it is a combination of all these characteristics, together with an endless number of potential application areas, what makes KETs stand out from STEM in general.

This conclusion has direct implications for the analysis of competences relevant to KETs, and particularly their uniqueness when compared to STEM in general. Rather than some particular competences, it is a combination of the previously mentioned individual and collective competences, linked to an endless number of potential application areas, what makes KETs skill requirements unique. As mentioned before, these competence requirements can hardly be covered by one company, let alone one individual, and thus KETs heavily rely on complex international multidisciplinary teams or ‘smart’ combinations of people with the required competences. These people have different technical and non-technical backgrounds going far beyond KETs themselves and even STEM.

Specifically, KETs imply the emergence of teams with a mix of skills that in most cases has never been formed before (e.g. for integrating photonics solutions into cow milking business, for embedding electronic sensors into edible pills, for inserting displays into training suits etc.). Consequently, the potential of KETs for an endless number of application areas implies that KETs commercialisation trajectories also heavily rely on knowledge and skills from literally every field of life.

2.4. Illustrative job profiles for KETs

In this sub-section, we present a number of job profiles that aim to illustrate the current skill requirements of KETs employers. KETs employers include a wide variety of organisations such as large companies and SMEs, as well as academic institutions and research organisations. The illustrative nature of job profiles means that they should not be viewed as an exhaustive reflection of the current demand in KETs. Instead, our objective was to present a selection of skill-sets that currently are particularly popular among KETs employers. The observations presented in this sub-section are based on the analysis of skill requirements for open positions in a selected number of organisations. Organisations included in this analysis are ASML, AVANTES, DSM, IMEC, Powerlase Photonics and Siemens; representing a wide range of activities covering all six KETs (many of these companies are active in more than one KET). It is important to mention, that in contrast to large companies, SMEs often invite potential candidates to send them an open application rather than develop a detailed job profile to react to. The analysis confirmed that large companies generally look for people with a higher degree of specialisation than SMEs.


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Below we first analyse some general trends that we were able to spot based on the analysis of multiple job profiles. We then move on to the analysis of specific job profiles.

2.4.1. General trends in KETs job profiles

Our analysis of open positions illustrates a high diversity of employer needs in terms of specific roles, educational backgrounds, experience and skill-sets. The analysis confirms that it is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, and that different KETs employers currently have different skill needs. This conclusion is not surprising due to a highly complex nature of KETs that, in turn, relies on a broad range of backgrounds and skills. Below we present some general trends that we were able to extract from our analysis. It is important to mention that these generalisations should not be seen as being applicable to all KETs companies, and exceptions are more than likely.

• When publishing their job requirements for technical positions, employers often do not explicitly elaborate on specific technical skills that need to be possessed by job applicants. Instead, they refer to the required educational background, and in many cases, to specific professional experience. Interestingly, for the same positions, a detailed attention is often being paid to the description of non-technical skills, and particularly to emotional intelligence skills. There, the exact skills are being mentioned as key requirements.

• When it comes to specifying the required educational background, the scope of the relevant background is relatively broad, with diverse educational backgrounds being relevant to the same position. For example, for a Supplier Engineer position in the micro-/nanoelectronics and advanced manufacturing sector, a background either in Electronics, Mechanics, Mechatronics or Physics is considered to be appropriate. For an Application Design Engineer in the same sector, a background in Physics, Mathematics or Engineering would do.

• Although not statistically confirmed, our analysis suggests that the most demanded academic degrees in KETs when it comes to open positions currently refer to Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees; with a Master’s degree often being equalled to Bachelor’s in combination with the relevant professional experience. For research-related roles, a PhD degree may be required, while for machine operators and technicians, a vocational education is often sufficient.

• Depending on the seniority of open position, the presence of professional experience may or may not be required. Particularly for entry-level positions, some companies prefer to hire people with limited experience and then to provide them with on-the-job training through work in teams and through mentoring by senior colleagues90. In other cases, companies prefer entry-level candidates to have at least a limited professional experience, e.g. in the form of traineeship during their studies.

• For more senior positions (e.g. Technical Expert, Project Engineer), it is often specifically the professional experience of candidates that matters, rather than their educational background. The latter still has to be within the STEM domain, however the relevant scope is quite broad (e.g. “a technical university degree” or similar).

• Highly demanded non-technical skills among others include team working, communication, negotiations skills, flexibility, proactivity, and out-of-the-box thinking. A combination of strong analytical thinking with a pragmatic hands-on approach is also in high demand for open positions in engineering.

90 Van Horn C., Fichtner A. (2008) “The Workforce Needs of Companies Engaged in Nanotechnology Research in Arizona”, Heldrich Center’s Arizona Nanotechnology Workforce Report December 2008


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Some employers also specifically emphasise the importance of the ability to work in an international multicultural setting.

• English is often a must-have for workers with tertiary education (i.e. entry-level engineers and higher), with other languages being of secondary importance. At the same time, for middle-skilled professionals (e.g. machine operators, but also team leaders in manufacturing), a fluency in the local language is key. It can often be explained by a relatively low mobility of middle-skilled workers, with predominantly locals working in these positions. In addition, many non-technical positions, for example, in Finance and Sales, also require fluency in the local language.

• There are significantly less job openings for non-technical roles than for technical ones in KETs. It can be explained by the fact that due to a highly technical nature, KETs employ significantly more technical people than people with non-technical backgrounds. Furthermore, the approached stakeholders reported that in general, it is easier to find people for a non-technical role, and whenever there is an open position, it quickly gets filled.

• Finally, even for non-technical roles, companies often explicitly require people with a technical background. It particularly refers to the roles in sales and project management. People with non-technical background are typically needed for positions in HR, Finance, PR/Lobbying and Legal Affairs. For these people, a strong affinity with a technical environment is required.

Below we present a selection of specific job profiles.

2.4.2. Specific job profiles

In this sub-section, we address specific job profiles for KETs. As mentioned above, these job profiles should be considered as being of illustrative nature, i.e. aiming to illustrate a high diversity of skill-sets that are currently in demand.

We organised this sub-section around the key roles within KETs. The list of roles should not be considered exhaustive; it is rather a reflection of the most popular groups of profiles. The analysed roles include research; new product development; manufacturing; management; environmental protection, health & safety, quality assurance, and business support. Each role represents a relatively broad domain of activities, and can, in turn, be translated into an endless number of customised job profiles depending on the exact needs of the employer. For each role, we then provide illustrative examples of specific job profiles. Once again, the presented job profiles are illustrations of market demand, and should not be viewed as the market’s average or as statistically the most popular skill-set descriptions.

(1) Research

The roles in KETs-related research imply the application of multidisciplinary knowledge to discover new results by means of experimentation and analysis. Analysis here is often used to understand chemical processes, physical effects, biological nature and material structure at different scales, including nano-scale. Two broad categories of research are ‘blues skies’ (or fundamental) research and applied (or industrial application-oriented) research91.

91 Based on Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology


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As a minimum, most careers in research require a Bachelor’s degree (or similar) in a related discipline. Advanced positions generally require an advanced degree, such as Master’s and PhD. Tables 2-2 and 2-3 provide job profiles for two illustrative types of jobs within research, with different educational requirements, namely one for a lab equipment technician and another one for a scientist.

TABLE 2-2: An illustrative job profile for a role in Research

Subject Description

Position LAB EQUIPMENT TECHNICIAN

Education • Bachelor’s degree in Electronics or Electromechanics (or similar through experience)

Experience • Experience of working in a clean room is an advantage

Skills (technical) • Strong affinity with Electronics and high-tech environment

Skills (non-technical) • Accuracy, precision and attention to detail; • General orientation and willingness to learn; • Communication skills; • Teamwork skills; • Fluency in Dutch [for a position in Belgium]; • Good knowledge of English • Readiness to work in shifts (6 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 2 p.m. – 10 p.m.)

Posted by: IMEC

TABLE 2-3: An illustrative job profile for a role in Research

Subject Description

Position SCIENTIST POLYMERISATION CHEMISTRY

Education • A PhD degree in organic chemistry or polymer chemistry

Experience • 3-5 years of experience as a scientist in the chemical industry or academia, more specifically, in polymerisation of Engineering Plastics or Specialty Polymers;

• Experience of working in an international environment

Skills (technical) • Basic understanding of polymer analytics; • Basic understanding of polymer properties and polymer rheology

Skills (non-technical) • Above-average proficiency in English; • Excellent communication and teamwork skills; • Persuasive and impactful person; • Have shown to be able to build relationships with internal and

external partners

Posted by: DSM

(2) New Product Development

New Product Development (NPD) roles aim to create new products by combining fundamental knowledge of science with engineering design principles. The main focus here is on developing prototypes and proof-of-concepts for new products. Specifically, with the help of people working in the NPD roles, the identified market/customer needs are translated into product specifications and design. Responsibility here includes working towards agreed cost targets and within other


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business constraints (e.g. use of existing product platforms etc.). The NPD roles are responsible for working based on an agreed project plan and milestones to deliver a tested product. The product has to meet specifications and customer needs, at the right cost, and to be capable of being manufactured in volume92.

Similarly to Research, as a minimum, most careers in NPD require a Bachelor’s degree (or similar). Advanced positions generally require an advanced degree, such as Master’s and in some cases, PhD. However, a PhD degree here often has an optional nature, with many employers finding a Master’s degree sufficient. Tables 2-4 and 2-5 provide job profiles for two illustrative types of jobs within NPD, namely for a material scientist and for an application design engineer.

TABLE 2-4: An illustrative job profile for a role in New Product Development

Subject Description

Position MATERIAL SPECIALIST

Education • A degree in Engineering or similar

Experience • 5+ years of experience in composite structures

Skills (technical) • Preferably experience in or knowledge about fiber-reinforced polymer materials, possibly from the wind turbine blade industry;

• Good understanding of R&D processes

Skills (non-technical) • Innovative person; • Willingness to work in a multi-disciplinary environment; • Right attitude and drive

Posted by: Siemens



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TABLE 2-5: An illustrative job profile for a role in New Product Development

Subject Description

Position APPLICATION DESIGN ENGINEER

Education • Master’s degree in Physics, Mathematics or PhD in Engineering

Experience • Experience with Matlab is an advantage

Skills (technical) • Strong analytic capability; ability to analyse complex datasets to identify root-causes of observed issues and transfer them into generic solutions

Skills (non-technical) • Result-oriented attitude; ability to work with strict deadlines; • Pragmatic approach and proactive attitude; • Easy communicator; clear and open communication towards

team and stakeholders; • Team player; ability to work efficiently in multifunctional teams

Posted by: ASML

(3) Manufacturing

Manufacturing roles require application of engineering concepts to the production of intermediary or final products within the KETs value chain. The related responsibilities often include delivering the company's products from the supplier base, through manufacturing, assembly and test, to the customer and ensuring product quality at each stage of the manufacturing process. People in manufacturing are also responsible for working according to the agreed procedures but constantly seeking to improve these, and looking for the most cost-effective method of manufacturing93.

Unlike Research and NPD roles, in Manufacturing, a minimum educational requirement is a post-secondary non-tertiary education which typically is vocational education. This level is often sufficient for operators. However, advanced positions generally require an advanced degree, such as Master’s, but less likely a PhD. Tables 2-6 and 2-7 provide job profiles for two illustrative types of jobs within Manufacturing, namely for a pilot production line operator and an equipment engineer.

TABLE 2-6: An illustrative job profile for a role in Manufacturing

Subject Description

Position OPERATOR PILOT PRODUCTION LINE

Education • Passion is more important than educational background. Preferably, a university or college degree;

• Strong affinity with the technological environment.

Experience • No requirements specified

Skills (technical) • No requirements specified

Skills (non-technical) • Team working skills; • Accuracy and precision, attention to detail; • Proactivity;



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Subject Description

• Fluency in Dutch [for a position in Belgium]; • Good knowledge of English

Posted by: IMEC

TABLE 2-7: An illustrative job profile for a role in Manufacturing

Subject Description

Position EQUIPMENT ENGINEER

Education • Master’s degree in Industrial Science or similar through experience;

• Strong affinity with the technological environment and equipment.

Experience • Several years of relevant experience


Skills (non-technical) • Ability to work autonomously, plan and organise own work; • Proactivity; • Strong team player with good communication skills; • Willingness to work in a team system with rotating teams; • Fluency in Dutch [for a position in Belgium]; • Good knowledge of English

Posted by: IMEC

(4) Management

People working in Management roles are responsible for setting the direction, goals, priorities, performance criteria, as well as for coordination, evaluation and providing feedback. Management can be executed at different levels such as team, group, department/business unit, division and company.

Due to a highly technical nature of KETs, people working in Management roles are often required to have a technical background. At a minimum, most careers in KETs-related management require a Bachelor’s degree (or similar). Advanced positions may require an advanced degree, such as Master’s or MBA, but less likely a PhD. Our analysis suggests that employers assign a heavy weight to experience here, and several years of relevant work experience are often likely to compensate lack of specific education. Tables 2-8 to 2-10 provide job profiles for three illustrative types of jobs within Management, namely engineering project manager, design & engineering group manager, and manufacturing technology manager.

TABLE 2-8: An illustrative job profile for a role in Management

Subject Description

Position ENGINEERING PROJECT MANAGER

Education • Advanced degree in an engineering discipline, preferably Physics or Electrical Engineering;

• Preferably qualified in a subject related to laser development (or equivalent experience gained in the field);

• Project Management qualification (PMP, Prince etc.) is essential


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Subject Description

Experience • ERP/MRPII or MRP experience; • Capacity planning and scheduling experience; • Experience in industrial project management in a manufacturing

environment, including budget oversight and control; • Experience in leading and motivating large mixed teams in a

matrix environment


Skills (non-technical) • Project management skills using project performance metrics; • Flexible and adaptability to a changing environment; • Team working skills; • Ability to present technical and management reports; • Strong aptitude for logical thought with attention to detail,

coupled with the ability to think laterally when faced with issues; • Professional approach to interaction with all areas/levels of the

business; • Demonstrable structured and logical approach to problems; • Skills and experience in team building, and conflict management; • Proficient in using Microsoft Office Suite including Word and

Excel; • Knowledge and proficiency using project management software

e.g. AtTask.

Posted by: Powerlase Photonics


Subject Description

Position DESIGN & ENGINEERING P&I OIF GROUP MANAGER

Education • Master’s degree in a relevant discipline, such as Applied Mathematics, Mechatronics, Precision Engineering, Physics or Optics

Experience • At least 10 years of experience in developing, integrating and testing complex multidisciplinary products


Skills (non-technical) • Highly motivated team player with excellent social, coordination and communication skills;

• Ability to work in an international multicultural setting; • Ability to provide technical direction, motivate and convince a

team of professional designers; • Entrepreneurship and initiative in a technically complex and very

dynamic environment.

Posted by: ASML


Subject Description

Position MANAGER MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

Education • Degree in engineering, e.g. within construction, production, mechanical engineering etc.

Experience • 3-5 years of relevant management experience; • Preferably, experience with managing other managers;


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Subject Description

• Preferably, experience with manufacturing technology

Skills (technical) • No specific requirements

Skills (non-technical) • Leadership and management skills; • Proactive, persistent, self-driven and operational; • Ability to thrive in a busy environment with high demands; • Excellent English, both orally and in writing; • Preferably good Danish skills [for a position in Denmark].

Posted by: Siemens

(5) Environmental Protection, Health & Safety

The roles in Environmental Protection, Health & Safety imply protecting environment, as well as health and safety of people, by ensuring that diverse risks are properly controlled. The latter is achieved by making sure that workers comply with safety legislation and that safety policies and practices are adopted and adhered to94. These roles therefore require a thorough understanding of the existing legislation, as well as an in-depth technical knowledge95.

Tables 2-11 and 2-12 provide job profiles for two manager positions within Environmental Protection, Health & Safety. As can be seen from the Tables, educational requirements differ depending on the employer. In some cases, a dedicated Health & Safety qualification is required, while in other cases, such qualification is considered to be a clear advantage, with a relevant technical degree being sufficient. The latter refers to a broad domain of Natural Sciences and Engineering, with a Bachelor’s degree as a minimum.

TABLE 2-11: An illustrative job profile for a role in Environmental Protection, Health & Safety

Subject Description

Position SAFETY, HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT MANAGER

Education • Qualification in Natural Science or Engineering; • A specific education as safety engineer or similar is a clear

advantage

Experience • Significant people management experience gained in an operational environment;

• A specific experience as safety engineer or similar is a clear advantage;

• Proven track record of leadership and driving project management


Skills (non-technical) • Strong analytical and problem solving skills; • Excellent communication skills • Self-motivation; • Strong influencing skills; • Risk awareness; • Attention to detail

94 http://www.prospects.ac.uk/health_and_safety_adviser_job_description.htm 95 Based on Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology


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Subject Description

Posted by: DSM

TABLE 2-12: An illustrative job profile for a role in Environmental Protection, Health & Safety

Subject Description

Position ENVIRONMENT, QUALITY, HEALTH & SAFETY MANAGER

Education • Formal Health & Safety qualification, a minimum degree level

Experience • Experience in auditing; an ISO auditor qualification would be an advantage;

• Experience in certified systems

Skills (technical) • Extensive knowledge of Health and Safety legislation (ROI and NI);

• Trained VDU Assessor, Current Safe Pass Card, Manual Handling instructor would be an advantage;

• IOSH membership; • Good working knowledge of Microsoft packages

Skills (non-technical) • Strong interpersonal and communication skills with an ability to work with all levels of staff, contractors or customers

Posted by: Siemens

(6) Quality Assurance

Roles in Quality Assurance (QA) imply ensuring that quality of working practices throughout the whole value chain is maintained at the highest levels. Responsibilities thus also include working with suppliers to ensure that goods are delivered on time and according to quality standards96. Specifically, QA specialists work to ensure that KETs products meet all the quality attributes — safety, efficacy, potency and purity — required by customers and regulatory agencies. QA specialists validate that these products comply with all product label claims and regulatory filings. They maintain quality systems such as laboratory control, investigation management, materials management, document control and training, to ensure control of the manufacturing process97.

QA positions are open to individuals with a variety of educational and training backgrounds. Different employers have different minimum requirements, but candidates with at least a Bachelor’s degree in STEM and relevant industry experience are more likely to secure the job. Most companies also offer on-the-job QA training.

Tables 2-13 and 2-14 provide job profiles for two QA positions offered by different employers. As can be seen from the Tables, employers assign a particular weight to the relevant work experience, with different options possible when it comes to educational background.

TABLE 2-13: An illustrative job profile for a role in Quality Assurance

96 Based on Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 97 http://www.aboutbioscience.org/careers/qualityassuranceassociate


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Subject Description

Position QUALITY MANAGER IN PROJECTS

Education • Relevant educational background

Experience • Several years of professional experience in a project-related job or in operational quality management/quality assurance;

• Experience with Quality Management and statistical methodologies, benchmarking, audits, reviews, assessments and know-how regarding internal and external standards and regulations (organisational and super visional duties, ISO 9000:2000, VDE, CE, etc.)

Skills (technical) • Knowledge of products, systems and services of the wind Industry will be seen as an advantage;

• Knowledge of Business Administration; • Knowledge of specific quality tools; • Excellent user of MS Office

Skills (non-technical) • Open-minded, solution-oriented and proactive, with a constant focus on quality;

• Ability to thrive in a multi-cultural environment; • Excellent communication skills; • Excellent English, both orally and in writing

Posted by: Siemens

TABLE 2-14: An illustrative job profile for a role in Quality Assurance

Subject Description

Position TEAM LEADER QUALITY CONTROL

Education • Master’s degree in Chemistry/Biochemistry or equivalent scientific/analytical education

Experience • Minimum 5 years of experience, preferably in the pharmaceutical industry;

• Experience in a QC environment operating a GMP system for pharmaceutical active ingredients;

• Experience in leading a laboratory team


Skills (non-technical) • Structured and well-developed organisational skills; • Good communication and listening skills; • Willingness to learn and take responsibility; • Fluent language skills in German and English

Posted by: DSM

(7) Business support

Finally, KETs also rely on a wide range of roles that require providing support to the core competences of the organisation98. These roles, for example, include legal/regulatory support, marketing and public relations, Human Resources (including training material development) and finance. Tables 2-15 – 2-18 illustrate that the majority of these roles do not require a technical background. However, in some cases, for example, for sales and customer support, technical background is a must-have. The



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latter can be explained by a highly technical nature of KETs products requiring a good understanding of technical aspects when it comes to sales and customer support.

TABLE 2-15: An illustrative job profile for a role in Legal Support

Subject Description

Position LAWYER

Education • English qualified lawyer; • Excellent academic record

Experience • More than 4 years post-qualification experience gained in either private practice with a well-respected law firm or in-house at a bank;

• Supervisory or management experience; • Particular experience of asset financing, ideally with specific

leasing experience

Skills (technical) • A working knowledge of leasing transactions, including contract hire, hire purchase residual value and portfolio acquisitions would be ideal, but a general debt finance background will also be considered

Skills (non-technical) • Desire to work in a fast-paced transaction-driven business; • Flexible attitude and proven ability to multi-task; • Interest in enhancing existing skills; • Interest or experience in developing mentoring skills in order to

share skills and experience with legal and non-legal colleagues; • Teamwork skills; • Strong written and verbal communication skills; • Ability to deal confidently and build strong relationships with

senior business colleagues; • Clear understanding of commercial context; • Highly motivated, analytical, professional, proactive; • Intercultural skills • Fluent English

Posted by: Siemens

TABLE 2-16: An illustrative job profile for a role in Marketing, Public Relations and Sales

Subject Description

Position SALES MANAGER

Education • Relevant commercial education, with a strong affinity for technology, spectroscopy or related optical instruments

Experience • 5-7 years of experience in Sales (Management) in an international business environment


Skills (non-technical) • Strong understanding of customer and market dynamics and requirements;

• Strong commercial and analytical skills; • Excellent organisation and communication abilities; • Willingness to travel and work in a global team of professionals; • Self-starter mentality;


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Subject Description

• Fluent in German.

Posted by: AVANTES

TABLE 2-17: An illustrative job profile for a role in Human Resources, Education and Training

Subject Description

Position RECRUITMENT SPECIALIST

Education • Master’s degree, preferably in Labour and Organisational Psychology

Experience • 3-5 years of experience in selection and recruitment, preferably in a technological and international environment

Skills (technical) • Knowledge of sourcing, selection, screening and testing; • Knowledge of the latest trends in the field of Talent Acquisition

and Talent Analytics; • In-depth knowledge of and experience with assessment

techniques, recruiting technology and talent analytics is a valuable extra;

• Ability to professionally assess people and situations; • Strong analytical skills; • Knowledge of strategic sources of people for a high diversity of

functions and departments

Skills (non-technical) • Self-discipline, efficiency and orientation towards results; • Flexibility; • Creativity; • Communication skills (ability to effectively communicate with

both candidates and internal managers); • Fluency in Dutch; • Good knowledge of English.

Posted by: IMEC

Customer support

TABLE 2-18: An illustrative job profile for a role in Customer support

Subject Description

Position CUSTOMER SUPPORT PROJECT MANAGER

Education • Master’s degree in Physics, Electronics or Mechanical Engineering (or Bachelor plus relevant experience)

Experience • Relevant project or service delivery management experience (3-5 years) in a high-tech equipment industry

Skills (technical) • Strong technical background

Skills (non-technical) • Solid change & demand management skills; • Ability to initiate and execute companywide improvement


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Subject Description

programs; • Strong influencing skills: ability to motivate, drive, steer and

convince others at all levels of the organisation (influencing without power);

• Customer focus; • Strong communication skills (multi-cultural and oriented towards

different levels); • Capability of conceiving and maintaining ‘global’ overview; • Drive towards solutions; • Ability to work independently but well aligned in teams of

multiple Project Leaders; • Excellent written and spoken English.

Posted by: ASML

2.5. Skill for the future: what we need to teach students already today

In the current sub-section, we address the skill requirements for the future. To be more precise, the competences presented below are already highly relevant for KETs today, and are expected to become even more essential in the near future. However, our analysis suggests that the current educational systems in general do not pay sufficient attention to the development of these competences in students at any levels, be it primary education or advanced academic degrees, and beyond. Below we provide our suggestions with regard to the best time/level of education to start training these competences; and we argue that for many of them, one cannot start early enough.

Learning-to-learn skills

Given a rapidly expanding amount of knowledge within KETs, we suggest that it is not exclusively the knowledge itself that needs to be taught to students, but primarily the ability to absorb and constantly update knowledge, as well as to create new knowledge on top of it all. Learning-to-learn competence here means gaining, processing and assimilating new knowledge and skills, as well as seeking and making use of guidance99. Learning-to-learn competence is heavily based on critical thinking and reflection. It goes hand in hand with the desire to question what everyone else accepts as fact, to ask the “why” questions and challenge ideas100.

Learning-to-learn is a central competence for life-long learning101 which is essential for KETs. We argue that this competence needs to be trained already at the primary school, and be continuously advanced at the next educational levels.

Alertness

Alertness here refers to the ability to constantly monitor internal and external (i.e. economic, social, cultural, political, technological etc.) developments, thereby gaining awareness of the latest trends, as well as the ability to act on them rapidly. In KETs, an increasing number of developments take place all over the world, happening in parallel or in close connection with the developments in literally all fields of our lives. These developments include technological advancements, changes in the

99 Education Council (2006) “Recommendation of the European Parliament and the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competencies for lifelong learning”, Brussels, Official Journal of the European Union, 30.12.2006

100 http://ideastations.org/science-matters/steam-rising/hot-jobs-nanotechnology 101 Hoskins B. and Fredriksson U. (2008) “Learning to Learn: What is it and can it be measured?” JRC

Scientific and Technical Reports series


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regulation, social and cultural changes etc. A turbulent, chaotic and unpredictable environment of KETs requires the ability to act rapidly when it comes to developing new products and processes, but also advancing existing ones. Alertness implies staying up-to-date to the extent possible (as the gigantic coverage of the KETs domain does not allow for a full awareness of all current developments) and acting quickly to pursue emerging business opportunities. We suggest that the basics of alertness in a general sense need to be trained at the primary school, and be continuously advanced at the next educational levels. Entrepreneurial alertness can be introduced at the level of secondary school and be particularly stimulated during the tertiary education, and as a central part of company’s working culture.

Adaptability

By adaptability here we mean being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace; the ability to accept, prepare for and handle change102. A rapidly changing landscape of KETs requires constant adaptation to new developments. Consequently, students need to be taught how to stay flexible and be prepared for constant change, be it organisational, technological, and social or other type of change. Similarly to alertness, we suggest that the basics of adaptability in a general sense need to be trained at the primary school, and be continuously advanced at the next educational levels. Entrepreneurial adaptability can be introduced at the level of secondary school and be particularly stimulated during the tertiary education, and as a central part of company’s working culture.

Continuous experimentation and ability to thrive on failures

The progress within KETs heavily relies on continuous experimentation with new technologies, processes and application areas, and requires the courage to try something different. A high unpredictability of KETs markets inevitably implies a large portion of failure in the abovementioned experiments. Such failures may, for example, include launching a ‘clumsy’ product, launching a product at the wrong moment of time, wrong market positioning of a product etc. The growth in KETs can only be possible with the acceptance of potential failures and the ability to turn those into a valuable learning experience, and preferably into a winning situation. The students should therefore be trained the ability to learn from unexpected results and transform these results into new opportunities.

We suggest that the best time to start training this competence is at the primary school level, with continuous advancement at the next educational levels, and making it a central part of company’s working culture. The educational system needs to offer students an environment in which they will be able to run experiments to learn as rapidly as possible. Students should be encouraged to try out various strategies, approaches, models etc. without a fear of failure. It is important to note, that the acceptance of this competence requires fundamental mentality change at all levels, including the level of individuals, companies and policy makers in Europe. As suggested by the stakeholders, currently, Europe is dominated by risk-averse culture, with failures being associated primarily with a negative experience and damage for the reputation of the involved individuals and parties. The situation is complicated by a capital-intensive

102 http://www.mymajors.com


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nature of KETs, involving lengthy and highly costly research and innovation development periods, which is particularly sensitive for private investors, start-ups and SMEs.

Integration skills

As mentioned before, the applications in KETs heavily rely on the ability to find new patterns and connections between multiple fields; and to integrate various fields into joint solutions. KETs require a multidisciplinary approach implying knowledge of at least the outlines of every field that might be relevant to the possible KETs application areas. At the same time, the current educational programs often focus on teaching facts and problem-solving skills in a series of narrow topics, often not directly related to real-life problems. Consequently, new ways of teaching are needed going beyond the traditional ‘silos’ approach and training the ability to see linkages between previously unconnected fields of life. As emphasised before, this ability to use and integrate various fields into joint solutions to complex problems is best achieved at the collective level (i.e. when students work in teams). We suggest educators to start training integration skills at secondary school, with continuous advancement at the next educational levels. Integration skills go hand in hand with design mind-set, disruptive thinking and complex problem solving skills.

Other collective competences

The current educational systems tend to focus primarily on developing individual competences. As emphasised above, KETs heavily rely on collective performances, with collective competences (or competences at the level of teams) being at least as important as individual competences. Therefore, the development of collective competences needs to be prominently embedded in the educational curriculum. Besides the abovementioned integration skills, collective competences that are particularly relevant to KETs include multi-disciplinarity, collective quality assurance & risk management, collective management in general, interdependence, and collective emotional intelligence. We suggest that the development of basic team working skills should take place already at the primary school level, with continuous advancement at the next educational levels, while specific KETs-related collective competences need to be trained at VET institutions and embedded in tertiary education.

2.6. Conclusions

Our analysis of skill requirements for KETs suggested that:

• KETs rely on a balance of both technical and non-technical competences. • Technical competences can be considered the ‘heaviest’ category in terms of

required knowledge and skills. • Other relevant but non-technical competences include quality, risk & safety;

management & entrepreneurship; communication; innovation and emotional intelligence.

• A high diversity in skill requirements for KETs can never be covered by a single person or often even a single company. ‘Smart’ combinations of people with diverse profiles are needed, with many of them coming from domains not directly related to KETs.

• Specific knowledge and skill requirements for KETs vary depending on the industry/application area and the employer. Large companies generally look for people with a higher degree of specialisation than SMEs.


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• Even in case of ‘soft’ roles like marketing and sales, KETs companies in general prefer to hire technical people with basic business skills rather than business people with basic technical skills.

• Besides individual competences, KETs also heavily rely on collective competences such as multi-disciplinarity, collective quality assurance & risk management, collective management in general, interdependence, integration, and collective emotional intelligence.

• Rather than some particular competences, it is a combination of the previously mentioned individual and collective competences, linked to an endless number of potential application areas, what makes KETs skill requirements unique. KETs commercialisation trajectories are linked to knowledge and skills from literally every field of life.

• In order to maintain a competitive position in KETs, we need to teach our students learning-to-learn skills, alertness, adaptability, continuous experimentation and ability to thrive on failures, and particularly collective competences, including integration skills.


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3. DEMAND AND SUPPLY ANALYSIS OF KETS SKILLS

This chapter presents an analysis of the demand and supply of KETs skills from a quantitative perspective. It provides a snapshot of the current situation and an estimate of the future developments. Based on our analysis, we provide an outlook of the landscape of KETs skills supply and demand up till 2025. We first outline the methodology behind our estimates. We then present the estimates of the current and future demand for KETs skills. We proceed to matching future demand with future supply in order to assess the potential skills gap.

Due to an absence of comprehensive and harmonised employment data for KETs (which are required for the analysis of demand and supply of KETs skills), the calculations presented in this chapter should be considered approximate estimates serving mainly as an indication. These estimates enable a more detailed analysis of quantitative skills landscape for KETs in Europe; however, none of the numbers presented below should be considered to be exact/backed-up by prominent statistical sources.


Estimating the demand and supply of KETs skills can be considered a pioneering activity. Up till now, fragmented attempts have been made to assess of the supply and demand of KETs skills at the level of individual KETs; however, to our knowledge, a complete analysis of supply and demand for KETs skills has never been conducted before.

When assessing the demand for KETs skills, we look at the number of positions (jobs) that (will) exist in KETs. When assessing the supply, we analyse the number of people qualified, available and willing to work in KETs. For the analysis of supply and demand, we thus directly link the notion of KETs skills to employment-related data. This employment-based approach is in line with the principles applied by state-of-the-art skills research (e.g. by CEDEFOP).

In an absolute term, data on the current employment in KETs are available for some of the KETs domains, but these data do not cover the whole KETs field. For example, a study on employment in the photonics sector, carried out by EPIC and TEMATYS (2013)103, provides an overview of employment in Europe in the photonics sector and estimates growth in employment between 2012 and 2015. In addition, CEDEFOP has carried out extensive work on forecasting the general demand and supply of skills in Europe104, which can be disaggregated to the demand and supply of STEM skills. Additionally, the KETs Observatory initiative105 estimated the significance of all KETs in the overall employment in the EU, which provides an insight into the level of employment in KETs in a relative term. In our analysis, we heavily build on the abovementioned initiatives.

In Chapter 2 of this report, we emphasised that KETs rely on a wide variety of both technical and non-technical skills. People working in KETs can broadly be divided in two categories: (1) people with technical background possessing also basic non-technical

103 EPIC & TEMATYS, (2013). Photonics Ecosystem in Europe 104 http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/about-cedefop/projects/forecasting-skill-demand-and-supply/skills-

forecasts.aspx 105 https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/ketsobservatory/


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skills; and (2) people with non-technical background possessing (whenever necessary) basic technical skills. However, stakeholders, report that the second category forms a slight minority (rough estimates suggest a 9:1 ratio between the abovementioned categories), and hardly any challenges are reported when it comes to filling the positions with such job requirements. Furthermore, a high diversity of possibly relevant non-technical backgrounds for the second category makes it hardly possible to trace the educational origins of people with non-technical skills in KETs. Therefore, we focus our analysis exclusively on the supply and demand of people with the relevant technical skills (first category). We acknowledge that this category covers the absolute majority of KETs workers (approximately 90%), but not the whole picture.

To assess the current employment in KETs, we combine the relative significance levels of KETs employment per KETs domain (based on data provided by KETs Observatory) with the absolute employment data for a sample KETs domain106 and CEDEFOP’s detailed skills forecast database. For estimating the future demand of KETs skills, we build on CEDEFOP’s detailed skills forecast databases on labour force, employment trends and job opportunities by combining their data with our estimates of the share of KETs in STEM employment107. For estimating the future supply of KETs skills, we considered the number of graduates per year relevant for KETs that enter the labour market. Since our analysis focuses on the supply and demand of technical skills, we specifically considered graduates from technical fields. Our estimates of demand and supply are based on different classifications of data, more specifically for demand on occupational classes (ISCO) and for supply on educational fields (ISCED). As there is no direct match between the taxonomies for occupational fields (ISCO) and educational fields (ISCED)108, we implicitly have to assume that graduates from the identified educational fields are a good match for the identified occupational fields, and vice versa.

For matching demand and supply, we focus on the additional demand and supply over the years. This analysis incorporates the major skills trends. By including the trends, we could analyse how the current situation in demand and supply of KETs skills is expected to develop over time. Moreover, it allows us to consider to what extent we expect demand and supply to be matched on an annual basis, given information on the annual number of graduates and the expected additional demand for KETs skills. Furthermore, by focusing on additional demand specifically, we isolate the expected number of vacancies that need to be filled by new supply of KETs skills. This, in turn, allows us to consider to what extent it is expected that this demand can be filled through new supply.

Our estimates of demand and supply are calculated for low, medium and high-level skills in order to show the developments over time in these specific groups. For matching demand and supply, we focus on medium-level and high-level skills that are specifically relevant to KETs.

3.1.1. Key assumptions

Given a high scarcity and fragmentation of available data related to the demand and supply of KETs skills, we inevitably had to accept working with a number of

106 We chose photonics as a sample domain as for this KETs domain robust calculations of employment are available

107 As the CEDEFOP database can be disaggregated to STEM employment, we calculate the share of KETs employment in CEDEFOP’s estimated STEM employment to allow for further interpretation of their data.

108 http://www.nqai.ie/interdev_eqf.html


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assumptions. The key assumptions for estimating the demand and supply of KETs skills are as follows:

• Our analysis foremost focuses on KETs employment in technical occupations. As the non-technical skills are covered by a wide range of sectors and occupations that are not necessarily part of the KETs, including the full set of non-technical employment would greatly overstate the demand and supply of KETs skills.

• The demand for KETs professionals can be broken down into employment of KETs professionals and open positions for KETs professionals. Due to unavailability of comparable data on both published and unpublished job vacancies for KETs professionals, our analysis of the state-of-play focuses on current employment of KETs professionals109.

• The current supply of KETs skills consists of employed and unemployed KETs professionals. Due to lack of specific data on the unemployment in KETs, our state-of-play analysis of supply of KETs skills exclusively focuses on the current employment in KETs. It has, however, been established that high tech unemployment in EU-27 was consistently below 4 percent in 2010110. Therefore, a portion of unemployed supply here can be considered relatively insignificant.

• Available data on employment in individual KETs domains build on different definitions of which sectors and/or occupations are part of KETs and on different ways of collecting data. To overcome the barrier of incomparability of employment data collected for different KETs, we needed to derive estimates based on the same methodology for all KETs. For that purpose, we based our estimate of total KETs employment in the EU on employment statistics calculated by the KETs Observatory.

• The KETs Observatory data used in this study is based on the technology generation and exploitation approach, and entails employment specifically related to KETs components, i.e. components in final products that can be attributed to KETs. These employment statistics therefore represent part of the total KETs employment, as they exclude employment in e.g. research and services. As our analysis focuses on total KETs employment, the employment estimates of the KETs Observatory needed to be corrected upwards.

• In order to do so, we first conducted a value chain analysis. We assessed which part of the value chain is covered by the employment statistics provided by the KETs Observatory. Based on the analysis, we applied KET-specific employment multipliers to obtain total KETs employment. These multipliers were either identified from the literature where available or derived, taking into account the maturity of the different KETs and the employment multipliers available for other KETs. Moreover, a sample KET for which detailed employment statistics are available was used to align the overall estimates, which resulted in the final estimate of KETs employment. The analysis as well as the detailed results are presented in Annex B to this report.

109 Screening the number of job vacancies published on the websites of some of the leading companies in KETs suggested that the number of open positions is less than 1% of the current stock. This, however, should only be considered as a snapshot in time as no data are available on the number of vacancies in KETs per year. Moreover, some job vacancies are kept ‘open’ throughout the year, as multiple candidates with the requested profile are in demand. Finally, especially smaller companies tend not to publish all their open positions on their website, which makes it highly difficult to trace.

110 Goos, M, I. Hathaway, J. Konings and M. Vandeweyer (2013). High-Technology Employment in the European Union, VIVES Discussion Paper 41, KU Leuven.


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• In the future supply of KETs skills, additional supply of KETs skills can come from various sources, such as new graduates in the field, retrained professionals and migration. Due to a high scarcity of data on migration flows and retrained professionals in general, let alone specifically for KETs, our analysis exclusively focuses on new graduates in the field.

• Our estimates of supply are based on relevant STEM graduates. Not all STEM graduates end up working in STEM occupations and an even smaller part ends up working in KETs. Therefore, supply estimates of STEM graduates are corrected downwards to reflect the relevant supply of KETs skills. We work with an estimate that 60% of STEM graduates end up in STEM relevant occupations111. In turn, the sub-set of STEM graduates interested in STEM occupations that are specifically interested in pursuing a career in KETs, is considered to be proportionate to the significance of KETs in overall STEM employment112.

• Given the assumptions above, we cannot argue that the estimates are accurate up to the single individual. As a result, all of our estimations are rounded down to the nearest thousand.

A more detailed overview of the methodology used for estimating demand and supply can be found in sub-sections 3.1.2 – 3.1.4.

3.1.2. Estimating demand for KETs skills

When discussing the demand for KETs skills, a distinction needs to be made between current and future demand. As outlined in key assumptions, our analysis of the state-of-play focuses on the current employment of KETs professionals. Furthermore, we estimated total KETs employment for the EU in 2012 on the basis of a sample KET for which robust employment estimates were available.

For estimating the current demand in KETs, the following steps were taken:

(1) By applying KET-specific employment multipliers to the KETs component-related employment estimates of the KETs Observatory, total KETs employment for 2012 was estimated113.

(2) Using CEDEFOP’s databases, we derived employment in STEM occupations for EU28114.

(3) Using the estimated KETs employment for 2012 and STEM employment data in 2012 from CEDEFOP, we calculated the share of KETs in STEM employment.

(4) By applying the share of KETs in STEM employment to CEDEFOP’s data series on STEM employment, the CEDEFOP’s algorithms and datasets could be used to determine the state-of-play of demand for KETs skills in 2013.

111 Research has suggested that approximately 60% of engineering and technology graduates end up in the relevant fields, see e.g.: Harrison, M. (2012). Jobs and growth: the importance of engineering skills to the UK economy. Royal Academy of Engineering econometrics of engineering skills project, Final Report.

112 As noted by Deutsche Bank Research (2008), “[…] university entrants orient themselves to economic conditions, i.e. subjects are chosen in response to value added”. See: Meyer, T. (2008). STEM professionals: Between cyclical shortage and structural change. Economics 67, Deutsche Bank Research.

113 For more details, please refer to Annex B. 114 In line with previous efforts, employment in STEM was deduced from occupational groups “Science and

engineering professionals” (ISCO 21) and “Science and engineering associate professionals” (ISCO 31).


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CEDEFOP provides three key data sources on supply and demand of skills that present historical and forecasted data from 2003 up till 2025. These are:

• Historical and forecast data on labour force (annual data for 2003-2025); • Historical and forecast data on employment trends (annual data for 2003-2025); • Historical and forecast data on job opportunities (total between 2013-2025).

Using a complex pan-European multi-sectoral macroeconomic model (E3M3), skills demand and supply is estimated with raw data from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU LFS). For this, CEDEFOP distinguishes between three scenarios:

• A baseline scenario, in which a modest economic recovery is assumed. This baseline scenario is used for the forecasts’ main findings.

• An optimistic scenario, in which a speedier recovery of the economy is assumed. • A pessimistic scenario, in which a prolonged economic slump is assumed.

Our estimates are based on CEDEFOP’s baseline scenario.

CEDEFOP’s database also allows for distinction between skill levels, according to the definitions set out by the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). A distinction is made between low skilled (ISCED 0-2), medium skilled (ISCED 3-4) and high skilled (ISCED 5-6) employment. In addition, it is possible to isolate STEM employment statistics and forecasts in the CEDEFOP database by considering the data specifically for the occupational fields “Science and Technology professionals (ISCO 21)” and “Science and Technology associates (ISCO 31, 35)”.

The methodological framework used for CEDEFOP’s estimates is described in detail in CEDEFOP (2012)115. To estimate future demand in KETs, our estimates rely on CEDEFOP’s detailed skills forecast databases on labour force, employment trends and job opportunities. To arrive at the KETs skills specific demand forecasts, we took the follow steps:

(1) Using CEDEFOP’s detailed skills forecast databases on labour force and employment trends, employment forecasts for STEM occupations were extracted for 2013-2025 per year.

(2) Using CEDEFOP’s detailed skills forecast database on job opportunities, the total number of job opportunities between 2013 and 2025 for STEM occupations were obtained. The total number of job opportunities consists of expansion demand (i.e. new jobs) and replacement demand (i.e. demand arising from outflows from a job or occupation due to e.g. retirements and deaths, transition to non-employment, net migration and inter-occupational mobility).

(3) By applying our calculated share of KETs in STEM employment to the data described above, the demand for KETs skills for the years 2013-2025 was calculated. Although expansion demand was available per year through CEDEFOP’s labour force forecasts, replacement demand was only available as a total for 2013-2025. In our estimates, replacement demand has

115 CEDEFOP, (2012). Skills supply and demand in Europe: Methodological framework. Available at: http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/publications/20612.aspx


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been averaged out across the years to be able to analyse the situation per year116.

3.1.3. Estimating supply of KETs skills

For estimating the current supply in KETs skills, we looked at the current employment of KETs (see steps outlined in sub-section 3.1.2). Since data on KETs specific unemployment were unavailable, this estimate formed the final estimate for this particular part of the analysis.

To estimate future supply of KETs skills, our estimates are based on data from Eurostat on the number of graduates per year. The following steps were taken to estimate future supply of KETs skills:

(1) Historical statistics on the number of relevant graduates per year, per field of study and disaggregated to levels of education were obtained from Eurostat for 2003 till 2012, the most recently available year117.

(2) Data on graduates from the relevant fields of study and level of educational attainment were extracted from the database and used for further calculations.

(3) Data on the number of graduates per year were extrapolated to 2025 (per annum) with the following two scenarios:

a. A “status quo” (i.e. a trend break), in which the number of graduates per year stays the same for 2012 till 2025;

b. A continuation of the trend observed in 2008-2012, in which the number of graduates per year follows the historical trend in supply. A Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4 years was calculated and applied to linearly extrapolate the supply of graduates per year up till 2025.

(4) To arrive at the number of graduates per year relevant for the KETs fields, we multiplied the resulting supply of graduates by 60% (the number of STEM graduates that go to STEM occupations) and the calculated share of KETs in employment (the number of STEM graduates in STEM occupations that are interested in KETs). For this, two scenarios were considered:

a. A “constant KETs significance” scenario, in which the percentage of STEM graduates interested in KETs stays constant over time;

An “increasing KETs significance” scenario, in which we take into account that more STEM graduates may be attracted to KETs as KETs relatively grow in significance. This e.g. increases their visibility, which could naturally increase the number of graduates going to the KETs. We assume the share of STEM graduates going to KETs to follow the increase in the significance of KETs in total STEM employment (as calculated using the methodology described in 3.1.4).

Based on the technical competences required for working in the field of KETs, the following fields of study were taken into account, as classified by the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) in 1997:

• 42 Life sciences; • 44 Physical sciences;

116 Note that this implies that our estimates are not fully accurate at the annual level, as in some years there may be more or less replacement demand than the average suggests.

117 The statistics can be obtained from Eurostat’s “Graduations in ISCED 3 to 6 by field of education and sex”-database (educ_grad5).


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• 46 Mathematics and statistics; • 52 Engineering and engineering trades; • 54 Manufacturing and processing.

Furthermore, a distinction for medium-skilled and highly-skilled graduates was made by considering the type of education and the relevant levels. The distinction was made as follows.

Medium-skilled educational level:

• Upper secondary education (ISCED level 3) - pre-vocational and vocational programme orientation;

• Post-secondary non-tertiary education (ISCED level 4) - pre-vocational and vocational programme orientation.

Highly-skilled educational level:

• First and second stage of tertiary education (ISCED levels 5 and 6).

3.1.4. Calculating the share of KETs in STEM employment

Our approach for calculating demand and supply of KETs skills includes calculating the share of KETs in employment, based on data provided by KETs Observatory. The main steps here included the following:

• Using data provided by the KETs Observatory on employment related to KETs components, we estimated total employment per KET by applying KET-specific employment multipliers118. Total KETs employment was derived from the KET specific employment estimates. Our employment estimates only relate to technical KETs employment and includes research, manufacturing and services.

• To calculate the share of KETs in employment, we specifically considered the share of technical KETs employment in employment in the STEM occupations extracted from the CEDEFOP databases. This allows us to interpret the CEDEFOP databases with respect to KETs, which is subsequently used for our analysis of (future) supply and demand of KETs skills. To obtain the share of KETs in the extracted STEM employment from CEDEFOP’s database, we divided our calculated KETs employment in 2012 by the estimated STEM employment (extracted from CEDEFOP’s databases) in 2012. This resulted in a significance of KETs in STEM occupational employment of 13.63%.

• Keeping the share of KETs in the STEM sectors constant over the years implies that the KETs do not experience a relatively higher growth than the STEM sectors. Given the high growth expected in the KETs, an alternative scenario was taken into account that relaxes this assumption. In this scenario, we assume a constant linear growth in the significance of KETs employment in STEM, implying that the KETs will continue to increase in importance between 2013 and 2025.

• To overcome the unavailability and incomparability of data, we used estimated growth rates in a sample KET – for which detailed industry data are available - as our baseline to extrapolate growth in the KETs. Based on industry data from the photonics sector, estimates for employment growth in photonics were obtained for 2012-2015. Taking into account a growth in employment in

118 See Annex B for our methodology and detailed results of this exercise.


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photonics of 15,9%119 between 2012 and 2015, total employment in KETs in 2015 was re-estimated, assuming similar growth in all KETs. Subsequently, the three year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over 2012-2015 was estimated and applied to the calculated share of KETs from 2012 till 2025120. This resulted in the share of KETs in employment to increase linearly over time.

3.2. Estimating demand for KETs skills

This section presents the results of our demand calculations for KETs skills. We first present the total demand for KETs skills under the assumption of a constant share of KETs. We then provide a break-down into KETs professionals (ISCO 21) and KETs technicians and associate professionals (ISCO 31). It is followed by a break-down into skill level and by an estimation of demand for KETs skills under the assumption of growth in the significance of KETs.

3.2.1. Total demand for KETs skills assuming a constant share of KETs

The total demand for KETs skills comprises both a consideration of current demand for KETs skills and a consideration of future demand. Future demand, in turn, can be broken down into expansion demand and replacement demand. Expansion demand is the demand expected from the creation of new jobs. Replacement demand is the demand expected from positions opening up due to people leaving the labour force, such as in case of retirement. Together, expansion and replacement demand make up the total future demand for KETs skills.

Under the assumption of a constant share of KETs significance, our estimates show that demand for KETs skills in 2013 equalled a total of 2,234,000 technical KETs professionals and associates. This includes jobs at all skills levels within the KETs fields.

When considering the future demand for KETs skills, our estimates show that between 2013 and 2025 an additional 953,000 KETs professionals and associates with technical skills are needed to satisfy demand. On average, this comes down to an additional demand of 79,000 KETs workers per year. Put differently, between 2013 and 2025, an increase in demand for KETs skills of 43% is expected.

The key share of the extra demand is made up by replacement demand with a total of 772,000 KETs professionals and associates. Expansion demand is estimated to be a relatively small share of total additional demand for KETs skills till 2025, with a total of 181,000 KETs jobs. This suggests that the current workforce is of relatively high age, which in turn leads to retirement expectations that are reflected in the relatively high replacement demand.

119 EPIC & TEMATYS, (2013). Photonics Ecosystem in Europe 120 Under these assumptions, the significance of KETs in the field of STEM grows 4.4% per year, which

results in an overall significance of KETs in the STEM fields of 23.95% in 2025.


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Figure 3-1 presents the results of our estimations graphically.

FIGURE 3-1: Total estimated demand for KETs technical skills, baseline scenario (Source: PwC, based on data from CEDEFOP and KETs Observatory)

3.2.2. Demand for KETs professionals

Using CEDEFOP databases, we can distinguish between two groups of STEM fields: Science and Technology professionals (ISCO 21) and Science and Technology associates (ISCO 31). Combined with the assumed KETs significance in these sectors, we arrive at estimates specifically for KETs professionals.

According to our calculations, an estimated 908,000 KETs professionals with technical skills worked in KETs disciplines in 2013, which filled in 41% of the total demand for technical KETs skills. Between 2013 and 2025, demand for KETs professionals is expected to increase by 51%, which equals an additional 461,000 KETs professionals with technical skills.

Similar to the total future demand for KETs skills, we observe that expansion demand is a strong driver of future demand for KETs professionals. Nevertheless, relatively more expansion demand is expected for KETs professionals specifically compared to the total demand for KETs skills. Of the additional demand of 461,000 KETs professionals between 2013 and 2025, 313,000 professionals will be required due to replacement demand and 148,000 due to expansion demand. Figure 3-2 graphically presents the estimated forecasts and the historical trend.


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FIGURE 3-2: Estimated demand for KETs professionals with technical skills (ISCO 21), baseline scenario (Source: PwC, based on data from CEDEFOP and KETs Observatory)

3.2.3. Demand for KETs technicians and associate professionals

Similarly to estimating the demand for KETs professionals, demand for KETs technicians and associate professionals was derived from the CEDEFOP data for Science and Technology associate professionals (ISCO 31) combined with the assumed KETs significance in these sectors.

Our estimations indicate that 1,326,000 KETs technicians and associate professionals with technical skills of all skill levels were employed in KETs disciplines in 2013. Between 2013 and 2025 an additional demand for 491,000 KETs technicians and associate professionals with technical skills is expected. Other than for KETs professionals, almost all of the extra demand can be attributed to replacement demand. Of the 491,000 additional KETs technicians and associate professionals demanded between 2013 and 2025, 458,000 are due to replacement demand and only 33,000 due to expansion demand. Replacement demand clearly drives growth in this segment.


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Figure 3-3 presents the results of our estimates graphically.

FIGURE 3-3: Estimated demand for KETs technicians and associate professionals with technical skills (ISCO 31), baseline scenario (Source: PwC, based on data from CEDEFOP and KETs Observatory)

3.2.4. Break-down of total demand for KETs skills by skill levels

The CEDEFOP database allows us to distinguish between low, medium and high-skilled labour. This distinction is applied to both Science and Engineering professionals (ISCO 21) and Science and Engineering associate professionals (ISCO 31) categories. Combining the data with our estimates of the share of KETs jobs in STEM, allows us to break-down the estimated (future) total demand for technical KETs skills by low, medium and high skills.

A breakdown of the estimated total demand for KETs skills in 2013 shows that highly-skilled KETs professionals are most in demand. With an estimated 1,218,000 highly-skilled KETs workers employed, this group represents 55% of total KETs employment. Highly-skilled employment is followed by medium-skilled employment, which contributed an estimated 834,000 KETs workers in 2013, 37% of total KETs employment in 2013. Finally, low-skilled KETs employment was estimated to equal 181,000, 8% of total KETs employment in 2013.


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FIGURE 3-4: Breakdown of current demand for technical KETs skills by skill level (Source: PwC, based on data from CEDEFOP and KETs Observatory)

Aside from the stock of employment in 2013, we can also break down the estimates for future demand of KETs skills by skill levels. The results show a clear demand for high level skills in the coming years. Our estimates indicate that 62% of the additional demand for KETs skills by 2025 will require high level skills. Furthermore, 30% of the additional demand is expected to require medium level skills, followed by 8% of additional demand for low skills.

FIGURE 3-5: Breakdown of future demand for technical KETs skills by skill level (Source: PwC, based on data from CEDEFOP and KETs Observatory)

3.2.5. Forecasting total demand with increased significance of KETs in the future

Up till now we have assumed the share of KETs in the STEM fields to remain constant. However, based on the growth rates in the industries, we can expect the relative share of KETs to increase over time. Assuming linear growth in the share of KETs in the STEM fields, total demand for KETs skills was re-estimated.

As the data used by CEDEFOP stem from 2012, only forecasted data is available from 2013 onwards. As a result, our extrapolations are necessarily based on 2012 as well.


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Since we are extrapolating from 2012 onwards, our estimate for the baseline in 2013 slightly changes compared to the situation where we keep the share of KETs constant in the future. Taking into account linear growth in the KETs, our estimates show that a total of 3,486,000 KETs professionals and associates were employed in the KETs disciplines in 2013.

When the relative share of KETs in STEM fields grows continuously, an estimated 128% more KETs (associate) professionals are needed in 2025 than in 2013 to satisfy demand. In numbers, this comes down to an additional 2,991,000 KETs employees that are in demand from 2013 till 2025. This implies that on average an additional 249,000 KETs employees are needed per year for the next 12 years to satisfy demand.

A key difference from the baseline situation is that in the case of linear growth in the KETs domains, expansion demand becomes the main driver for KETs skills demand in the future. A significant proportion of the workforce population is, however, still expected to retire between now and 2025 and needs to be replaced. Replacement demand is therefore also a strong component of future demand in this scenario. Overall, expansion demand is estimated to equal a total of 1,910,000 KETs jobs, compared to an estimated replacement demand of 1,080,000 KETs jobs. Figure 3-6 graphically presents the results of our estimations.

FIGURE 3-6: Total estimated demand for technical KETs skills, increasing significance of KETs scenario (Source: PwC, based on data from CEDEFOP and KETs Observatory)

3.2.6. Forecasting demand for KETs professionals and KETs technicians and associate professionals with increased significance of KETs in the future

Similarly to our baseline scenario, we can re-estimate the demand for KETs professionals and KETs technicians and associate professionals separately under the assumption of increased significance of KETs in the future. Overall, the forecasts are similarly affected as the forecasts of total demand for KETs skills.


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With regards to the KETs professionals, our estimations show that assuming an increased significance of KETs in the future results in a stock of 948,000 KETs professionals. Between 2013 and 2025, an additional extra demand of 1,346,000 KETs professionals are expected, an increase of 142% compared to 2013. The extra demand is mainly driven by expansion demand, resulting from both an increase in the significance of KETs in the STEM sectors and the expected growth in employment in STEM occupations. Overall, expansion demand is estimated to equal an additional 907,000 KETs professionals between 2013 and 2025, whereas replacement demand is estimated to equal 439,000 KETs professionals in the same period.

Concerning KETs technicians and associate professionals, our calculations show that with increased significance of KETs in the future, an estimated stock of 1,384,000 KETs technicians and associate professionals were employed in the KETs disciplines. Between 2013 and 2025 an additional demand of 1,644,000 KETs technicians and associates is expected, an increase of 119% compared to 2013. Again we see that in this scenario, the clear driver for the additional demand is expansion demand. Nevertheless, replacement demand still contributes significantly to the overall demand for KETs technicians and associate professionals. Overall, expansion demand is estimated to equal an additional 1,003,000 KETs technicians and associate jobs between 2013 and 2025, whereas replacement demand is estimated to equal 641,000 jobs in the same period.

The estimations are presented graphically in Annex B.

3.3. Matching supply with demand for KETs skills

Our supply and demand analysis focuses on the future trends in KETs skills. We look at the additional demand and supply that is expected annually between 2013 and 2025. By comparing the expected annual supply and demand of KETs skills, we considered whether a mismatch between supply and demand of KETs skills can be established. The results are presented below.

3.3.1. A possible gap between demand and supply for highly-skilled KETs workers

Our analysis of demand and supply for highly-skilled KETs workers shows mixed results. Assuming a constant share of KETs (i.e. the baseline scenario), our estimations suggest that there will be ample supply of graduates to satisfy the additional demand. On average, our calculations show a surplus of KETs-related graduates per year in the range of 12,000 to 37,000 up till 2025, depending on whether the number of graduates per year stays the same over time or whether this develops according to the trend between 2008 and 2012. This in theory comes down to a total surplus of approximately 150,000 to 449,000 highly skilled KETs workers in 2025, although it is likely that the vast majority of these will already be employed in other sectors by then.

However, in case of the assumption of linear growth in the significance of KETs in the future, a substantial gap between demand and supply can be identified. This gap ranges between an average deficit of 58,000 to 83,000 KETs-related graduates per year in order to satisfy demand, depending on the trend developments in the number of STEM graduates relevant for KETs. This would result in a theoretical total deficit of approximately 706,000 to 1,005,000 highly skilled KETs workers in 2025.


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In addition, when KETs grow in significance in the future, graduates may also be more prone to pursue a career in KETs. As mentioned above, the sub-set of STEM graduates that are specifically interested in pursuing a career in KETs was considered to be proportionate to the significance of KETs in overall STEM employment121. If we assume this relationship to hold perfectly, we can consider a natural increase in the number of STEM graduates pursuing a KETs career. Put differently, the number of KETs graduates is assumed to grow proportionally to relation to the size of KETs in comparison to other STEM fields. Although on average a deficit of 21,000 to 59,000 KETs-related graduates per year can still be identified when proportionally more graduates go to KETs, the gap is slowly declining if the number of STEM graduates also keeps rising122. By 2025 the annual supply of highly skilled STEM graduates pursuing a career in KETs may even slightly surpass annual demand if the most positive scenario holds. Despite this, the theoretical total deficit created between 2013 and 2025 ranges from 259,000 to 710,000 highly skilled KETs workers.

Whether Europe faces a quantitative skills gap in KETs therefore strongly depends on how the KETs markets are going to develop till 2025, both in terms of the number of graduates in the field and the growth of the sectors. Table 3-1 summarises the results for the different scenarios, whereas Figures 3.7 and 3.8 present the results of our analysis graphically.

TABLE 3-1: Summary of the calculated supply surplus/deficit of highly-skilled KETs workers per scenario

Scenario Annual surplus/deficit of supply (+/-)

Total surplus/deficit (+/-, 2013-2025)

Baseline (constant significance of KETs)

+ 12,000 to + 37,000 + 150,000 to + 449,000

Medium (increasing significance of KETs in demand and supply)

- 21,000 to - 59,000 259,000 to 710,000

High (increasing significance of KETs in demand)

- 58,000 to - 83,000 706,000 to 1,005,000

121 As noted by Deutsche Bank Research (2008), “[…] university entrants orient themselves to economic conditions, i.e. subjects are chosen in response to value added”. See: Meyer, T. (2008). STEM professionals: Between cyclical shortage and structural change. Economics 67, Deutsche Bank Research.

122 While we corrected both the continued trend in supply as well as the status quo for an increase in KETs significance, we note that by pure coincidence


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Figure 3-7: Estimated demand and supply for highly-skilled KETs workers, constant KETs significance scenario (Source: PwC based on data from CEDEFOP, Eurostat, and KETs Observatory)


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Figure 3-8: Estimated demand and supply for highly-skilled KETs workers, increasing KETs significance scenario (Source: PwC based on data from CEDEFOP, Eurostat, and KETs Observatory)123

3.3.2. A possible gap between demand and supply for medium-skilled KETs workers

For medium-skilled KETs workers, our estimations show similar results to our estimations for highly-skilled workers. In our baseline scenario, in which we assume a constant share of the KETs in the STEM sectors, there is ample supply of graduates expected to satisfy the additional demand. Even when the declining trend in the relevant medium-skilled graduates continues to hold, a surplus between 15,000 and 28,000 is on average expected per year. Between 2013 and 2025, the total surplus would thus amount to 186,000 to 338,000 medium-skilled KETs workers, although it likely that the majority of these will already be employed in other sectors.

However, under our assumption of linear growth in the significance of KETs in the future, a skills gap may arise. This skills gap may be further aggravated if the trend of a declining number of medium-skilled graduates in this field continues to hold.

123 While we also corrected the status quo trendline of KETs supply for an increase in KETs significance, we note that by coincidence the line largely follows the same path as the estimated KETs graduates supply of the baseline scenario in which the trend in supply continues. Therefore, the status quo trendline corrected for increasing KETs significance is omitted from this figure.


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In that particular case, an increasing demand for medium-skilled KETs employees per year needs to be filled by a declining number of relevant graduates, further widening the potential skills gap. Overall, under this assumption a potential skills gap arises of an average in the range of 31,000 to 44,000 medium-skilled KETs workers per year. Based on these estimates, a total deficit of medium-skilled KETs workers of 379,000 to 532,000 would be generated between 2013 and 2025.

Similar to our analysis of highly-skilled KETs workers, we can also take into account a proportional growth in KETs supply when the significance of KETs increases. Taking into account the proportional estimates of supply of KETs graduates, we find an average annual deficit of 10,000 to 29,000 medium-skilled KETs workers. This amounts to a total deficit of 127,000 to 353,000 medium-skilled KETs workers between 2013 and 2025.

The extent to which we face a skills gap for medium-skilled KETs employment is thus largely dependent on the developments in the sector and in education. Table 3-2 summarises the results for the different scenarios, and Figures 3.9 and 3.10 present the results of our analysis graphically.

TABLE 3-2: Summary of the calculated supply surplus/deficit of medium-skilled KETs workers per scenario

Scenario Annual surplus/deficit of supply (+/-)

Total surplus/deficit (+/-, 2013-2025)

Baseline (constant significance of KETs)

+ 15,000 to + 28,000 + 186,000 to + 338,000

Medium (increasing significance of KETs in demand and supply)

- 10,000 to – 29,000 - 127,000 to - 353,000

High (increasing significance of KETs in demand)

- 31,000 to – 44,000 - 379,000 to - 532,000


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Figure 3-9: Estimated demand and supply for medium-skilled KETs workers, constant KETs scenario (Source: PwC based on data from CEDEFOP, Eurostat, and KETs Observatory)


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Figure 3-10: Estimated demand and supply for medium-skilled KETs workers, increasing KETs scenario (Source: PwC based on data from CEDEFOP, Eurostat, and KETs Observatory)

3.3.3. Supply of graduates for KETs come from a pool of STEM field graduates that is larger than the predicted additional demand for KETs skills

Although the analysis above implies a few situations in which a skills gap may arise, it is important to realise that the supply of KETs graduates comes from a pool of STEM graduates that far exceeds the additional demand posed by KETs. This even holds under our assumption of linear growth in the KETs domains. As has been shown in Chapter 2 of this report, although not all STEM graduates may be a perfect match for the KETs domains, it is generally regarded that their skills provide a strong enough basis for them to work in the KETs domains and be retrained on the job.

Despite the expected inflow of STEM graduates, it may still be difficult to attract new graduates to KETs. These graduates may, for instance, pursue a career in other STEM fields or even outside STEM fields, such as in banking and finance. Nevertheless, based on the numbers, an ample supply of STEM graduates is expected that may be fit to satisfy the demand for KETs skills. Whether these graduates turn to KETs therefore seems to be more of a distributional issue rather than an issue of availability.

Whether there are enough STEM graduates per year to satisfy the future demand for STEM skills is a different story that requires more analysis. Recent reports suggest that the situation may not look as grim as generally assumed. With statistics showing that the number of graduates in STEM is almost twice as high as the number of hires in science and engineering sectors, experts suggest that either the demand for STEM


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graduates is lower than the number of graduates, or that non-STEM fields are more attractive to these graduates, or a combination of both124.

Regardless of the discussion on a possible skills gap in STEM, our analysis suggests that the demand for KETs skills could be fully satisfied if STEM graduates perceive the KETs domains as attractive enough. Moreover, due to unavailability of statistics, our analysis does not include an inflow of KETs skills from professionals that are retrained, e.g. through trainings on the job. People that are e.g. already working in STEM fields or that are unemployed may undergo retraining in order to take a job that requires KETs-specific skills.

Furthermore, the dynamic nature of labour markets may provide a dampening effect on skills imbalances. The demand and supply analysis presented in this chapter is of rather static nature. In the real world, however, demand and supply is far from static. Economic theory dictates that if – for example - demand exceeds supply, price (i.e. wages) tends to go up in order to balance the demand and supply. For labour markets, this typically means that wages will rise, which may attract more workers to that particular profession in the short-run, and may increase the number of graduates in the long run. This also holds the other way around. When supply exceeds demand, wages may fall, which may result in less workers attracted to a particular profession.

Figures 3-11 and 3-12 present the forecasted trends graphically.

124 McGuire, R. (2014). What STEM Skills Gap? An Interview With Michael Teitelbaum, Author of “Falling Behind?” Skilled UP, retrieved from: www.skilledup.com/blog/what-stem-skills-gap-an-interview-with-michael-teitelbaum-author-of-falling-behind/


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Figure 3-11: Estimated demand for highly-skilled KETs workers vs. supply of STEM graduates (Source: PwC based on data from CEDEFOP, Eurostat, and KETs Observatory)

Figure 3-12: Estimated demand for medium-skilled KETs workers vs. supply of STEM graduates (Source: PwC based on CEDEFOP, Eurostat, and KETs Observatory)

3.4. Conclusions

The following conclusions can be drawn on the basis of our analysis of supply and demand of the current and future demand and supply for KETs skills:

• Demand for KETs skills in 2013 equalled an estimated total of 2,234,000 technical KETs professionals and associates. This includes jobs at all skills levels within the KETs fields.

• Highly-skilled KETs employment accounts for 55% of total employment, followed by 37% medium-skilled employment and 8% low-skilled employment.

• When considering the future demand for KETs skills, our estimates show that between 2013 and 2025 an additional 953,000 KETs professionals and associates with technical skills are needed to satisfy demand.

• On average, between 2013 and 2025, there will be an additional demand of 79,000 KETs workers per year. Put differently, between 2013 and 2025, an increase in demand for KETs skills of 43% is expected.

• The key share of the extra demand is made up by replacement demand (e.g. due to retirement or moving to other sectors) with a total of 772,000 KETs professionals and associates. Expansion demand (i.e. new jobs) is estimated to be a relatively small share of total additional demand for KETs skills till 2025, with a total of 181,000 KETs jobs.


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• Most of jobs related to additional demand (62%) will require highly skilled people, though there is also a relatively strong increase in demand expected for medium skilled people in KETs (30% of additional demand).

• The data show potential for a skills gap, both for high and medium skills: o A possible gap in the range of approximately 21,000 to 83,000 highly-

skilled KETs employees per year and 10,000 to 44,000 medium-skilled KETs workers per year, depending on how the field develops.

o This is under the assumption that KETs will continue to grow in significance relative to the STEM occupational fields. The ranges also take into account that proportionally more STEM graduates could be attracted to KETs when the field relatively grows in size.

• However, there is also a potential surplus if the share of KETs in STEM employment remains constant over time.

o Under this assumption, our calculations show an average surplus of highly-skilled KETs graduates per year in the range of 12,000 to 37,000 and an average surplus of medium-skilled KETs graduates per year in the range of 15,000 to 28,000 up till 2025.

• Numbers aside, trend analysis shows that medium-level KETs skills potentially face both an increase in demand and a decrease in the number of graduates, which could further aggravate the current situation;

o Companies facing difficulties in attracting medium-level KETs skills right now are likely to find it increasingly more difficult to attract qualified professionals with these skills in the future.

Nevertheless, our estimations show that ample supply of STEM graduates is anticipated in the future to satisfy the demand for KETs skills. However, currently, most of these graduates do not flow to KETs, which can partially be explained by a relatively unattractive image of KETs as a field to work in.


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4. GOOD PRACTICES AND MECHANISMS TO SCALE THEM UP

In this section, we analyse how KETs skills-related challenges are currently being tackled worldwide, as well as present a selection of good practice initiatives from the three world regions, and examine mechanisms that can make these good practices a widespread reality throughout Europe.


The good practice initiatives described in this section have been identified through desk research combined with the efforts of multiple stakeholders from industry and academia, as well as policy makers and supporting structures.

Our analysis focussed on three categories of initiatives:

(1) Top-down government-driven policy initiatives; (2) Bottom-up business-academia partnerships, and activities of individual

companies and educational institutions; and (3) Triple Helix/Hybrid partnership models where the forces of all three

stakeholder groups are combined (i.e., government, industry and educators).

From a geographical perspective, the analysis covered Europe, the United States and East Asia – specifically Taiwan, China, South Korea, Singapore and Japan. These regions are currently the most active in KETs in general and in the development of KETs skills in particular.

We focused on the initiatives that explicitly aim at developing skills relevant for KETs, including initiatives for which skills development was one of the priority areas next to other goals (e.g., R&D, demonstration & piloting etc.). Our analysis did not cover initiatives oriented towards broader STEM domains (which are highly relevant for the development of KETs skills); instead, we searched for the initiatives explicitly targeting one or multiple KETs, in order to avoid duplication of other studies.

Based on desk-research and stakeholder suggestions, we first developed a broader pool of existing initiatives. We created a database with key facts on the identified initiatives, including a type of challenge (or various challenges) that these initiatives aim to tackle. The database contained a wide selection of initiatives that support (re-)training of current employees, encourage co-development of educational curricula with industry, support relevant specific technical and non-technical KETs courses for students, create awareness of KETs, promote KETs as being attractive and prestigious, tackle the issue of ‘brain drain’ in KETs etc. This exercise resulted in the identification of 80 initiatives.

The identified initiatives were then shortlisted based on three criteria such as effectiveness, scalability/transferability and sustainability. Effectiveness here refers to the ability of an initiative to produce a desired result. Scalability implies the ability of an initiative to be enlarged or multiplied. Scalability is closely related to the notion of transferability, as in case of multiplication, the initiative has to be able to deliver desired results also in other contexts and settings. Sustainability, in turn, refers to the ability of an initiative to function over a long period of time and produce desired results.

This exercise resulted in the selection of 30+ good practices, for which further analysis was conducted based on desk-research and in-depth interviews with relevant


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stakeholders. These stakeholders, among others, included the representatives of the relevant national ministries and agencies, industry associations, cluster organisations and networks, and various collaboration platforms. For each of the shortlisted initiatives, a detailed fiche was prepared containing information on its objectives and target group, implementation method, managing organisation etc.

From the developed fiches, 5 key good practices were selected from each of the world regions, based on the scalability-, transferability- and impact-related criteria. Additionally, an analysis of how to make these good practices a widespread reality in Europe was performed. The good practices mentioned in the remainder of this Chapter are thus of illustrative nature and do not form an exhaustive overview of the situation in the analysed world regions.

4.2. How KETs skills-related challenges are currently being tackled worldwide

In this section, we describe how KETs skills-related challenges are currently being tackled worldwide.

Our analysis suggests that most of the identified initiatives have a multi-KETs orientation, followed by initiatives focussing specifically on nanotechnology or photonics. Our sample showed that throughout the world, skills initiatives that focus specifically on advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, industrial biotechnology, or micro- and nanoelectronics are relatively less common (Table 4-1).

TABLE 4-1: Distribution of identified KETs skills initiatives based on technological focus area

KETs Number of KETs skills initiatives Advanced manufacturing 7 Advanced materials 2 (Industrial) biotechnology 10 Micro- and nanoelectronics 5 Multi-KETs 26 Nanotechnology 18 Photonics 12 Grand Total 80

The majority of KETs skills initiatives from the sample come from Europe (with Western Europe being the absolute leader within Europe), followed by North America and East Asia (see Table 4-2). These are also the world regions that are home to the most innovative countries according to international rankings125.

TABLE 4-2: Distribution of identified KETs skills initiatives per world region

World region Number of KETs skills initiatives East Asia 19 Eastern Europe 9 North America 27 Northern Europe 4 Southern Europe 4

125 See for instance The Global Innovation Index 2014, Available at https://www.globalinnovationindex.org/content.aspx?page=gii-full-report-2014 INSEAD’s ranking ‘The World’s Most Innovative Countries 2014’, Available at http://knowledge.insead.edu/entrepreneurship-innovation/the-worlds-most-innovative-countries-2014-3470, and Bloomberg’s 2014 ranking of most innovative countries in the world, Available at http://images.businessweek.com/bloomberg/pdfs/most_innovative_countries_2014_011714.pdf


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Western Europe 17 Grand Total 80

Furthermore, most of the identified KETs skills initiatives follow a top-down approach meaning that these initiatives were launched in a top-down way or initiated by the government (see Table 4-3). This trend particularly holds for Europe and East Asia. Bottom-up initiatives or initiatives launched by industry, academia or collaborative partnerships of those are most predominant in the United Sates. Triple Helix initiatives, in turn, refer to a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches and represent complex initiatives with different levels of stakeholders (government, industry, academia, support structures etc.) joining forces in one initiative. Our analysis suggests that this type of initiatives becomes increasingly popular in all regions of the world. Although Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and Scandinavia feature several significant initiatives, governments in these regions generally launch fewer initiatives with a specific focus on KETs skills. Bottom-up and Triple Helix initiatives in these regions are also being launched less frequently in comparison to Western Europe, North America or East Asia.

TABLE 4-3: Number of KETs skills initiatives per initiative category

Initiative category Number of KETs skills initiatives

Bottom-up business and academia partnerships and initiatives 13Top-down policy initiatives 39Triple Helix 28Grand Total 80

Some KETs skills challenges receive more attention than others (see Table 4-4). The areas that are tackled by the largest number of the identified initiatives include the need for a regular re-training of current employees, the need to better align educational programmes with industry needs, and the need to expand opportunities to study KETs. The challenges related to too little awareness of KETs when students make critical choices are also addressed by a significant portion of initiatives. Interestingly, challenges related to the fact that a major part of the current staff will soon retire, and that KETs careers are not perceived as being attractive and prestigious are less often addressed. At the same time, our analysis (see Chapter 1) suggested that these are among the four key issues that need to be tackled in order to fully realise KETs growth potential. The focus of KETs skills-related initiatives in the United States is currently best aligned with the employer needs identified by our study. It includes the four key challenges in KETs skills, namely regular (re-)training of current employees, alignment of educational programmes with industry needs, as well as raising awareness about KETs in the society and improving perceptions about KETs careers.

TABLE 4-4: Number of identified KETs skills initiatives per KETs skills challenge

Addressed challenge Number of KETs skills initiatives

A need for regular re-training of current employees 25 Educational programmes not fully aligned with industry needs

30

A major part of the current staff will soon retire 0 Too little awareness of KETs when students make critical choices

19

KETs careers not perceived as being attractive and prestigious

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Limited opportunities to study KETs 31 Brain drain of qualified people to other countries 3

TABLE 4-5: Focus areas of identified KETs skills initiatives in Europe, the United States, and East Asia

Addressed challenge Europe United States

East Asia

A need for regular re-training of current employees Educational programmes not fully aligned with industry needs

A major part of the current staff will soon retire Too little awareness of KETs when students make critical choices

KETs careers not perceived as being attractive and prestigious

Limited opportunities to study KETs Brain drain of qualified people to other countries

4.3. Key good practices from the United States

The current section describes key relevant good practices that we identified in the United States, and specifically their objectives, employed implementation methods, and achieved results. The analysed good practices include:

• National Nanotechnology Initiative; • Advanced Manufacturing Partnership; • National Centre for the Biotechnology Workforce; • NCBioImpact; and • Joint School of Nanoscience and Nano-engineering.

These initiatives typically are heavily funded at the Federal level, or feature capital-intensive research and education facilities that are managed by university networks or industry-academia partnerships. The large-scale Federal budgets in the described initiatives are either implemented through Federal Executive Departments126 or via consultation of experts or multi-university networks. This encourages a targeted deployment of the available funds to specific issues, challenges and needs.

The large-scale facilities in the described initiatives typically serve as an education and training hub within a network of educational institutions, and are pivotal in the implementation of programmes aimed at vocational skills generation, often for a local KETs industry.

4.3.1. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI)

The National Nanotechnology Initiative is the large-scale funding programme for Nanotechnology in the United States. Its key activities are funding research, providing support for the creation of university and government nanoscale R&D laboratories, stimulating workforce education for the future of nanotechnology, fostering cross-disciplinary networks and partnerships, disseminating information, enabling small businesses to pursue activities in nanotechnology, and coordinating nanoscale activities of federal agencies and departments.

126 Federal Executive Departments are analogous to Ministries common in parliamentary or semi-presidential systems.


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The NNI has a budget of 1.5 billion USD for R&D&I127, including skills generation from K12 to PhD level128. These funds are used by several federal departments on several cross-cutting themes. From classroom resources for K-12 teachers, to community college programs, to PhD's in the field of nanotechnology, to workforce development initiatives, the NNI facilitates a full range of education and training opportunities. Moreover, NNI support for nanotechnology research and development, and its underlining of discovery-based, interdisciplinary research across universities and research centres, attracts students to nanotechnology and stimulates them to choose nanotechnology as a career129.

Largely due to a large volume of funding, the United States have been leading the world in nanotechnology patents, start-ups, and papers published130 131. However, no impact evaluations have been conducted so far on this initiative, yet it is widely considered to be well managed, and the money well spent132 133 134 135.

This initiative shows that consistent, multi-year implementation of large-scale budgets can positively impact the development of KETs skills programmes when it is funnelled through specific departments that thematically prioritise allocation of funds. Moreover, in a policy environment in which the role of government in socio-economic matters is under constant scrutiny, this initiative is consistently well received.

As the role of the European Commission in KETs skills is to an extent comparable to that of the United States Federal Government, this initiative appears to be transferable to a fair degree. As the NNI allocates its funds via State Departments, similarly the Commission could opt to allocate large-scale budgets to Directorates-General on cross-cutting themes.

4.3.2. The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership

The objective of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) is to secure US leadership in the emerging technologies that will create high-quality manufacturing jobs and enhance America’s global competitiveness. Among its focus areas, education and workforce development as well as outreach activities have a central role136.

127 http://www.nano.gov/about-nni/what/funding 128 K12 is a term for the sum of primary and secondary education in the United States. The expression is a

shortening of kindergarten (K) for 4- to 6-year-olds through twelfth grade (12) for 17- to 19-year-olds. 129 National Research Council, 2006, A Matter of Size: Triennial Review of the National Nanotechnology

Initiative 130 Foresight institute, U.S. Federal Nanotech R&D Funding, Available at

http://www.foresight.org/policy/brief1.html, accessed August 2014 131 Cameron & Mitchell, 2007, Nanoscale: Issues and Perspectives for the Nano Century 132 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2005, The National Nanotechnology Initiative

at Five Years: Assessment and Recommendations of the National Nanotechnology Advisory Panel 133 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2008, The National Nanotechnology

Initiative: Second Assessment and Recommendations of the National Nanotechnology Advisory Panel 134 Congressional Research Service, 2011, The National Nanotechnology Initiative: Overview,

Reauthorization, and Appropriations Issues 135 Kvamme, E. Floyd, June 29, 2005"Hearing on: Nanotechnology: Where Does the U.S. Stand?’". The

Research Subcommittee of the Committee on Science of the United States House of Representatives 136 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2012, Report To The President: Capturing A

Domestic Competitive Advantage In Advanced Manufacturing, Annex 3 (Education and Workforce Development Workstream Report ) and Annex 5 (Outreach Workstream Report)


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The AMP has a budget of more than 500 million USD for R&D&I137. Through a multi-university collaborative framework and through regional apprenticeship models, the AMP deploys this budget to support and implement programmes that educate and train workers in critical manufacturing skills, and that connect universities and community colleges to industry demand to understand what industry needs.

The AMP prioritises the implementation of its budget through intensive consultation of stakeholders from industry, from academia, and from educational institutions. As a result, the AMP has developed, supported, and implemented projects that aim to secure the talent pipeline by correcting public misconceptions about working in manufacturing, that tap in the talent pool of returning veterans, that invest in community college level education, that develop partnerships to provide skills certifications and accreditation, that enhance advanced manufacturing university programs, and that launch manufacturing fellowships and internships138.

Moreover, these projects are implemented in tandem with projects and initiatives that enable innovation (e.g. by empowering enhanced university-industry collaboration in advanced manufacturing research, or by increasing R&D funding in top cross cutting technologies), or that improve the business climate (e.g. through tax reform or by streamlining regulatory policy).

This initiative shows that the skills mismatch within KETs can be addressed through targeted and creative approaches, flanked by programmes that address framework conditions. Intensive consultations with a large number of diverse stakeholders (e.g. experts from industry, educational institutions, as well as policy makers) can lead to surprising and creative approaches that target specific opportunities for addressing the KETs skills gaps, such as focussing on veterans or attempting to improve the image of advanced manufacturing work.

Due to its firm roots in expert consultation, this initiative seems highly transferable to the European policy environment, which has both public and expert consultation deeply entrenched in its policy processes.

4.3.3. National Centre for the Biotechnology Workforce

The National Centre for the Biotechnology Workforce aims to find and develop novel ways and means of educating biotech technicians by representing, enabling, and providing leadership at the national level for the biotechnology workforce with compatible organisations, and educational and training institutions.

The centre operates a budget and associated leveraged investments of approximately twenty million USD139, which it uses to create relationships and partnerships that enable the individual (regional) centres to grow their expertise, developing best practice publications on cross-cutting topics. The national centre seeks partnerships that allow them to enhance training techniques, levels, and efficiencies, and disseminates these across its network, especially via grant opportunities that are also interesting to educational institutions and training institutions.

137 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2011, Report To The President On Ensuring American Leadership In Advanced Manufacturing

138 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2012, Report To The President: Capturing A Domestic Competitive Advantage In Advanced Manufacturing

139 National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce, 2008, Graft Final Report


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Specifically, the National Centre for the Biotechnology Workforce creates centres of expertise at regional community colleges, that each specialise in a niche aspect of biotechnology workforce training, the output of which is then replicated at other community colleges throughout the Unites States140.

This approach has resulted in thousands of newly trained workers, adding to their skills and advancing them to well-paying biotech industry jobs. Over 600 students graduated from the programmes of the National Centre for the Biotechnology Workforce, and over 1000 teachers were trained. Consequently, at least 15,000 incumbent workers have been reached, primarily in the rapidly growing biofuels sector141 142.

This initiative shows that KETs skills issues can be addressed through smart specialisation of educational institutions that are willing, able, and facilitated to exchange and learn from the expertise they each develop. This especially applies to KETS skills challenges that relate to a need for regular re-training of current KETs workers, to attracting new people to replace the outgoing workforce, and to educational programmes not being fully aligned with industry needs. Such smart specialisation, although centrally coordinated, does not in its entirety have to be directly funded by government, as it can rely on existing educational and networking infrastructure.

With Europe’s vast experience in creating networks of excellence, inter-regional cooperation, and leveraging of existing educational infrastructure, this initiative is highly transferable, especially when targeting higher education. However, a European equivalent of community colleges is less easily identified, which means that the vocational training aspect of this initiative is less likely to be directly transferable. With regards to the scalability of this initiative, the results of this initiative so far have been achieved with a budget of approximately 20 million USD, and with only a limited number of community colleges involved. With a higher budget and a more extensive network of educational institutions, the reach and impact of such an initiative deployed in Europe could be expected to be even more substantial.

4.3.4. NCBioImpact

In North Carolina, more than 20,000 people work in bio-manufacturing-related jobs. To train residents for these high-skilled, high-paying jobs, business and academia have put together a comprehensive and unique training program, NCBioImpact, to recruit, train and retain workers.

Partly because of this initiative, bio-manufacturing companies in North Carolina manage to fill 90% of their open positions with people from the state143.

The programme takes place at an 81,000-square foot bio-manufacturing training and education facility, which includes a pilot-scale production plant and several laboratories for training and education purposes, and connects with more than twenty community colleges. The initiative provides not only education and training for

140 National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce, National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce: Capturing Best Practices and Program Processes

141 Ibid. 142 National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce, 2008, Graft Final Report 143 NCBiotech: Window on the Workplace 2012, Available at http://www.ncbiotech.org/content/window-

workplace-2012, accessed August 2014


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entry-level employees, but also strengthens training programmes for incumbent workers at companies across North Carolina144.

NCBioimpact combines resources from educational institutions, industry, and non-profit, and is for a large part funded by a 70 million USD contribution from the Golden Leaf foundation that dispenses funds from legal settlements with tobacco companies145 146.

This initiative demonstrates how KETs skills issues can be addressed via a strong network of educational institutions with access to a state-of-the art training and education facility. Also, the initiative demonstrates how a clustered commitment to KETs skills can strengthen the level and availability of KETs skills within a specific region. This especially applies to KETs skills challenges related to educational programmes not being fully aligned with industry needs, to a need for regular re-training of current employees, to attract new people to replace outgoing workforce, and to limited opportunities to study KETs.

As described above, Europe’s vast experience with networks of excellence, regional development, and leveraging of existing educational infrastructure makes this initiative highly transferable, especially when targeting higher education. However, as noted above, as a European equivalent of community colleges is hard to identify, the vocational training aspect of this initiative is less likely to be directly transferable. As this type of initiative relies on the local presence and availability of state-of-the-art KETs facilities, its scalability depends on the willingness of the public sector and the private sector to commit the necessary resources to the initiative. Moreover, the scalability of this type of initiative is most likely more successful within technology clusters, especially when flanked by policies and programmes that support and maintain these technology clusters in Europe.

144 North Carolina Biotechnology Centre: NCBioImpact, Available at http://www.ncbiotech.org/content/ncbioimpact, accessed August 2014

145 North Carolina Biotechnology Centre: NCBioImpact, Available at http://www.ncbiotech.org/content/ncbioimpact, accessed August 2014

146 Golden Leaf Foundation: Goldenleaf.org, Available at http://www.goldenleaf.org/, accessed August 2014


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4.3.5. Joint School of Nanoscience and Nano-engineering

The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nano-engineering (JSNN) focuses on generating the skills necessary for developing leading edge applications in KETs. In essence, this initiative is a collaborative project of North Carolina A&T State University, The University of North Carolina, and High Point University. As a result, the JSNN hosts over forty students per year, generating Masters of Science degrees, PhD degrees and Professional M.S. degrees in nano-engineering and nanoscience147.

Additionally, the Joint School organises several outreach activities each year in order to create awareness of nanotechnologies amongst K-12 students148, to discuss the relevance of nanoscience and nano-engineering in daily lives, to ‘demystify’ nanoscience, and to engage, excite and inspire future scientists and technology leaders.

Located at Greensboro, the joint school is housed in a state of the art 105,000 square foot facility, Gateway University Research Park. The facility features extensive labs and clean rooms. JSNN faculty and students have access to a sophisticated suite of tools, including a Carl Zeiss Helium Ion Microscope. The intent of this site is to provide an environment conducive to commercialisation of university-developed intellectual property and to create a space where academia-industry collaborations can occur149.

The joint school is state funded, and partnered with leading manufacturers of equipment that is critical to exploring the frontiers of Nanoscience and Nano-engineering. This partnership allows the JSSN to work with equipment that would otherwise be out of their reach.

This initiative demonstrates how partnerships between higher education institutions and technology manufacturers create the opportunity for students to study KETs in a state-of-the-art facility. Consequently, this initiative demonstrates how such partnerships can engage KETs skills challenges related to limited opportunities to study KETs, and to KETs careers not being perceived as attractive and prestigious.

As noted earlier, the EU policy environment is highly conducive to cooperation and partnerships between public research organisations, higher education institutions, and technology companies. An initiative that focusses on establishing and running a joint school that targets a specific KET, housed in a facility that is equipped with help of the private sector, should be highly transferable to the EU. Moreover, one such a successful European initiative focusing on one KET can pave the way for other initiatives focussing on other KETs, allowing for this type of initiative to scale up with relative ease.

4.4. Key good practices from East Asia

The current section describes key relevant good practices that we identified in East Asia, and specifically their objectives, employed implementation methods, and achieved results. The analysed good practices include:

• SIMTech’s Knowledge Transfer Office in Singapore;

147 PwC interview with JSSN representative 148 K12 is a term for the sum of primary and secondary education in the United States. The expression is a

shortening of kindergarten (K) for 4- to 6-year-olds through twelfth grade (12) for 17- to 19-year-olds. 149 JSSN: Mission and Vision, Available at http://jsnn.ncat.uncg.edu/vision-and-mission/, accessed August

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• Taiwan’s Nanotechnology Human Resource Development Programme; • Japan’s International Center for Young Scientists (ICYS); • Korean Nanotechnology Initiative (KNI); and • Taiwan’s Nanotechnology Consortium.

These initiatives typically focus on up-skilling the national KETs labour force, either through sourcing talent from abroad or, more common, investing heavily in KETs skills amongst domestic workers.

Up-skilling of domestic workers typically is implemented through government-initiated academia-industry collaboration, and in general is accompanied by government investments in infrastructure and facilities for training and research, to allow trainers, pupils, and researchers access to state-of-the-art equipment.

This market-enhancing role of national governments is typical for East Asian economic development policy, which focusses on the mechanisms that direct government policy at improving the ability of the private sector to solve coordination problems and overcome other market imperfections150.

4.4.1. SIMTech’s Knowledge Transfer Office (Singapore)

SIMTech’s Knowledge Transfer Office (KTO) has been established to provide case study-based training on advanced manufacturing technology for a broad target audience, including advanced manufacturing specialists, engineers, managers, as well as other industry professionals and executives151.

Its success is highlighted by the extensive client list of industry partners. 220+ industrial partners make use of the programme to train their employees, including Toshiba, Siemens, Hewlett Packard, Mitsubishi, and Philips152.

All training courses are conducted in close collaboration with the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA). Also, the courses draw extensively on SIMTech’s in-house cutting-edge advanced manufacturing knowledge, established through years of industrial collaborations, industry experience, and research, backed by state-of-the art advanced manufacturing facilities. The various programmes SimTECH offers are both skill-based and knowledge-based153.

The modules utilise a unique approach of real industrial case-studies and on-site training to equip students with the latest industrial knowhow. Over the years, the KTO has built a lot of evidence-based case studies, which are integrated in the training programmes. This allows the students and employees to learn how advanced manufacturing technology is actually applied in practice154.

The course leaders at SimTECH are certified leading experts in their technology fields. While all course leaders and a majority of module trainers are senior researchers at SIMTech, external professional experts are also brought in to conduct classes on specific topics.

150 Masahiko Aoki, Hyung-Ki Kim, and Masahiro Okuno-Fujiwara, 1998, The Role of Government in East Asian Economic Development: Comparative Institutional Analysis

151 SIMTech’s Knowledge Transfer Office, Available at http://kto.simtech.a-star.edu.sg/, accessed August 2014

152 Ibid. 153 Ibid. 154 Ibid.


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This initiative demonstrates how KETs skills issues can be addressed through a centralised workforce development programme targeted at workers already employed in KETs, especially the KETs challenges related to the need for a regular re-training of current employees due to rapid developments in KETs.

Typically, sector-specific workforce development programmes in Europe are organised on the national level and on the regional level. Transferability of this initiative therefore could pertain to initiatives on Member-State level, as this would allow for a degree of concentration of necessary resources, facilities, and competences, while at the same time would take into account the decentralised nature of policy implementation on the national level within the EU. Centralisation of such an initiative at the European level may pose additional complications, and may not generate additional benefits, especially considering the relatively small size of Singapore compared to the EU.

Up-scaling of such an initiative would entail establishing workforce training sites throughout Member States, and granting them access to cutting-edge facilities and well-versed trainers that are experts in their technology fields. This may best be implemented in tandem with regional smart specialisations strategies and technology clusters, as these often offer the required facilities and experts in a specific technology field.

4.4.2. Taiwan’s Nanotechnology Human Resource Development Programme

Taiwan’s Nanotechnology Human Resource Development Programme (NHRDP) serves to prepare the Taiwanese workforce to work in nanotechnology, and is implemented by the National Science Council of Taiwan and supervised by the Ministry of Education.

The NHRDP has resulted in a network of 60+ partner universities and 3000+ associated teachers actively working towards its goals, leveraging an annual investment of approximately 2 million EUR. Through the programme, teachers are provided with information and materials about nanotechnology that they can use to inspire students to learn about nanotechnology. Tools employed to this end include laboratory tours, summer camps, exchange programmes, and public open lectures155.

Moreover, the NHRDP has established five Higher Education Regional Centres that train both teachers in tertiary education and nanotechnology workers, through interdisciplinary nanotechnology curricula, nanotechnology equipment operations training, international exchange programmes, and conferences and contests156.

This initiative demonstrates how KETs skills issues can be addressed through large-scale networks that consist of universities and educational organisations, especially the KETs challenges related to the need for re-training of current KETs employees and the alignment of educational programmes with industry needs, as well as the little awareness of KETs among students when they make critical choices.

As noted above, the EU policy environment is highly conducive to cooperation and partnerships between public research organisations and higher education

155 Nanotechnology Human Resource Development (NHRD) Program: moe.gov, Available at http://english.moe.gov.tw/ct.asp?ctNode=513&mp=1&xItem=7170, accessed August 2014

156 Ibid.


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institutions. Regarding cooperation in Europe between academia and primary and secondary education institutions, initiatives are for the most part small-scale and organised at the local level. Transferring an initiative such as the NHRDP would entail scaling-up European local initiatives to the national level.

4.4.3. Japan’s International Centre for Young Scientists (ICYS)

The International Centre for Young Scientists (ICYS) is in an initiative of Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). Through this initiative, NIMS sources talented young scientists from all over the world to enjoy a world-top level research environment. Research areas cover nanotechnology, advanced materials, photonics, nanoelectronics and more157.

This initiative has drawn nearly 1000 applications and selected 80+ young researchers from 27 different countries including the USA, France, Germany, China and India158.

The ICYS program provides talented young researchers an attractive research environment with access to state-of-the-art research facilities. The initiative offers young researchers a ‘melting pot’ environment that mixes different research fields and cultures, where talented young researchers gather to conduct independent research. These young researchers are free to conduct their research based on their own ideas and initiatives, having full say over their research funds159. They are expected to pursue various aspects of interdisciplinary materials research in close collaboration with more senior researchers at the ICYS, which take on a mentoring role. Also, the ICYS offers these young researchers access to some of the world's most advanced equipment, including high-voltage electron microscopes and the world’s highest frequency 930MHz NMR160.

This initiative demonstrates how KETs skills issues can be addressed by offering talented young researchers an excellent research environment, especially the KETs challenges related to KETs careers not being perceived as attractive and prestigious, the limited opportunities to study KETs in Europe, and the risk of ‘brain drain’ of qualified people to other countries.

As European policy frequently focuses on establishing centres of excellence, this type of initiative is highly transferable to the European policy environment. Especially so if investments in state-of-the-art research facilities and equipment required to transfer this type of initiative can be combined with the implementation of European cluster policy and smart specialisation strategies for establishing technology clusters within Europe. This would also allow for scaling up this type of initiative, from one centre that focuses on several KETs domains, to multiple centres that each focus on a specific KET.

157 NIMS.go.jp: International Center for Young Scientists, Available at http://www.nims.go.jp/icys/, accessed August 2014

158 NIMS.go.jp: Achievements, Available at http://www.nims.go.jp/icys/achievements.html, accessed August 2014

159 NIMS.go.jp: About ICYS, Available at http://www.nims.go.jp/icys/features.html, accessed August 2014 160 NIMS.go.jp: Research environment and support systems, Available at

http://www.nims.go.jp/icys/environment.html, accessed August 2014


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4.4.4. Korean Nanotechnology Initiative (KNI)

The Korean Nanotechnology Initiative (KNI) is an initiative of Korea’s National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). Its overall objective is to secure a place among the top three countries in the world in nanotechnology by the end of 2015. In order to achieve this, the KNI invests in high-level nanotechnology skills among KETs workers and researchers, it upgrades Korea’s nanotechnology R&D infrastructure, and it invests in nanotechnology R&D programmes161.

As a result, this initiative quadrupled the number of researchers and scientists in nanotechnology in South Korea within seven years, and quintupled their research output162.

The KNI is implemented by investing over 150 million EUR per year in fundamental nanotechnology research, and by extensively upgrading the Korean nanotechnology R&D infrastructure through nanofab centres, information centres, hosting international nanotechnology events, and connecting to international nanotechnology research programmes. The three main organisations responsible for the implementation of the initiative are the Nanotechnology Information Center, the Korea Nanotechnology Research Society, and the Nanotechnology Researchers Association163 164.

This initiative demonstrates how KETs skills issues can be addressed by consistent, multi-year implementation of large-scale budgets, particularly targeted at KETs research infrastructure and research opportunities. This applies especially to the KETs challenges related to KETs careers not being perceived as attractive and prestigious, and to the limited opportunities to study KETs.

With Europe’s earlier noted vast experience in creating networks of excellence and leveraging of existing research infrastructure, this initiative is highly transferable. Moreover, through its large-scale research and innovation programme, with nearly 80 billion EUR of funding available over 7 years, the implementation of Horizon 2020 shows that Europe is willing and able to commit vast resources to specific technology domains, making this type of initiative highly scalable within the European policy environment.

4.4.5. Taiwan’s nanotechnology consortium

The Nano Device Innovation Consortium is an initiative of Taiwan’s National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL). It aims to offer a key solution to Taiwan’s nanotechnology skills shortage by encouraging the training of qualified nanotechnology workers, to reduce the nanotechnology training-employment skills gap.

The consortium consists of 20+ high-tech firms from Taiwan and from other countries, and 20+ universities, including Advanced Ion Beam Technology, Inc., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and the National Tsing Hua University. It is the first major collaboration of its kind among Taiwan’s public and private technology

161 Lim. H, 2008, Overview on Nanotechnology in Korea : Policy and Current Status 162 National Research Foundation of Korea, 2012, Nanotechnology in Korea - Policy and R&D activities 163 Lim. H, 2008, Overview on Nanotechnology in Korea : Policy and Current Status 164 National Research Foundation of Korea, 2012, Nanotechnology in Korea - Policy and R&D activities


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sectors, and aims to encourage collaborative projects with academia and industry to encourage more students to choose for a career in nano-device technology R&D165.

This consortium can draw on a state-of-the-art R&D environment offered by the extensive process equipment and advanced process technologies of Taiwan’s National Nano Device Laboratories. These include a Laser Doppler vibrometer as well as SoC Automated Test Equipment166.

This initiative demonstrates how KETs skills issues can be addressed by improving career opportunities within KETs through large academia-industry partnerships that create training and employment opportunities in cutting-edge research environments. This applies especially to the KETs challenges related to KETs careers not being perceived as attractive and prestigious, and to the limited opportunities to study KETs.

As noted above, the European policy environment is well-suited to encouraging business-academia partnerships and to establishing centres of excellence. Consequently, this type of initiative can very well be emulated in Europe. Moreover, given the existing relevant policy infrastructure already in place in Europe, such an initiative could be scaled-up to cover multiple KETs across a larger geographic scope, especially when implemented in tandem or as part of European cluster policy.

4.5. Key good practices from Europe

The current section describes key good practices that we identified in Europe, and specifically their objectives, employed implementation methods, and achieved results. The analysed good practices include:

• MINATEC innovation campus in France; • Nanofutures initiative within the German WING programme; • Knowledge Transfer Partnerships in the United Kingdom; • Pro-Viking’s Advanced Manufacturing Virtual Graduate School in Sweden; and • National Centres of Competence in Research in Switzerland.

These initiatives are typically driven by government, and implemented in collaboration with educational institutions. Government supports these initiatives, most often financially, either through a ministry, a government-sponsored strategy board, or through local government.

These initiatives most often target higher education students and PhD students, and focus on increasing both the possibilities and the appeal of studying KETs, and on aligning educational tracks with industry needs. Success is measured in terms of number of graduates, publications, and patents.

The appeal of studying KETs typically is addressed by providing access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities to students and young researchers. Moreover, young researchers are offered a relatively high degree of autonomy over their research.

165 Taiwan Today: Taiwan launches nanotechnology consortium, Available at http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=201085&ctNode=453&mp=9, accessed August 2014

166 NarLabs: Our Labs, Available at http://www.narlabs.org.tw/en/lab/lab.php?lab_id=8, accessed August 2014


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4.5.1. The MINATEC innovation campus (France)

The MINATEC innovation campus aims to attract more students to KETs and to broaden the KETs skill base, by training undergrads, and by reaching out to primary schools, secondary schools, and their teachers.

As a result, the initiative has attracted a large number of students and PhDs, generating 300 patents and 1,600 research articles per year. MINATEC currently enrols 1200+ engineering students, 480 PhD students, and 140 post-doctoral students, which work and study at the Phelma engineering school167 and the MINATEC research labs168. Also, MINATEC’s outreach programme Nano@School reaches 300-400 youngsters each year, and its Junior Scientist & Industry Annual Meeting has a reach of approximately 100 students per year. Teachers report that the educational programmes connect well with their curriculum and create much better awareness of KETs among school-going children169.

The MINATEC innovation campus is a joint effort of research institutes and local government. It is part of the GIANT innovation campus, and has been established through a 150 million EUR investment from CEA Grenoble, from the Grenoble Institute of Technology, and from local government. It offers room to 2,400 researchers, 1,200 students, and 600 business and technology transfer experts on a 20-hectare state-of-the-art campus with 10,000 m² of clean room space170.

MINATEC offers a wide variety of multidisciplinary programmes with access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. The innovation campus includes graduate and undergraduate programmes, educational tracks to train technicians in management skills, and programmes that place PhD’s in companies. The GIANT campus has a renowned innovation management school and an array of large scientific research instruments, including the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)171.

This initiative shows how KETs skills issues can be addressed by academia and local government jointly establishing KETs research and education centres, especially the KETs challenges related to educational programmes not being fully aligned with industry needs, to too little awareness of KETs when students make critical choices, to KETs careers not being perceived as attractive and prestigious, and to limited opportunities to study KETs in Europe.

This type of initiative can be scaled-up and transferred to other regions in Europe that contain a technology cluster that includes both high-tech companies and academic institutions that focus on KETs. Local governments should be encouraged to recognise the socio-economic spin-off and spill-0ver effects of such initiatives being implemented in their region, in order to secure the required investments from them.

167 http://phelma.grenoble-inp.fr/school-of-engineering-in-physics-electronics-and-materials-science-234605.kjsp

168 MINATEC.org: Education at MINATEC, Available at http://www.minatec.org/en/education, accessed August 2014

169 Ibid. 170 Ibid. 171 MINATEC.org: Research at MINATEC, Available at http://www.minatec.org/en/recherche, accessed

August 2014


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4.5.2. Nanofutures within WING (Germany)

Nanofutures is a funding initiative within the WING programme of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research. It aims to fund research groups of young high potentials that focus on nanotechnology and nano-materials.

Among other goals, the WING initiative aims to support young professionals and to encourage training and continuing education activities in industry and science, contributing towards creating a European research area and intensifying internationalisation. It aims to achieve it by greater participation of German R&D actors in the EU framework programmes, yet also by expanding bilateral cooperation with countries such as China, Korea, Brazil and Israel.

Thirty groups have been funded so far, resulting in start-ups, new academia-industry cooperation, patents, and the take-off of scientific careers172. In parallel, in the so-called bottom-up procedure (i.e. outside the calls for proposals), materials projects in industry and science, which fulfil the criteria of the programme in a particular way, are supported in an open manner with respect to time and topics.

Nanofutures is implemented by organising research groups of three to seven young high potentials that receive 1.5 million to 3 million EUR to build up their own independent research group and necessary infrastructure, including equipment. Cornerstone of the initiative is the autonomy given to the research groups on how and when they spend their money, preventing them from being hampered by existing research structures or the agenda of other research staff. The WING initiative is implemented through calls for project proposals that are evaluated against one another in a multi-phase selection procedure. The core of the projects consists of application-oriented collaborative research that has industry and academia work in tandem173.

This initiative demonstrates how KETs skills issues can be addressed by targeting young high potentials and enabling them to perform independent KETs research. This applies especially to KETs skills challenges related to limited opportunities to study KETs in Europe, and to brain drain of qualified people to other parts of the world.

This type of initiative can be scaled-up and transferred to other KETs domains and other regions in Europe, e.g. by developing a grant programme at the European level that works similar to Nanofutures and funds young talented researchers within KETs, based on proposals that can be submitted by small groups of young researchers. The European policy environment has ample experience with grant funding of research and research groups based on collaborative proposals.

4.5.3. Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (The United Kingdom)

The Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are an initiative from the United Kingdom’s Technology Strategy Board. Its objectives are to ease the transition of graduates into the labour market, to increase the extent of knowledge transfer between academia and small businesses, and to increase the chances of graduates to get a job. KTPs focus on nanotechnology, micro- and nanoelectronics, industrial

172 PwC interview with Nanofutures representative 173 PwC interview with Nanofutures representative


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biotechnology, photonics, advanced materials, and advanced manufacturing technologies174.

The KTPs generate substantial impact on employment and knowledge transfer. Over 70% of the associates in the programme are offered employment at the end of the trajectory, and over 90% of the involved universities report benefits to staff development, teaching and research. On average, each trajectory results in 0,7 jobs, four new research projects, a research paper published in a refereed journal, and two other articles published elsewhere175. Over 1000 KTP trajectories will be run simultaneously in 2015176.

KTPs are implemented through three-way partnerships between a company (the industrial partner), one or more recently graduated individuals (referred to as associates), and a senior academic acting as a supervisor (referred to as the knowledge base partner).

The aim of the KTPs is to increase interactions between academia and companies through the mediation of the associate, who during the period of staying in the company, will work on a project developed in collaboration with and co-supervised by the partners for a period of 6 or more months (up to 3 years), and attend further training. The associate, commonly a PhD or post-graduate, is paid for through a government grant and by contributions from the employer. The organisational infrastructure around the programme is paid for by the stakeholders (the universities and businesses involved). This will cost approximately 80 million EUR in 2015177 178.

This initiative demonstrates how KETs skills issues can be addressed through small-scale collaborations between educational institutions and employers. This especially applies to KETs challenges that relate to educational programmes not being fully aligned with industry needs and to attracting new people to replace outgoing workers.

The KTPs are an expensive programme to run due to its large overhead179, which makes the scalability of this initiative somewhat challenging. However, the programme is scalable nonetheless, and is set to double in size in 2015, to more than 1000 active trajectories simultaneously. The structure of the KTPs allows for transferability to other policy environments in regions that include both HEIs and technology companies.

4.5.4. Pro-Viking’s Advanced Manufacturing Virtual Graduate School (Sweden)

Pro-Viking is an initiative of the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. ProViking supports research in product development, manufacturing, product support, and maintenance in a life-cycle perspective. With support of ProViking, a virtual graduate school has been established to further increase the focus on advanced manufacturing in Sweden. The virtual graduate school offers PhD trajectories

174 KETs Observatory: United Kingdom Policy profile, Available at https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/ketsobservatory/policy/united-kingdom, accessed August 2014

175 Technology Strategy Board, 2104, Achievements and outcomes 2012-13 176 PwC interview with KTP representative 177 InnovateUK.org: Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, available at https://www.innovateuk.org/-

/knowledge-transfer-partnerships, accessed August 2014 178 Technology Strategy Board, 2104, Achievements and outcomes 2012-13 179 PwC interview with KTP representative


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towards Advanced Manufacturing that are accompanied by media training and business courses.

Within five years, a 300% increase in graduations and publications has been achieved180. Over 80 PhD students have graduated the National Graduate School, generating over 550 peer reviewed, published papers. This is in part attributed to having the programme steered by individuals that have experience both in academia and in business.

This Graduate School is a ‘virtual’ graduate school that offers comprehensive courses and programmes to PhD students at universities throughout Sweden. The National Graduate School is implemented through projects and courses aimed at PhD students across Swedish universities.

The vast majority of the courses are technical and focus on manufacturing processes and systems. A secondary role is played by courses that focus on business and media skills.

The Graduate School aims for close ties with the advanced manufacturing industry. About one third of the enrolled PhD students already has job in a manufacturing company, and these students combine their PhD study with their work. Two-thirds of the enrolled PhD students flow into the programme directly after completing their Masters programme181.

This initiative demonstrates how KETs skills issues can be addressed through virtualisation of courses and educational programmes. Leveraging technological progress in communication hardware and software, a greater audience can be reached to participate in specific educational tracks. This especially applies to KETs skills challenges related to limited opportunities to study KETs in Europe.

This initiative is somewhat scalable and transferable, as experience from both academia and industry is required within its managing body. Moreover, this experience is KETS specific. This initiative is perceived as running smoothly, and those involved expect to be able to handle a programme twice its size182. Beyond that however, additional layers of management are expected to be needed to be put in place to coordinate and monitor the implementation and progress of the joint virtual graduate school. Also, as this initiative builds on cooperation between individual graduate schools and between graduate schools and businesses, it should be transferable to other policy environments, as long as experience from both sides can be included in its steering body.

4.5.5. National Centres of Competence in Research (Switzerland)

The National Centres of Competence in Research are an initiative of the Swiss National Science Foundation. This initiative offers research programmes for young scientists, aimed at multidisciplinary research in nanotechnology, to support talented doctoral students and post-docs.

This initiative has generated a substantial increase in well-trained PhD’s and post-docs that fit the needs of industry and academia183. Its main achievements

180 ProViking: Achievements during five years, available at http://www.chalmers.se/hosted/proviking-en/ 181 PwC interview with ProViking representative 182 PwC interview with ProViking representative 183 PwC interview with NNCR representative


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in education include the establishment of doctoral schools in new emerging fields, and a large number of well-trained PhD and Postdoctoral students in interdisciplinary fields, who are used to work in collaborative networks and who during their training at the NCCR were confronted with advanced methods as well as international peers.

Each NCCR is targeted at a specific technology domain, and offers programmes for young scientists that educate and train them in multidisciplinary research. To do so, each NCCR makes an analysis of the educational situation in its respective field to identify needs and shortcomings. The overall budget for all NCCRs combines is approximately 200 million EUR. Key to the success of this initiative is the high degree of autonomy that each NCCR has over its budget, which it tries to allocate with agility, and which it is free to allocate to various activities. The progress and the output of NCCRs is checked annually during on-site visits by an international review panel.

This initiative demonstrates how KETs skills issues can be addressed through targeted, multidisciplinary research programmes for young scientists, especially KETs skills challenges related to limited opportunities to study KETs within Europe, to KETs careers are not perceived as being attractive and prestigious, and to too little awareness of KETs when students make critical choices.

This initiative is highly transferable to other parts of Europe, as it relies on case-by-case analyses by individual centres of the educational situation and the skills needs within a technology field. Also, this initiative is highly scalable, as a degree of freedom and autonomy of individual centres are pivotal to the success of this initiative, which means that no elaborate management structures or executive agencies need to be implemented.

4.6. Mechanisms to make these good practices a widespread reality throughout Europe

As we have seen, KETs skills initiatives in the US typically are heavily funded at the Federal level, or make use of research and education facilities that are capital intensive and that are managed by industry-academia partnerships. These large-scale Federal budgets are commonly implemented through Federal Executive Departments or based on expert consultation. The large-scale facilities typically serve as an education and training hub within a network of educational institutions, and are aimed at vocational skills generation, often for a local KET industry.

In East Asia, KETs skills initiatives typically focus on up-skilling the KETs labour force, most commonly by investing heavily in KETs skills amongst domestic workers. Such initiatives are typically implemented through government-initiated academia-industry collaboration, and in general are accompanied by government investments in training and research infrastructure and facilities.

In Europe, KETs skills initiatives are typically driven by government and implemented in collaboration with educational institutions. These initiatives most often target higher education students and PhD students, and focus on increasing both the possibilities and the appeal of studying KETs, and on aligning educational tracks with industry needs.

In the current section, we address the mechanisms of how to make the identified good practices a widespread reality in Europe. These mechanisms include:

• making financial means available on a scale that corresponds to the method through which these means are allocated and implemented;


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• establishing and leveraging large-scale facilities with state-of-the-art equipment; • connecting with local educational institutions and creating networks of

universities and teachers; • bringing academia and industry together; • attracting young researchers by offering them autonomy and state-of-the-art

facilities; • stimulating the role of local government and their engagement in bottom-up

approaches; • recognising the role of highly visible leaders with experience both in academia

and in industry.

4.6.1. Making financial means available on a scale that corresponds to the method through which these means are allocated and implemented

Different financial mechanisms can be identified for initiatives with large-scale budgets of over 100 million EUR, for initiatives with medium-scale budgets of between 15 million EUR and 100 million EUR, and for small-scale budgets of less than 15 million EUR.

Large-scale budgets of over 100 million EUR are typically made available by central governments (e.g. the United States Federal Government). Budgets of such a scale are usually not dedicated to a single focus area or to a small number of objectives. Typically:

• large scale budgets are implemented in a coordinated fashion through multiple government agencies in cooperation with academia and industrial stakeholders;

• large scale budgets are geared towards several cross-cutting themes; and • large-scale budgets are associated with investments in capital-intensive research

infrastructure.

As an example, Table 4-6 shows how the

National Nanotechnology Initiative in

the Unites States is implemented via a

number of federal agencies and focusses

on several cross-cutting themes within

Nanotechnology. From classroom

resources for K-12 teachers, to community

college programs, to PhD's in the field of

nanotechnology, to workforce

development initiatives, the NNI facilitates

a full range of education and training

opportunities.

Another example of such a coordinated,

multi-stakeholder implementation of

large-scale budgets is the Advanced

Manufacturing Partnership in the

United States, which allocates funding

through a multi-university collaborative

framework that connects universities and

community colleges to industrial actors, in

order to improve workforce development

within KETs.

Examples of large-scale investments in

research infrastructure can also be

TABLE 4-6: Implementation of the US National

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observed in the National

Nanotechnology Initiative in Korea,

which has invested over 150 million EUR

to significantly upgrade its

Nanotechnology R&D infrastructure, and

the MINATEC innovation campus in

France, which invested a similar figure to

establish a state-of-the-art campus with

extensive clean room space.

Nanotechnology Initiative via a number of federal agencies

and focussed on several themes within Nanotechnology184.

With regards to medium-scale budgets of between 15 million EUR and 100 million EUR, less government involvement is seen, and more initiative is taken by academic and industrial actors.

Medium-scale budgets are typically geared towards education and training initiatives that utilise existing research and educational infrastructure. Also, such medium-scale budgets are used to create and encourage networks, partnerships, and relationships that enable and disseminate best practices in skills generation, knowledge transfer, and leveraging of additional investments and grant funding opportunities.

The NCBioimpact initiative in North Carolina (USA) is funded by combining resources from educational institutions, industry, and a substantial contribution from a non-profit organisation. The programme takes place at an 81,000-square foot bio-manufacturing training and education facility, which includes a pilot-scale production plant and several laboratories for training and education purposes, and connects with more than twenty community colleges. It is funded for a large part by a 70 million USD contribution from the Golden Leaf foundation that dispenses funds from legal settlements with tobacco companies

The Knowledge Transfer Partnerships in the United Kingdom are funded partly by academia and industrial actors, which pay for the organisational infrastructure of the initiative, and partly by government grants, from which the salaries of each participating graduate are paid.

Initiatives that feature small-scale budgets of below 15 million EUR typically are implemented through government agencies that are in close contact with academia. Such initiatives are usually geared towards relatively small research groups (3-7 researchers) and towards training and educational programmes that focus on multi-disciplinarity, equipment operation, and vocational skills related to KETs.

An example of an initiative with a small to medium scale budget is Taiwan’s Nanotechnology Human Resource Development Programme, which features a budget of 2 million EUR per year to develop and disseminate materials that inspire students about KETs through a network of over 60 partner universities and over 3000 teachers.

In Europe, the German Nanofutures initiative offers 1.5 million to 3 million EUR to research groups of three to seven young high potentials to establish their own independent research group and necessary infrastructure, including equipment. Pivotal to this initiative is the autonomy given to these research groups on how and when they spend their money.

184 Adapted from The National Nanotechnology Initiative: Supplement to the President’s 2015 Budget, available at http://www.nano.gov/about-nni/what/funding


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4.6.2. Establishing and leveraging large-scale facilities with state-of-the-art equipment

Several of the initiatives we analysed feature large-scale facilities with state-of-the-art equipment. These may serve to facilitate training of vocational skills required for local jobs, to educate talented students on the latest scientific tools in their discipline, or to tempt young researchers with the offer of cutting-edge research facilities and equipment.

Initiatives that include large-scale facilities for training and education that feature state-of-the-art equipment are predominantly encountered in East Asia and in the United States. In Europe, the MINATEC innovation campus in France is a key example of an initiative that offers state-of-the-art facilities185.

In the Unites States, initiatives that aim to generate KETs skills based on high-end facilities may target both skills generation on academic and post-academic level and skills generation on a vocational level. When targeting vocational KETs skills, the available facilities typically feature pilot-scale production plants as well as laboratories outfitted for training and education purposes. When targeting academic and post-academic KETs skills, the facilities made available typically feature highly sophisticated, state-of-the-art research equipment.

An example of such an initiative is the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nano-engineering in North Carolina (USA), which hosts its activities on a high-end facility covering approximately ten million square meters and allowing students access to instruments such as the Carl Zeiss Helium Ion Microscope. As a result, over forty students per year join the school, generating Masters of Science degrees, PhD degrees and Professional M.S. degrees in nano-engineering and nanoscience.

In East Asia and Europe, KETs skills initiatives that feature high-end facilities focus on skills generation on an academic and post-academic level, and on training of specialist engineers.

The related facilities typically include state-of-the art tools and equipment. In some cases, such cutting-edge research facilities are realised through partnerships with industrial actors, to offer students and participants access to the latest know-how.

Key examples of these types of initiatives are SIMTech’s Knowledge Transfer Office in Singapore, which trains manufacturing specialists and engineers for over two hundred partner organisations from industry, and the International Center for Young Scientists in Japan, which deploys top-flight research facilities to draw academic talent from around the globe to its research institute, including high-voltage electron microscopes and the world’s highest frequency 930MHz NMR.

The MINATEC innovation campus in France focusses on graduate and undergraduate programmes as well as the training of technicians on a 20-hectare state-of-the-art campus with

185 As mentioned above, the examples mentioned in this Chapter are of illustrative nature and do not form an exhaustive overview of the situation in the analysed world regions. In case of large-scale facilities, another relevant European example refers to IMEC Micro-/Nanoelectronics research centre, headquartered in Leuven, Belgium.


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10,000 m² of clean room space that features the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

4.6.3. Connecting with local educational institutions and creating networks of universities and teachers

Especially KETs skills initiatives in the United States often connect to local educational institutions to provide training, to collaborate on understanding industry needs, and to create networks of universities and teachers to disseminate best practices. This appears to be independent of their scale in terms of budget or facilities. Connections established by these initiatives may cover tertiary educational institutions as well as community colleges.

Connections with tertiary educational institutions typically serve to enhance KETs skills programmes in universities and to help improve overall understanding within academia of industry needs related to KETs skills.

The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership in the Unites States develops and maintains a multi-university collaborative framework to create career pathways with multiple entries into the advanced manufacturing industry, and to identify and explain best-in-class workforce development solutions.

Similarly in East Asia, Taiwan’s Nanotechnology Human Resource Development Programme has developed a network of over sixty universities and over 3000 teachers to develop and disseminate best practices in Nanotechnology education, and to share materials that help to inspire students to delve into Nanotechnology. Connections with community colleges (see textbox to below186) are typically aimed at:

• improving the training and teaching techniques and methods within these colleges to connect better to industry demand;

• having training programmes within community colleges focus on skills needed for KETs jobs at local companies within their region; and

• establishing regional apprenticeship models that allow students to combine community-college level education with KETs work within a local company.

These apprenticeship models typically result in an educational certificate that is recognised by a fair number of companies within the region, akin to technological apprenticeship models in the automotive and aerospace manufacturing industry in Germany.

Community colleges in the United States provide two-year educational tracks at higher-educational and lower-tertiary level, resulting in educational certificates, diplomas or associate degrees that may vary in their level of accreditation and of credential power. Community colleges may have any of the following educational aims and objectives:

• Transfer education – The traditional two-year student who will then transfer to a four-year

186 Kathleen M. Heim, "Disposed to Consolidation and Innovation: Criteria for the Community College Specialization." Community and Junior College Libraries 3 (Summer 1985): 5–15


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institution to pursue a BS/BA degree; • Career education – The traditional two-year student that will graduate with an Associate

Degree and directly enter the workforce; • Developmental education – Remedial education for high school graduates who are not

academically ready to enrol in college-level courses; • Continuing education – Non-Credit courses offered to the community for personal

development and interest; • Industry training – Contracted training and education wherein a local company pays the

college to provide specific training or courses for their employees; • eLearning – Distance learning, online, using one's computer and proctored exams.

Examples of such initiatives in the United States are the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, which connects with community colleges to enhance their understanding of industrial demands related to skills in advanced manufacturing, and to establish regional apprenticeships, and the NCBioImpact initiative in North Carolina, which connects with over twenty community colleges to train residents of North Carolina on its 81,000-square foot bio-manufacturing training and education facility to prepare them for a job in the regional bio-manufacturing sector.

In Europe, in a somewhat similar fashion, the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (see Figure 4-1) in the United Kingdom create partnerships between universities and educational institutions that combine knowledge transfer with apprenticeships by having a university-mentored PhD student or post-graduate work within a company on a KETs project for 6 to 36 months. The salary of the associate is paid by the British government, while all other costs of the programme are borne by the academic partner and the industrial partner.

FIGURE 4-1: Knowledge Transfer Partnerships187

4.6.4. Bringing academia and industry together physically, campus-style

An important mechanism by which several initiatives generate KETs skills is to bring actors from industry in to the same physical location as graduates, PhD students and post docs within their educational institutions, to create a space where industry/academic collaborations will happen, allowing graduates, PhD students and post docs access to state of the art know-how and technology used within KETs industries.

In order to draw industrial actors to such a site, it needs state-of-the-art facilities, and its environment needs to be conducive to commercialisation of university developed intellectual properties.

187 Adapted from materials of the University of Wolverhampton, available at http://www.wlv.ac.uk

KTP associate

(graduate)

Industrial Partner

Academic Partner

Strategic innovation

KTP


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An American example of an initiative that has managed to structurally bring industrial actors to campus is the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nano-engineering in North Carolina (USA), which hosts a ten million square meters, government funded, state-of-the-art facility operated by North Carolina A&T State University and The University of North Carolina, for which they partnered with Nanotechnology tools manufacturers and which offers ample opportunity for industrial actors to set-up projects and collaborate with their students and academic staff.

Likewise in Europe, the MINATEC innovation campus in France, has managed to draw six hundred business and technology transfer experts to its extensive, high-end facility, and features educational tracks to train technicians in management skills, and programmes that place PhD’s in companies. It is closely located to the renowned GIANT innovation management school, it organises a full calendar of networking events to ensure that students, researchers, and manufacturers interact, it has an extensive online environment for internships at manufacturing companies, and it organises weekly “MIDIS MINATEC” brown-bag lunch talks in which nearly 18,000 students, researchers, and professionals from the world of industry have attended a lecture.

4.6.5. Tempting young researchers with autonomy and state-of-the-art facilities

Initiatives that aim to generate KETs skills by trying to persuade young, talented researchers in KETs to perform their research at a specific institute and within a specific country are typically found in Europe and in East-Asia. In general, these top-down initiatives try to counter and reverse brain drain, tempting young KETs researchers by offering them:

• a large degree of autonomy and independency on their research; • full or nearly full say over the allocation of their research funds; and • access both to advanced, state-of-the-art research equipment and to additional

managerial courses.

An example of such an initiative in East Asia is the International Center for Young Scientists in Japan, which offers young researchers a mix of different research fields and cultures, allowing them to take initiative on their research ideas and allowing them significant room for decisions on the allocation of their research budget. Participants in the initiative are expected to perform interdisciplinary advanced materials research in close collaboration with ‘mentor’ researchers and using the world's most advanced equipment, which the centre makes available to them.

In Europe, examples of such initiatives include the German Nanofutures initiative, which organises research groups of three to seven young high potentials that receive 1.5 million to 3 million EUR with which they can fund their own independent research group and acquire the necessary infrastructure, including equipment, and the National Centres of Competence in Research in Switzerland which try to differentiate themselves from other educational institutions within KETs through their focus on multi-disciplinarity in research and education. For both initiatives, the degree of autonomy given to research groups and competence centres is described as the cornerstone for their success.

4.6.6. Encouraging the engagement of local government in bottom-up approaches

The engagement of local government is an important mechanism for the success of initiatives aimed at KETs skills generation. Especially in case of KETS skills


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initiatives that are capital intensive, local government can be a significant source of funding.

Typically, local governments participate in KETs skills initiatives that demonstrate a high potential for successful innovation and commercial spin-off and spill-over effects, which can boost the local economy in terms of jobs and tax revenue, and which can benefit the image and overall social-economic profile of the region.

Both the MINATEC innovation campus in France and the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nano-engineering in North Carolina (USA) are key examples of the engagement of local government in KETs skills initiatives that are very capital intensive, yet which have a high potential for economic spin-off and spill-over effects.

The 150 million EUR needed to establish MINATEC was brought up by a consortium of CEA Grenoble (a research institute), the Grenoble Institute of Technology, and several local government agencies.

Similarly, the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nano-engineering, although set-up as a collaborative project of North Carolina A&T State University and The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, was established for a large part with financial support from the North Carolina state government, recognising the social-economic potential of having this innovation hub in their state. The Joint School is currently still relying on state aid for its operations. This significant financial support together with its significant potential impact on the local economy is considered a large-scale commitment to and from the region. 4.6.7. Recognising the role of highly visible leaders with experience both in academia and in industry

For initiatives that aim to improve the generation of KETs skills, leaders that have working experience and background both within academia and within industry are highly valuable. Such individuals understand the differences in dynamics that are prevalent within academia and within industry, and they can reconcile academia’s patience in research and its transparency through publications with both an industrial actor’s urgency towards new products and processes and such an actor’s protective secrecy towards patentable new breakthroughs.

In a similar fashion, such leaders play an important role in engaging local government into the initiative, through intensively communicating and highlighting the potential benefits these initiatives have for a region. Therefore, charismatic leaders that can generate high visibility for themselves and for the initiative are important for the success of an initiative.

Those involved with Pro Viking’s Virtual Graduate School attribute part of its success to the fact that the individuals that steer the programme have experience both in academia and in business. As such, they have a good understanding of what the challenges are in each area, which helps them prevent and overcome potential difficulties.

The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nano-engineering in North Carolina (USA) shows the experience and background of the dean, who had established several business-academia partnerships before starting work on the JSSN, to be an important driver for the success of the school.

Both the dean of the JSSN and the founding father of the MINATEC innovation campus in France have played and are still playing a crucial role in maintaining the engagement of local


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government with their initiatives, the founder of MINATEC reportedly having given over one hundred presentations in three years to communicate the benefits that the establishment of MINATEC would bring even before the first brick could be laid. 4.7. Conclusions

Based on our analysis, we can draw several conclusions on the issues addressed in this section.

• Most initiatives focus either on multi-KETs, nanotechnology, or photonics, and are implemented in North America, East Asia or Western Europe.

• Top-down initiatives are prevailing in Europe and East Asia. Bottom-up initiatives are most predominant in the United Sates.

• The identified KETs skills-related initiatives particularly focus on challenges that relate to the need for regular re-training of current employees, to educational programmes not being fully aligned with industry needs, and to the limited opportunities to study KETs.

• Challenges related to the fact that a major part of the current staff will soon retire, and that KETs careers are not perceived as being attractive and prestigious, are less often addressed by KETs skills initiatives.

• The analysed world regions demonstrate a clear difference in focus areas when it comes to tackling specific challenges.

• Key KETs skills initiatives in the United States typically are heavily funded at the Federal level, or feature capital intensive research and education facilities that are managed by university networks or industry-academia partnerships.

• Key good practices in East Asia typically focus on up-skilling the national KETs labour force, either through sourcing talent from abroad or, more common, investing heavily in KETs skills amongst domestic workers.

• Key initiatives in Europe are typically driven by government, and implemented in collaboration with educational institutions. These initiatives most often target higher education students and PhD students, and focus on increasing both the possibilities and the appeal of studying KETs, and on aligning educational tracks with industry needs.

• The mechanisms of how to make these good practices of KETs skills initiatives a widespread reality in Europe include:

o making financial means available on a scale that corresponds to the method through which these means are allocated and implemented;

o establishing and leveraging large-scale facilities with state-of-the-art equipment;

o connecting with local educational institutions and creating networks of universities and teachers;

o bringing academia and industry together; o attracting young researchers by offering them autonomy and state-of-

the-art facilities; o stimulating the role of local government and their engagement in bottom-

up approaches; and o recognising the role of highly visible leaders with experience both in

academia and in industry.


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5. KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF VISION PAPER

The current chapter presents the key highlights of the Vision Paper document prepared by the project team during the second Phase of the KETs Skills Initiative. The chapter sketches the overall vision on skills for KETs in Europe, and addresses specific measures within the key directions for action regarding both qualitative and quantitative KETs skills-related challenges.

The chapter provides a brief description of a selection of suggested measures (key priorities) together with a clear indication of timelines, budget requirements and responsible stakeholder groups. We also indicate the target groups that need to be addressed by each proposed measure. These target groups are split into specific KETs workforce development stages starting from primary & secondary education students, and going all the way up to doctoral programmes, as well current employees, and, whenever relevant, covering also employers, educational administrators and teachers.

For a complete overview of all the proposed measures, as well as additional information on the holistic European vision for skills in KETs, the reader is advised to consult the original Vision Paper document.

5.1. Objectives and key considerations

During the first phase of the KETs skills initiative, we conducted an extensive analysis of the existing skills challenges, actual skill requirements of employers, the estimates of supply & demand of KETs skills, as well as the initiatives aiming to tackle the identified challenges. The accumulated knowledge base was then translated into the Vision Paper with an aim to address the key issues related to the skill requirements for KETs. That vision paper, in turn, aimed to provide a basis for a European action plan, and offered detailed recommendations.

The Vision Paper was developed in close collaboration with the relevant stakeholder groups including industry (both large companies and SMEs), academia and policy makers, as well as various supporting structures such as industry associations, cluster organisations and other network organisations and collaboration platforms. The inputs for the Vision Paper were collected by means of in-depth interviews, broader online stakeholder consultation, as well as a dedicated validation workshop.

The Vision Paper contains a wide variety of measures covering different dimensions of KETs skills, tackling different challenges, addressing different stakeholder groups and target audiences. Our analysis suggested that the development and maintenance of KETs skills in Europe is a complex multi-faceted challenge that requires a complex solution. This complex solution consists of various clusters of measures each targeted at specific aspects of the overall challenge. Action is required at all levels, there is a clear need to join forces and apply a comprehensive approach, thereby enabling Europe to fully benefit from the opportunities offered by KETs for decades to come.

Within the KETs Skills Initiative, we cover measures that have a multi-KETs orientation, i.e. measures that are common to multiple or all KETs. Our analysis showed that KETs have more in common in terms of fundamentally necessary skills than was initially thought. The objective was to outline an overarching set of measures that would allow tackling KETs-skills related issues in Europe from a ‘common core’ perspective. The individual peculiarities of specific KETs (let alone specific job profiles) were not addressed in detail. Nevertheless, when applying the


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proposed measures at the level of an individual KET, we highly recommend taking into account the specificities of that particular KET including its level of development, existing measures, additional specific skills that need to be trained etc.

Rather than providing exact budget estimates, we indicate specific activities that require dedicated budget, as well as the key stakeholder groups that would be expected to (partially) fund these activities. The final budget estimates would depend on a wide variety of factors that are hardly possible to take into account at this point of the analysis (including the detailed scope of the activity, its desired scale, duration, number of participating stakeholders etc.).

Finally, we fully acknowledge that a wide range of measures aiming to enhance KETs skills are already applied by various stakeholder groups at the EU, MS, regional and organisational levels. However, not all MS are at the same level of development when it comes to tackling KETs skills issues. Leading MS should keep up doing the work they initiated and inspire others. At the same time, other MS should consider including KETs skills in their priorities and learn from good practices.

The measures proposed below aim at creating synergies with the relevant on-going initiatives and ensuring a good complementarity with the activities already taking place in the area of STEM skills in general and KETs in particular. Specifically, we aim to highlight the key priorities for action and offer a set of complementary measures in the areas of key priority.

5.2. Key directions for action

For Europe to be able to fully realise KETs growth potential in the future, there is a need to align the supply and demand of KETs skills from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. From a qualitative perspective, Europe needs to ensure a good alignment of the type and mastery levels of skills possessed by the current and future employees, with industry requirements. From a quantitative perspective, Europe needs to ensure the presence of a sufficient number of people who are qualified, available and willing to work in KETs.

These two perspectives form a holistic vision that needs to be subsequently translated into concrete actions to tackle the abovementioned challenges in a coherent, consistent, efficient and coordinated manner at all levels.

Based on the analysis within Phase one of the KETs Skills initiative, combined with the outcomes of the workshop organised by the KETs Sherpa Working Group Nr. 7 on KETs skills and education of 10 June 2014 and a series of validation workshops with the representatives of key stakeholder groups (i.e. industry, academia, policy makers and supporting organisations), the following four key recommendation streams were identified.

5.2.1. Stream A: Ensuring a good alignment of educational programmes with industry needs (quality)

Our analysis suggested that students often develop skills that are either already obsolete or are likely to become so in the near future. Hence students often have to work with the software and equipment that are outdated, without having access to the state-of-the-art developments. Examples of skills that are not being sufficiently trained by the current


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educational system are integration skills188, complex problem solving, equipment handling skills, communication skills, knowledge of other (business) cultures189, quality assurance and risk management skills. Consequently, specific measures are required to ensure a good alignment of educational programmes with industry needs.

5.2.2. Stream B: Facilitating regular (re-)training of current employees (quality)

Due to rapid developments in KETs, the workforce needs to be continuously retrained. The majority of KETs workers completed their education more than two decades ago (39% of the current engineers are more than 45 years old190). Retraining and up-skilling are vital for the uptake of new technologies and production processes by the workforce. At the same time, SMEs often cannot afford their workers to be unavailable for a prolonged period of time for re-training. Training is a costly activity, and the resources that SMEs can spend on training are typically highly limited in terms of both time and money. Furthermore, there is often a lack of organisational capacity within SMEs191 including human and intellectual resources to provide such training. Consequently, specific measures are required to facilitate regular (re-)training of current employees.

5.2.3. Stream C: Raising awareness about KETs in the society (quantity)

Not enough students choose to pursue KETs-related education due to a relatively low awareness of KETs among young people, primary school teachers and the society in general. A strong, positive and attractive image of KETs should be actively promoted among the key target groups (i.e. young people, primary school teachers, but also the society in general). KETs should be positioned as technologies allowing for solving the grand societal challenges, and awareness should be created about the endless opportunities offered by KETs. Additionally, promotion activities are needed for STEM education in general, as a key source of people with KETs skills. Consequently, specific measures are required to raise awareness about KETs in the society.

5.2.4. Stream D: Improving the image of KETs as a field to work in (quantity)

Companies report that the weak image of the KETs sector is the most important obstacle encountered by them when trying to attract people192. Specifically, KETs careers are often associated with relatively low financial rewards and limited career opportunities when compared to other highly-skilled jobs. Additionally, KETs careers are often associated with high workload and challenging working conditions when compared to other highly-skilled jobs, particularly in the services sector. Finally, KETs careers are often viewed as being less prestigious than some other highly-skilled jobs, e.g. in the financial and legal sectors. This image exists in the minds of both students and current labour market actors.

When it comes to people with a technical background, KETs have to compete for them not only with other technical domains, but also with non-technical sectors, where people

188 Integration skills refer to the ability to use and integrate other disciplines into joint solutions to complex problems; the ability to find new patterns and connections between multiple fields where those patterns and connections have never been found before.

189 KETs operate in a global setting and imply interactions between people from different continents with diverse cultural backgrounds. This global nature of KETs has direct implications on the way of doing business and the need to take into account these cultural differences (e.g. between Europe and Asia, between Europe and the US etc.).

190 Innovation Union Competitiveness Report 2013, at: http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation- union/pdf/competitiveness_report_2013.pdf

191 CECIMO (2013) The European machine tool industry’s Manifesto on skills, September 2013 192 See, for example, CECIMO (2013) The European machine tool industry’s Manifesto on skills, September 2013


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with technical background are nevertheless in high demand (e.g. banking sector). Consequently, specific measures are required aiming to improve the image of KETs as a field to work in.

The abovementioned four action streams correspond to the key challenges that need to be tackled in Europe to solve skills-related mismatches in KETs (see also Chapter 1). We explicitly focus on the challenges with the highest impact (based on stakeholder opinion) on both the quality of KETs skills and the quantity of people who are qualified, available and willing to work in KETs.

In the next sub-section, we will outline specific measures that need to be taken in each of those streams. These measures are grouped according to the KETs workforce development stage and the relevant stakeholder groups having the primary responsibility for a certain measure. Several measures imply joint actions of various stakeholder groups.

5.3. Key measures to tackle KETs skills challenges

In the Vision Paper, in total, 26 different measures have been proposed. The diversity of the proposed measures illustrates that the development and maintenance of KETs skills in Europe is a complex multi-faceted challenge that requires a complex solution. At the same time, while we strongly advocate a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach, priorities can be set within the list of the identified measures. Below we list seven measures that, based on our analysis and stakeholder feedback, were suggested to be the most crucial areas for action in order to create a European-scale impact. These measures are not presented in the order of their importance, but instead are clustered around the four key directions for action, as mentioned above.

(Stream A) Ensuring a good alignment of educational programmes with industry needs:

• A6 Embedding technical multidisciplinarity in the curriculum: training students in various disciplines simultaneously so that they can work ‘on the crossroads’ of those disciplines (e.g. mechatronics combining mechanics, electrics and systems engineering);

• A7 Embedding non-technical courses in technical curricula: offering non-technical courses for technical students in the areas of quality, risk & safety; management & entrepreneurship; communication; innovation-related competences and emotional intelligence skills;

• A9 Updating the skills of teachers/professors: sending the educational personnel to companies to get insights into the latest developments, while inviting people from companies to regularly teach in the classroom;

• A10 Promoting innovation in teaching: rewarding educational institutions and teachers/professors for introducing innovative approaches; these aspects need to be embedded in the assessment schemes for both organisations and individuals.

(Stream B) Facilitating regular (re-)training of current employees:

• B5 Convincing companies that the return on training and skills development investment is sufficient to offset the costs: encouraging employers to invest in up-skilling of their personnel by offering them factual evidence and by showcasing good practices.

(Stream C) Raising awareness about KETs in the society:


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• C5 Developing a targeted communication strategy to increase awareness on KETs: in order to achieve large-scale effects, mainstream media should be employed as much as possible; additionally, social media and popular Internet websites could be mobilised to effectively reach the targeted audience. The latter goes beyond young people, and also includes parents, teachers and society in general.

(Stream D) Improving the image of KETs as a field to work in:

• D3 Raising the quality of infrastructure and improving working conditions: that, among others, includes building well-equipped laboratories; offering workers safe working environment; offering flexible project budgets; offering attractive remuneration.

5.3.1. A6 Embedding technical multidisciplinarity in the curriculum

While the current educational system generally prepares graduates with a focus on one particular discipline, industry often needs people who are trained in various disciplines simultaneously and can work ‘on the crossroads’ of those disciplines. For example, up until now students were typically trained either in mechanics, electrics or systems engineering. However, industry needs employees who are trained in all three aspects simultaneously (mechatronics). The notion of multidisciplinarity should therefore be made central in educational curricula for both middle- and highly skilled workers.

In order to ensure multidisciplinarity in education, a concept of ‘dual learning’193 could be promoted, at least for vocational education. Dual learning implies combining education with work experience, thereby acquiring experience in an actual manufacturing environment before entering the labour market. Since industry works in a multidisciplinary way, students will get exposed to this notion already in the course of their education.

TABLE 5-1: Detailed description of measure A6: Embedding technical multidisciplinarity in the curriculum

Subject Description

Measure A6 EMBEDDING TECHNICAL MULTIDISCIPLINARITY IN THE CURRICULUM

Direction for action Ensuring a good alignment of educational programmes with industry needs

Short description Training students in various disciplines simultaneously so that they can work ‘on the crossroads’ of those disciplines

Target group Vocational education students, short-cycle tertiary education students, Bachelor students, Master students, PhD students

Leading stakeholder group

Educators

Other relevant stakeholder groups

National and European policy makers (role: stimulating educators to introduce this change to the educational system by means of providing

193 Also known as alternate education (e.g. 6 months in classrooms and 6 months in industry). Research shows that students which followed such alternate education have better job opportunities when entering the market. The EU already has a programme for companies to attract students: Marie Curie program. A similar programme could be developed specifically for KETs, for example, at a Master level. There is a need for a scheme in which companies are rewarded for co-educating a student, by providing them a guarantee that the trained student will eventually work for the respective company for a certain period of time.


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Subject Description

financial support to design new teaching strategies and to implement those to practice; incentivising educational institutions to adopt this change; supporting training to teachers to introduce this change)

Industry (role: active participation in the development and implementation of the curriculum)

Activities requiring dedicated budget

• Pan-European projects to design adjustments in the curriculum for VET (pilot projects) [European value added]

• European and national funds for bringing these adjustments to practice [European value added]

• Pan-European projects to design adjustments in the curriculum for Bachelor/Master/PhD programmes (pilot projects) [European value added]

• European and national funds for bringing these adjustments to practice [European value added]

• Development and promotion of pan-European MOOCs training multidisciplinarity in KETs [European value added]

• Development of European Multidisciplinary Master Programmes (good practice: Master-level multidisciplinary Energy Studies of Aalto University) [European value added]

Timeline Development: 2 years [2015 – 2016]

Implementation (first pilots): 3 years [2017 – 2019]

Gradual adoption on a massive scale (with at least 20% of schools adopting the change): 5 years (after implementing first pilots) [2020 – 2025]

Additional remarks Disciplines specifically relevant for nano-electronics: quantum mechanics, advanced semiconductor technology, modelling, system verification, design for manufacturability

Systems engineering:

• Difficulties are observed in integrating systems engineering as a discipline that is transversal, as universities have been organised per scientific domain for a long time. There is also a lack of understanding and awareness of what it is about, and a lack of visibility and attractiveness of it to students.

• There is clear need for recognition at the EU level of what systems engineering is, and for actions to increase the attractiveness of this domain.

5.3.2. A7 Embedding non-technical courses in technical curricula

The competences needed to successfully operate within KETs go far beyond the technical field and also cover a wide range of non-technical/transversal areas. These non-technical competence areas include competences related to quality, risk & safety; management & entrepreneurship; communication; innovation-related competences and emotional intelligence skills.

Competences coming from STEM are not sufficient. KETs require STEAM194, with Arts included, which refers to creativity that can lead to innovations. Arts and creativity therefore should also be embedded in technical curricula.

Educational institutions should offer business modules to familiarise students with non-technical issues. Besides the role of business schools in providing non-technical courses, an

194 For more information, see: http://steam-notstem.com/


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option could be to involve consultancy boutiques or SMEs to offer the non-technical courses for technical students. In addition, technical universities could also provide both the technical and non-technical courses themselves. Furthermore, business schools could offer (optional) technical courses that help non-technical students understand the possibilities of technology and the business opportunities that come along with it.

TABLE 5-2: Detailed description of measure A7: Embedding non-technical courses in technical curricula

Subject Description

Measure A7 EMBEDDING NON-TECHNICAL COURSES IN TECHNICAL CURRICULA


Short description Offering non-technical courses for technical students in the areas of quality, risk & safety; management & entrepreneurship; communication; innovation-related competences and emotional intelligence skills

Target group Vocational education students, short-cycle tertiary education students, Bachelor students, Master students, PhD students


Educators


National and European policy makers (role: stimulating educators to introduce this change to the educational system by means of providing financial support to design new teaching strategies and to implement those to practice; incentivising educational institutions to adopt this change; supporting training to teachers to introduce this change)


• Pan-European project to collect and disseminate existing good practices [European value added]

• European and national funds for upscaling these good practices [European value added]

Timeline Many of the prominent educational institutions have already adopted this measure. The adoption of this practice should be continued, and good practice examples should be replicated on a massive scale

Adoption of good practice examples on a massive scale: 5-10 years (2015 – 2025)

Additional remarks • Relevant non-technical domains include quality, risk & safety; management & entrepreneurship; communication, innovation-related competences and emotional intelligence skills

• Specific attention needs to be paid to life-cycle analysis: the ability to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life from-cradle-to-grave

5.3.3. A9 Updating the skills of teachers/professors

In order to ensure that education does not lag behind industry developments, the skills of teachers need to be constantly updated, for example, by arranging exchanges of them with the industry. The educational personnel should be sent to companies to get insights into the latest developments, while people from companies should regularly teach in the classroom.


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TABLE 5-3: Detailed description of measure A9: Updating the skills of teachers/professors

Subject Description

Measure A9 UPDATING THE SKILLS OF TEACHERS/PROFESSORS


Short description Making sure that educational personnel continuously advances skills and knowledge based on the latest insights from industry

Target group Educational personnel from secondary schools, vocational education, short-cycle tertiary education, Bachelor programmes, Master programmes


Educators, Industry


National and European policy makers (role: promoting and funding dedicated training programs for teachers implying their exchange with industry)


• Pan-European and national teacher exchange schemes [European value added]

• Pan-European project to provide key educational institutions with state-of-the-art equipment: due to high costs related to acquiring such equipment, it could be placed only in some of the world-class European universities/educational institutions and then shared with educators and students across Europe [European value added]

Timeline Design of the pan-European scheme: 2 years (2015 – 2016)

Implementation of the pan-European scheme: 2016 - onwards

Additional remarks Good practice model: Industrial chairs financed by the industry in academic institutions (i.e. industry representatives doing the actual teaching)

5.3.4. A10 Promoting innovation in teaching

Educators need to be stimulated to try out new approaches and continuously update the materials they teach. Educational institutions and teachers/professors should be rewarded for introducing innovative approaches. These aspects need to be embedded in the assessment schemes for both organisations and individuals (e.g. in case of educational institutions, additional funding could be granted to the ones with the most up-to-date curricula; in case of individuals, reward system should take this criterion into account). As long as university professors get rewarded mainly for the number of papers they publish, there is hardly any stimulus for them to introduce any change in the educational process.

The need to adjust the curricula of educational institutions (both VET and universities) to industry requirements should be promoted in a top-down way (EU and national policy makers), accompanied by adjustments in regulation to provide the educational institutions with sufficient flexibility to change the curriculum and by providing educators with additional financial means to introduce change. Member States need to offer favourable conditions for the (top) educational institutions to interact with industry.

The European Commission should continue offering funding support for cooperation projects between business, education and training institutions to try out new


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approaches (currently offered by DG EAC Erasmus+ programme195). Business, education and training institutions need to be better informed about the existence of this support. However, other factors like adjustments in the regulation and in the reward system of educators need to be taken care of to achieve the maximum impact from this type of support.

TABLE 5-4: Detailed description of measure A10: Promoting innovation in teaching

Subject Description

Measure A10 PROMOTING INNOVATION IN TEACHING


Short description • Adjusting the reward system • Adjusting regulation to provide the educational institutions with sufficient

flexibility to change the curriculum • Providing educators with additional financial means to introduce change • Specifically, continuing to offer funding support for cooperation projects

between business, education and training institutions to try out new approaches (currently offered by DG EAC Erasmus+ programme)

• Increasing awareness of educators about the existence of programmes mentioned in the point above

Target group Primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, vocational education students, short-cycle tertiary education students, Bachelor students, Master students


Policy makers


Educational administrators (role: supporting and promoting innovation in teaching at all levels)


• National schemes supporting innovation in teaching

Timeline • Design of national schemes: 3 years (2015 – 2017) • Implementation of national schemes: 2017 - onwards

Additional remarks N/A

5.3.5. B5 Convincing companies that the return on training and skills development investment is sufficient to offset the costs

Attention needs to be paid to demonstrating the benefits for companies of participating in training activities. Companies need to be convinced that the return on training and skills development investment is sufficient to offset the costs196. Employers should thus be encouraged to invest in up-skilling of their personnel by offering them factual evidence and by showcasing good practices.

TABLE 5-5: Detailed description of measure B5: Convincing companies that the return on training and skills development investment is sufficient to offset the costs

195 https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus_en 196 “Skills Development and Training in SMEs”, OECD Skills Studies 2013


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Subject Description

Measure B5 CONVINCING COMPANIES THAT THE RETURN ON TRAINING AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT INVESTMENT IS SUFFICIENT TO OFFSET THE COSTS

Direction for action Facilitating regular (re-)training of current employees

Short description Offering companies factual evidence and showcasing good practices that the return on training and skills development investment is sufficient to offset the costs

Target group Industry


European and national policy makers


N/A


• Pan-European project to collect evidence of benefits of personnel training in KETs and to disseminate existing good practices [European value added]

Timeline Project duration: 2 years (2015 – 2016)

Dissemination of project results: 2017 - onwards

Additional remarks The project could be launched by the European Commission through a dedicated call for tenders

5.3.6. C5 Developing a targeted communication strategy to increase awareness on KETs

A targeted communication strategy needs to be developed, including a careful selection of media to reach out to the targeted publics. In order to achieve large-scale effects, mainstream media should be employed as much as possible (e.g. TV, non-scientific newspapers & magazines). Additionally, social media and popular Internet websites could be mobilised to effectively reach the targeted audience. The latter goes beyond young people, and also includes parents, teachers and society in general.

A special targeted communication strategy on KETs needs to be developed for girls, targeting also their parents and teachers, and aiming at increasing their awareness of the opportunities within KETs for girls. This measure is needed to overcome the issue of gender imbalance in STEM domains in general and KETs in particular.

TABLE 5-6: Detailed description of measure C5: Developing a targeted communication strategy to increase awareness on KETs

Subject Description

Measure C5 DEVELOPING A TARGETED COMMUNICATION STRATEGY ON KETs

Direction for action Raising awareness about KETs in the society

Short description Developing a targeted communication strategy on KETs (also specifically for girls, targeting also their parents and teachers)

Target group Primary school students, secondary school students


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Subject Description


National policy makers (role: launching an initiative that would be outsourced to third parties)


Communication agencies, mass media


• Developing targeted national communication plans for KETs • Developing targeted national communication plans for KETs with a particular

emphasis on girls, with an objective to inspire them to join the world of KETs • Implementing the abovementioned communication plans on MS level

Timeline Developing targeted national communication plans for KETs: 2 years (2015 – 2016)

Implementing communication plans on MS level: 3 years (2017 – 2020)


5.3.7. D3 Raising the quality of infrastructure and improving working conditions

Our analysis confirmed that the attractiveness of KETs for (future) employees heavily depends on the quality of infrastructure and working conditions. Therefore, specific measures need to be taken for raising the quality of infrastructure and improving current working conditions (e.g. building well-equipped laboratories, offering KETs workers flexible project budgets and a high level of autonomy).

Specific attention needs to be paid to worker safety. Many of the KETs-related jobs in laboratories, clean rooms and manufacturing facilities imply diverse health and safety risks. These risks are often not yet well explored and understood. For example, in case of nanotechnology, factory workers, engineers and scientists working on cutting-edge nano-products could be exposed to high levels of nano-sized particles (e.g. titanium dioxide) or carbon nanotubes. While in traditional chemical engineering industries, workers’ exposure to chemicals is regulated, in nanotech engineering, it is still not clear whether protective masks, filters, and ventilation systems are sufficient to protect workers from harmful exposure to the latest nano-sized substances197.

TABLE 5-7: Detailed description of measure D3: Raising the quality of infrastructure and improving working conditions

Subject Description

Measure D3 RAISING THE QUALITY OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND IMPROVING WORKING CONDITIONS

Direction for action Improving the image of KETs as a field to work in

Short description Raising the quality of infrastructure and improving working conditions (e.g. well-equipped laboratories, generous project budgets and a high level of autonomy)

Target group Vocational education students, short-cycle tertiary education students, Bachelor students, Master students, PhD students, current KETs workers

Leading stakeholder Industry

197 www.theguardian.com/nanotechnology-world/is-nanotechnology-safe-in-the-workplace


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Subject Description

group


Industry associations, cluster organisations


• Building well-equipped laboratories • Offering workers safe working environment (e.g. to minimise harmful

exposure to nano-sized particles in clean rooms and other hazards) • Offering flexible project budgets • Offering attractive remuneration

Timeline 2015 - onwards


5.4. Conclusions

The following conclusions can be drawn from this Chapter:

• For Europe to be able to fully realise KETs growth potential in the future, there is a need to align the supply and demand of KETs skills.

• From a qualitative perspective, Europe needs to ensure a good alignment of skills possessed by the current and future employees with industry requirements.

• From a quantitative perspective, Europe needs to ensure the presence of a sufficient number of people who are qualified, available and willing to work in KETs.

• The development and maintenance of KETs skills in Europe is a complex multi-faceted challenge that requires a complex solution. This complex solution consists of various clusters of measures each targeted at specific aspects of the overall challenge.

• Key directions for action regarding both qualitative and quantitative KETs skills-related challenges include: (1) ensuring a good alignment of educational programmes with industry needs (quality); (2) facilitating regular (re-)training of current employees (quality); (3) raising awareness about KETs in the society (quantity); and (4) improving the image of KETs as a field to work in (quantity).

• While we strongly advocate a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach, priorities can be set within the list of the identified measures for each direction. Seven measures that, based on our analysis and stakeholder feedback, were suggested to be the most crucial areas for action in order to create a European-scale impact are:

o A6 Embedding technical multidisciplinarity in the curriculum; o A7 Embedding non-technical courses in technical curricula; o A9 Updating the skills of teachers/professors; o A10 Promoting innovation in teaching; o B5 Convincing companies that the return on training and skills development

investment is sufficient to offset the costs; o C5 Developing a targeted communication strategy to increase awareness on KETs; o D3 Raising the quality of infrastructure and improving working conditions.


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6. Sectoral pilot results

This chapter presents the key highlights of the Sectoral Pilot Report that has been developed by the project team during the third phase of the KETs Skills Initiative. The chapter offers an overview of the key skills-related challenges for the micro-/nanoelectronics sector in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and corresponding tailored measures to address these skills challenges in each of the abovementioned Member States.

6.1. Objectives and approach

The sectoral pilot aimed to apply the main priority recommendations from the Vision Paper (see Chapter 5) to the context of the three selected MS, and to develop tailor-made action plans for these MS. Based on this exercise, we aimed to identify next steps and initiate action within these leading European MS in a selected KET.

6.1.1. Sectoral pilot objectives

The sectoral pilot focused on convincing the relevant stakeholder groups in the MS about the importance of the KETs skills-related challenges and the need to adopt the proposed policy initiatives. It therefore aimed to serve as an impetus for action. The stakeholders were familiarised with the proposed actions, and encouraged to co-create tailored action plans for their respective MS.

The sectoral pilot was conducted in close collaboration with the relevant stakeholder groups including industry (both large companies and SMEs), academia and policy makers, as well as various supporting structures such as industry associations, cluster organisations and other network organisations and collaboration platforms across all three MS. The inputs for the sectoral pilot were collected by means of in-depth interviews, desk research, as well as three dedicated sectoral pilot workshop, one in each of the three MS.

6.1.2. Our approach in a nutshell

The micro-/nanoelectronics field was chosen as a validation context as it has a high level of maturity among the six KETs. In terms of geographical focus, we chose the three leading MS in the micro-/nanoelectronics sector. The recommendations of the Vision Paper are expected to have a larger effect in MS where the sector is significantly represented, and where it is reasonable to expect that both supply and demand of KET skills can be impacted most. Based on the data from the European Semiconductor Industry Association198, the three Member States with the highest micro-/nanoelectronics-related sales are Germany, the United Kingdom, and France199.

As part of the preparation for each sectoral pilot, tailored action plans were developed. By conducting desk-research and interviews, the key challenges, and measures aimed at tackling KETs skills challenges, for each MS were explored. Based on this status-quo analysis, the recommended measures for each action stream in the Vision Paper were prioritised to best fit the specific context of each MS (matching key challenges without overlapping existing measures). All

198 https://www.eeca.eu/ 199 “2010-2013 Semiconductor Market Forecast – seizing the economic and political momentum in Europe for Key

Enabling Technologies (2010). The European Semiconductor Industry Association.


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this information was combined into a tailored action plan (or policy briefing) for each MS, which functioned as key input to initiate the discussion during each validation workshop.

For each sectoral pilot, stakeholders from research institutes, education institutes, policy makers, large industry and SMEs were invited. To maximise stakeholder engagement, each validation workshop was co-hosted with a local micro-/nanoelectronics cluster organisation or trade association in the Member State. These clusters have historical importance, high employment levels, and considerable number of present companies. The clusters are Silicon Saxony in Dresden, Minalogic in Grenoble, and Silicon South West in the Bristol-Bath area200.

FIGURE 6-1: Our approach to sectoral pilot

During a one-day workshop, representatives of key stakeholder groups were asked to validate the tailored action plans for their respective MS. For the tailored action plan, we focused on the four action streams that were identified as having the highest priority.

In the United Kingdom, the sectoral pilot workshop took place at the site of technology company Renishaw, near Bristol, on the 17th of March 2015. It was jointly hosted by Renishaw and the National Microelectronics Institute (NMI). It was attended by fifteen representatives from industry, academia, research institutes and policy, with an interest in skills for electronics.

In France, the sectoral pilot workshop took place at the site of MINATEC on the GIANT innovation campus, near Grenoble, on the 30th of March 2015. It was hosted by MINATEC. It was attended by fourteen representatives from academia, industry, and policy fields, with an interest in skills for micro-/nanoelectronics.

In Germany, the sectoral pilot workshop took place at the site of Silicon Saxony in the Dresden region, on the 1st of April 2015. The Silicon Saxony cluster organisation for micro-/nanoelectronics co-hosted the sectoral pilot workshop. The workshop was attended by stakeholders from the cluster organisation, small companies and universities.

200 PwC (2013) “Comparison of European and non-European regional clusters in KETs: The case of semiconductors”, the study commissioned by DG CONNECT; available at http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/comparison-european-and-non-european-regional-clusters-kets-case-semiconductors


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For all three sectoral pilots, the agenda consisted of a presentation of the structure of the project, an introduction into the vision developed during the project, a presentation on the status quo regarding skills for micro-/nanoelectronics in France, and an in-depth discussion of proposed measures to address the key challenges.

Below we provide key highlights of the sectoral pilot results in each of the three MS. We specifically focus on the results of our status quo analysis, proposed tailor-made recommendations and the next steps to be taken within each of the MS.

6.2. Sectoral pilot in France

The current section highlights the results of the sectoral pilot in France.

6.2.1. Status quo analysis

The specific skills challenges in the French micro-/nanoelectronics sector are similar to the ones presented in our initial general analysis in Chapter 1.

Our analysis in France suggested that students often develop skills that are either already obsolete or are likely to become so in the near future. Moreover, without sufficient availability of (re-)training, the skills gap between those on the unemployment register and the needs of industry is unlikely to be addressed. Furthermore, not enough students choose to pursue KETs-related education, which can be attributed to a relatively low awareness of the KETs among young people, primary school teachers and the society in general. Finally, a generally poor image of KETs as a field to work in causes graduates in KETs-related fields to often end up in managerial positions where their specialised skills would seem less valuable. These factors contribute to the key challenges that the French micro-/nanoelectronics sector is currently facing.

Stakeholders consider retraining of current staff to be necessary every three to seven years, but emphasise that retraining is already structurally taking place within existing technology clusters. However, they argue that a shrinking industrial base creates a clear risk of current skills rapidly vanishing, as these skills will no longer be in demand and thus workers will no longer be retrained in them. Moreover, they warn that when a local workforce falls too far behind the state-of-the-art, an economic region may become entirely unattractive to high-tech companies, and the industrial base may be beyond reinvigoration.

Stakeholders also recognise the low awareness about micro-/nanoelectronics in the society. Even though the use of micro-/nanoelectronics-based consumer products has dramatically increased in the last years, the understanding of the underlying technology amongst the general public still is rather limited. This lack of understanding does not help encourage student participation in technological tracks. However, it is also considered an opportunity, as it allows students to be motivated to take up technological courses through devices with which they already interact.

Stakeholders suggest that this low awareness may prevent state-of-the-art micro-/nanoelectronics products from being developed in France, and push development more and more outside Europe, to countries like China. This is reported to be particularly sensitive for national security (e.g. it is questionable whether chips in French missile defence systems should be developed in China). That is why stakeholders emphasise the need for government officials to express their commitment to the nanoelectronics sector more explicitly.

Stakeholders also report that many talented engineers do not have the ambition to work on the technology side of projects for their entire career, and instead try to move into


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managerial positions as quickly as possible. As working in the micro-/nanoelectronics sector requires specialised technical skills, every engineer that moves into a managerial position can be felt as a loss to the technology side of the business. One of the reasons for talented engineers to go into management relates to salaries and career potential. Unlike in the United States, technology careers in the French micro-/nanoelectronics sector are believed to be less rewarding, both financially and in terms of status and seniority. Stakeholders partially relate it to societal standing of engineering and technology work in general, with individuals working in management, finance, or law having gained more influence, and better status and financial rewards over the last three decades.

At the same time, in France, careers in science and engineering are generally considered to be desirable and prestigious. However, compared to other careers, the number of study years required prior to science and engineering careers makes it less attractive to students. At the same time, science and engineering graduates can count on a welcoming experience on the labour market, where job availability and stability remains high. Studies have shown that, in recent years, unemployment amongst young people in France was lowest concerning graduates with a Bachelor degree or a Master’s degree in a science or technology field, and also the ones who had completed a five-year engineering programme. They were also less likely to encounter persistent or recurring unemployment, and have a high probability of finding employment directly after graduating.

Regarding the key measures already in place in France to tackle the skills challenges elaborated in the section above, the French approach is characterised by collaborative efforts within clusters of micro-/nanoelectronics high-tech companies and leading educational institutions. These are part of a systemic approach to the identified skills challenges, and are typically driven by a combination of individuals from the private sector and organisational and financial support from local and regional government.

In France, government involvement in the development of educational activities and materials on all levels is considered to be relatively high. This includes the prescription of teaching time, and determining the content and structure of curricula and national assessments. As such, innovative and creative efforts to address the issue of nano-/microelectronics having a poor image need to be data-driven, and need to fit within the existing educational rules and regulations. Several initiatives exist at the national and the local level to encourage the curiosity of small children for the science. These include Science à l’école (Science at School); The European Commission Ambition and Success Network; and various workshops and contests.

6.2.2. Proposed recommendations and stakeholder feedback

In France, students in micro-/nanoelectronics often develop skill types that on average connect well to industry demand, yet the level to which these skill types are mastered should be improved. Moreover, students often develop specific skills that are either already obsolete or are likely to become so in the near future. Examples of skills that are not being sufficiently trained by the current educational system are integration skills, complex problem solving, equipment handling skills, communication skills, knowledge of other (business) cultures, quality assurance and risk management skills.

Furthermore, while universities generally prepare graduates with a focus on one particular discipline, industry often needs people who are trained in various disciplines simultaneously and can work ‘on the crossroads’ of those disciplines. Industry stakeholders mentioned the current focus on technological specialisation at the expense of a systems-thinking approach. The notion of multi-disciplinarity should therefore be made central in educational curricula for


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both middle- and highly skilled workers. Key measures to address this aimed at: embedding technical multi-disciplinarity in the curriculum; embedding non-technical courses in technical curricula; updating the skills of teachers/professors; and promoting innovation in teaching.

Stakeholders recognised the lack of alignment between educational programmes and industry needs, especially on the matters of multidisciplinarity and non-technical skills, although some would frame it as a discrepancy in dynamics and convergence between industry and academia, as their scopes of knowledge differ and technologies are changing very rapidly.

Industry stakeholders estimated that the existing workforce will need to be retrained every three to seven years. At the same time, SMEs often cannot afford their workers to be unavailable for a prolonged period of time for re-training. In France, tax facilities exist that offset the costs that companies face when organising continuous education efforts. However, it proves difficult to attract enough workers to retraining programmes. Attention needs to be paid to demonstrating workers the benefits of participating in training activities. Workers need to be convinced that the return on training and skills development investment is sufficient to offset their costs. Workers should thus be encouraged to invest time in up-skilling.

Stakeholders also recognised the need for a regular (re-)training of employees, and the discussion reflected the extent to which this issue is intertwined with the development of the industrial base in a given area. If large industrials in a specific sector leave a region, this impacts job growth in that region. Such labour market dynamics influence training and learning decisions among graduates and current technology workers. Consequently, less job opportunities in a technology domain will lead to less ambition and drive to study and learn within that domain, both for current and for future workers.

With regard to raising awareness on KETs, we proposed to adopt three measures that target society as a whole. These include launching awareness-raising activities about KETs aimed at the general public; supporting the development of KETs-related MOOCs; and supporting the development of educational kits. It is also crucial that industry improves the working conditions and offers attractive remuneration.

This issue of low awareness about micro-/nanoelectronics in society was also affirmed by the stakeholders. Especially the notion that even though the use of specific KETs has increased, such as is the case with micro-/nanoelectronics, the level of understanding of these technologies throughout society has not.

Stakeholders also affirmed the notion that careers in micro-/nanoelectronics have an unattractive image. This relates to differences in career potential between careers that focus on the technological side of projects and organisations, and those that focus on the managerial side. This also relates to the differences in salary levels between technology sectors and service sectors, such as the financial sector. Both aspects have engineers and technology experts gravitate away from technological careers.

6.2.3. Next steps

The key challenges identified in the Vision Paper proved to be a useful lens for France through which to analyse the status quo of KETs skills issues, and its subsequent action streams provide a valuable structure through which to develop and discuss relevant initiatives. The stakeholders were provided with a detailed description of the measures needed to be applied in France and encouraged to initiate local action.


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6.3. Sectoral pilot in Germany

The current section highlights the results of the sectoral pilot in Germany.


The specific skills challenges in the German micro-/nanoelectronics sector can be considered to be in line with our European-wide analysis of skills challenges in KETs. Particularly important for Germany are the challenges related to skills shortage and gap in the near future; the need to retrain the workforce; and limited awareness of the society about the sector. However, some challenges that are significant in other analysed MS, like a lack of apprenticeships (e.g. in the UK), are relatively well tackled in Germany.

Our analysis confirmed that professional education institutions in Germany provide high-quality education in their own field of expertise, but do not pay sufficient attention to other domains that are equally important for future job fulfilment (e.g. project- and system management methods and tools and exchange and application of business knowledge)201.

Lifelong learning is one of the biggest political and societal challenges facing Germany. A factor that substantially challenges its realisation is a lack of headquarters of big companies. This is considered a weakness, as this results in a lack of capital on a cluster level. That, in turn, means that companies cannot and will not invest in state-of-the-art research and production facilities, which are deemed essential for state-of-the art (re)-training202.

Investments in retraining are reported to be currently insufficient. The possibilities for procuring non-technical training are suggested to be sufficient, while procurement of technical training for the micro-/nanoelectronics sector is particularly difficult, even in combination with research organisations such as the Max Planck institute. In most cases, technical training is only provided in combination with procurement of new equipment and tools.

Particularly customer-oriented skills and experience are lacking, and so are external training opportunities. This particularly affects SMEs. This has to do with high levels of specialisation and long value chains in the microelectronics sector (many internal customers, but much distance to end customers). Few micro-/nanoelectronics engineers are aware of what their end-customers think and need, or fail to grasp the bigger picture in terms of end-product functionality.

German micro-/nanoelectronics industry, and specifically the Silicon Saxony ecosystem, is characterised by a small-scale structure (e.g. compared to the semiconductor clusters in East-Asia and the USA, where many large companies are allocated). It lacks the headquarters of, for instance, large semiconductor manufacturers. Presence of these large companies, with their substantial marketing budgets and internationally renowned image, would help to increase awareness about the micro-/nanoelectronics sector in Germany203.

201 Becker, F.S. (2013) Herausforderungen für Elektroingenieure/innen – Entwicklungen im Arbeitsumfeld, Erwartungen von Personalverantwortlichen, Tipps für Berufsstart und Karriere, Zentralverband Elektronik- und Elektronikindustie e.V.

202 Silicon Europe (2014). Regional SWOT analysis from on economic, innovation and RTD perspective, D2.2 Regional SWOT Analysis 1.1

203 Silicon Europe (2014). Regional SWOT analysis from on economic, innovation and RTD perspective, D2.2 Regional SWOT Analysis 1.1


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Visibility of the micro-/nanoelectronics is further hampered by the fact that German micro-/nanoelectronics companies (and European companies in general) do not excel at systems and final-products approach (weakness at the end of the value chain), implying that they are relatively invisible to the general public.

Unattractiveness of the engineering profession is not directly identified as a key challenge when considering German society. However, the nanoelectronics sector is lacking a ‘shining star’ to attract engineering talent. There is a limited awareness among students of, for example, Infineon or Global Foundries (considered key players in the Saxony region). This mainly has to do with a lack of strategic marketing amongst German nanoelectronics companies. The unattractive image of the German (and in particular Saxony) micro-/nanoelectronics sector is further hampered by the bankruptcy of the region’s largest private-sector employer, chipmaker Qimonda, in 2009204.

Skills and training measures that are already in place, are particularly aimed at raising young people’s interest in electronics and encourage students to engage in research. In this context, the BMBF supports the ‘Invent a Chip’ and ‘COSIMA microsystems competition’ for secondary and tertiary school students. These initiatives are organised on a yearly basis.

Besides these initiatives, there are not many policy measures that are specifically targeted at skills development for nanoelectronics. The Federal Government has launched numerous measures aimed at skills development in general. It has for instance launched a broad package of measures in the domain of lifelong learning (key for training and (re)training of personnel. It has introduced a continuing education bonus and encourages learning locally in association with foundations and local authorities, taking into account the existing infrastructure for continuing education in the Länder.


The following measures were specifically proposed for the German context:

• Embedding technical multidisciplinarity in the curriculum, to provide the much needed systems-level thinking amongst industry;

• Embedding non-technical courses in technical curricula; • Updating the skills of teachers/professors, to ensure that they are able to convey teach

non-technical skills and competencies like communication, team working skills and business acumen in a nanoelectronics context;

• Promoting innovation in teaching, to incorporate a more demand-driven approach in curriculum development.

A good practice example of how cooperation between University and Industry can function is through the so-called ‘Fraunhofer Model’. The cooperation between Fraunhofer and universities forms an indirect link with industry. Every head of unit at Fraunhofer Institute needs to have a university chair/position, while Fraunhofer needs to raise at least 50% of its research funding from industry205.

204 Validation workshop with representatives from the Saxony electronics industry, academia and the cluster organisation. Conducted on the 1st of April in Dresden.



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In order to promote regular retraining of employees, it is recommended to collectively organise training programs and apprenticeships, in order to share costs and pool (training) resources. Industry recognises this by stating that particularly for SMEs, in-house courses are too expensive. However, when these programmes are pooled with companies that have the same training needs, this could work. The skills requirement of many SMEs in micro-/nanoelectronics are mostly similar, meaning that the potential for synergy is large206.

As our status quo analysis showed, there are already many German initiatives aimed at awareness raising. It is however, unclear what the overarching communication strategy is. A targeted communication strategy needs to be developed by national policy makers, including a careful selection of media to reach out to the targeted publics. In order to achieve large-scale effects, mainstream media should be employed as much as possible (e.g. TV, non-scientific newspapers & magazines). Additionally, social media and popular Internet websites could be mobilised to effectively reach the targeted audience. The latter goes beyond young people, and also includes parents, teachers and society in general.

During the workshop it became apparent that the proposed measure on ‘improving working conditions’ should not mention anything with regards to hazardous/unsafe/unhygienic working conditions. This is reported to be not an issue for the German micro-/nanoelectronics sector.

6.3.3. Next steps

The key challenges identified in the Vision Paper proved to be a useful lens for Germany through which to analyse the status quo of KETs skills issues, and its subsequent action streams provide a valuable structure through which to develop and discuss relevant initiatives. The stakeholders were provided with a detailed description of the measures needed to be applied in Germany and encouraged to initiate local action.

At the same time, implementing changes is going to represent another challenge. Stakeholders report how difficult it is to change, for example, the German educational curricula. For example, Cool Silicon is now running for three years and has launched several educational projects (e.g. the Nanoelectronics Systems Master programme), but it is unlikely that more than 20% of the schools will adopt these outputs.

Another issue relates to the ratio of 3rd party funding at universities, which is promoted and seen as a sign that industry brings in their interest. However, in some instances, this industry interest may be short-term oriented, only aiming to solve short-term needs and challenges. For long-term strategies, universities need funds that allow long-term agenda setting. To add to this, the discussion of freedom of research has (re)emerged in Germany in recent years. The independence between university education and industry is a challenge with more industry involvement in (technical) curricula.

The challenge of remuneration is complicated by the fact that industry reports to be unaware of the current salary benchmarking for various job levels compared to different industry players and different sectors. Currently, a new attempt at developing a salary benchmark is underway. The Silicon Saxony cluster organisation was requested to procure these reports (when published) and make them available to companies.



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6.4. Sectoral pilot in the United Kingdom

The current section highlights the results of the sectoral pilot in the United Kingdom.


Skills shortages are recognised as the UK electronics industry’s most pressing challenge. The National Microelectronics Institute (NMI) confirms that the uniting concern across the vast majority of its industry members is employment – current and future – which comes down to skills. Anticipated growth will increase the pressure, as will the need to replace the large cohort of highly-skilled people who will leave the sector through retirement.

This issue was also most commonly raised during ESCO (Electronics Systems Community) consultations across all its work streams. Sufficient skills supply was identified as a critical enabler to support and achieve the UK electronics industry’s ambition for growth. There are already major shortages in both quality and quantity; a situation predicted to get much worse in the near future. To add to this, due to all sorts of technical development, the required competencies to address the engineering challenges facing modern Electronic Systems businesses are changing significantly and rapidly.

The specific skills challenges in the UK micro-/nanoelectronics sector can be considered in line with our European-wide analysis of skills challenges in KETs. Our analysis suggested that students often develop skills that are either already obsolete or are likely to become so in the near future. Due to a lack of alignment between educational programmes and industry needs, students are often not taught the relevant set of skills.

The UK electronics industry is relatively weak in offering apprenticeships in comparison to other UK Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) sectors. Smaller companies also need to take part in such training programmes to stay competitive, but facilitating a full apprenticeship is challenging for them due to a lack in necessary funding and the associated (financial) risks. The situation is unlikely to improve without further intervention.

Skills challenges faced by industry not only relate to challenges concerning graduates in the field, but also to a decreasing number of experienced employees that lack a relevant set of skills. Although the benefits of retraining are clear, continuous training in this sector is considered to be costly. Many companies indicate that they are currently unable to fund training, leaving a skills gap. This is reinforced by the notion that the UK microelectronics industry generally lacks a presence of large companies, which in contrast to the smaller companies tend to have funds available for training. SMEs in particular cannot afford the burden that a graduate or pre-graduate puts on their organisation. Having one trainee supervised by two engineers results in high overheads. In some instances, the project load instantly becomes too high for most SMEs.

One of the main reasons why particularly electronic engineers are in short supply is that young people make an application based on rather limited information. Put differently, prospective students are considered to have low awareness of the career opportunities in micro-/nanoelectronics and the industry’s key role in solving societal problems.

Another concern raised by industry is the persistent male-female gender imbalance in the sector. Currently, close to 90% of Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree applicants are male. Addressing the male-female gender imbalance is considered an opportunity for raising the overall number of graduates in the field.


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Micro-/nanoelectronics has a rather unattractive image in the UK. Young people generally do not perceive STEM studies as exciting enough compared to other fields of education. On top of that, many students consider that courses are too challenging, leading to the perception that studying engineering is too challenging for many prospective students. Furthermore, the micro-/nanoelectronics careers are often associated with relatively low financial rewards and limited career opportunities when compared to other highly-skilled jobs, such as those in the financial or legal services industries.

Finally, industry lacks some of the major employers that are well-known and recognised by the average school pupil or their parents. Not only does this result in a lack of awareness, it also results in the industry lacking the backing from a cohort of major employers who could fund an initiative to change perceptions. It is hoped that the wider STEM agenda that is being driven by many organisations will also benefit micro and nano-electronics.

The closure of some of the major chip production facilities in the UK may influence the public opinion of nanoelectronics negatively. The job destruction associated with these closures may spur insecurity about long-term job security among prospective employees for the sector.


Based on the action streams developed in the Vision Report, workshop participants were presented with several specific initiatives and measures to address the specific skill issues relevant to the UK micro-/nanoelectronics sector. Subsequently, the workshop participants discussed the relevance of these proposed initiatives and measures, and provided their feedback. Most of the proposed measures were considered relevant and valuable by the workshop participants, and could be applied to fit the sector even better.

UK companies tend to be aware of the more traditional apprenticeships, in which a young person leaves school and undertakes employment at a company for 3 to 4 years, where they are trained on the job and attend college. However, they are largely unaware of other forms of apprenticeships, such as the relatively new Higher Level Apprenticeship programme in which students attain a degree combined with working on the job207. By raising awareness for the apprenticeships and underlining their benefits, companies will become more aware of the possibilities apprenticeships offer. Moreover, the development of a shared apprenticeship programme can tackle the financial challenges SMEs face.

To increase the availability, relevance and quality of electronics engineering courses by local colleges, it is recommended to establish a National Skills Forum. This Forum, ideally financially supported by co-investment from industry and public funding, would act as a focal point for the industry developing solutions to skills shortages at all levels. This Forum should provide national cohesion by develop certain standards for specific programmes of electronics education (e.g. certain vocational training programmes). The standard needs to function like a benchmark that is constantly updated. It could be established from existing roots within ESCO or by developing the mandate of the Electronic Skills Foundation which is making a difference but is restricted to a niche focus.

In addition, industry recognised the perspective that electronics is seen as a challenging sector to enter, as students have to learn mechanics, hydraulics and all the computer sciences in the

207 ESCO (2013). Workstream Report 5. Available at: www.esco.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Release-Web-Workstream-Report-5-Skills.pdf


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‘middle’, and in addition they have to possess some skill in entrepreneurship and business acumen. The list of requirements is long and perhaps discouraging to new entrants.

Updating the skills of teachers/professors can be achieved by stimulating teachers to engage in an exchange with industry to get insights into the latest developments, while inviting people from industry to regularly teach in the classroom. Mobility of people between industry and academia can lead to greater levels of collaboration, through which the (practical) skills of teachers/professors are enhanced and through which new business activity may occur in the reason.

In order to save costs and solve organisational capacity issues for retraining of the existing workforce, training programs and apprenticeships could be organised by companies collectively.

Stakeholders recognised the need for a regular (re-)training of employees, and specified that once you take graduates on, for the first 2 years they are developing their skills and are not immediately productive contributing to a greater extent after 4 to 5 years of experience. However, young graduate engineers are also highly mobile and often move to different companies meaning the investment in Training and Development many be lost. Jobs in The City of London Financial District also attracts a significant proportion of the best engineering graduates attracted by salaries well in-excess of industry norms. These factors make investments in retraining less attractive for micro-/nanoelectronics companies.

The issue of low awareness about micro-/nanoelectronics in society was recognised by the stakeholders and identified as one of the key underlying problems for skills challenges. Especially the notion that young people are poorly informed on what an microelectronics engineering job entails was identified as a problem. This calls for a widespread marketing campaign that helps to convey the message that working as an electronics engineering is exciting and rewarding. The UK electronics industry should continue to work collectively through schemes such as the UK Electronic Skills Foundation (UKESF) to provide young people with information on the varied and exciting careers the sector has to offer208.

Educational kits equipping teachers with experimental micro-/nanoelectronics-related material need to be disseminated to schools across the UK with a supporting didactic framework. The latter refers to video clips, PowerPoint slides, instructions for experiments etc. These kits should be committed to creating safe, engaging, affordable hands-on learning tools, curriculum and resources that inspire and support teaching and learning about the essence of different micro-/nanoelectronics applications in the classroom. Once developed, kits should be disseminated among teachers who are motivated to use the kit in their classroom to excite children about science in general and micro-/nanoelectronics in particular.

Finally, to boost the number of graduates and professionals pursuing a career in micro-/nanoelectronics, particular focus could lie on raising the quality of infrastructure and better communicating the benefits of working in this sector.

6.4.3. Next steps

The key challenges identified in the Vision Paper proved to be a useful lens for the UK through which to analyse the status quo of KETs skills issues, and its subsequent action streams provide

208 www.ukesf.org/assets/files/pubs_downloads/UKESF_BROCHURE_AUG_2014_web.pdf


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a valuable structure through which to develop and discuss relevant initiatives. The stakeholders were provided with a detailed description of the measures needed to be applied in the UK and encouraged to initiate local action.

Stakeholders recognised the misalignment between educational programmes and industry needs. They added to the already identified challenges that universities offer many electronics engineering courses, but not those that are truly of help to industry. ‘Engineering’ is not defined properly in university modules. From the university-perspective, one of the key goals is filling the educational programmes with students, which results in universities defining ‘engineering’ rather broadly, to interest as many students as possible. This makes it harder for employers to actually get the skills they need. From an industry-perspective, the jobs for these generic engineering degrees do not exist.

6.5. Observations across the sectoral pilots

Key challenges for KETs skills: similarities and differences

The immediate skills need, in terms of quantity, for the micro-/nanoelectronics sector of France and Germany does not appear to be acute. Stakeholders from both countries indicate that the current supply of engineers is still sufficient to address industry needs. While in Germany, stakeholders report a misalignment in terms of what industry needs in graduates and what universities are able to deliver (quality), stakeholders in France indicate that the skills that new engineers bring to the market are quite well aligned with industry needs. In Germany, this misalignment in terms of quality mostly revolves around the lack of multidisciplinarity in technical curricula; the lack of non-technical skills like team working, communication and presentation skills.

Stakeholders in France foresee similar challenges for the future, as a result of too much emphasis on skill specialisation without taking into account the need to understand a broader technological context. A multidisciplinary outlook is missing, both in terms of technology and in terms of non-technical skills. Regarding non-technical skills, especially skills related to emotional intelligence and working in diverse teams require more attention.

In the UK, short-term shortages of electronics engineers appear to be a bigger challenge already at this point. In addition, the quality of supply is misaligned with industry needs. This misalignment mostly exists in terms of lack of relevant work experience that graduates are able to acquire during their studies, and which allows them to be more ‘rounded, grounded and ready for work’. This lack of work experience amongst UK electronics graduates is linked to the low utilisation of apprenticeships in the UK, at all educational levels.

With regards to long-term industry needs, however, across all three MS, stakeholders clearly indicate that the number of engineers in the field of micro-/nanoelectronics will be insufficient to address industry needs in the future. For Germany and the UK, the already identified challenges are predicted to become worse when the existing workforce starts to retire.

Stakeholders in France recognise three future developments they consider particularly harmful to the French micro-/nanoelectronics sector. They warn that the sector is threatened by a shrinking industrial base and the declining level of skills possessed by students entering graduate school. In addition, industrial research centres often have no clear picture of their future skills needs. The dropping number of large industrial players in the sector results in shrinking job opportunities in the micro-/ nanoelectronics sector. Prospective graduates in this technology domain consider their job opportunities when deciding their educational tracks, and if


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the industrial base keeps shrinking, it will become progressively harder to attract students to micro-/nanoelectronics.

The challenges across the other three streams identified (retraining, low awareness of KETs in society and unattractive appearance as a sector to work in) appear to be less severe in Germany than in other MS. For instance, challenges that are more present in other MS like the lack of apprenticeships (e.g. in the UK), are fairly well covered in Germany. In addition, unattractiveness of the engineering profession is not identified as a key challenge when considering German society. This is different in the UK, in which the engineering profession holds less esteem. However, the German nanoelectronics sector is lacking a shining star to attract engineering talent. There is much competition from automotive sector, which has many strong brands like Porsche and BMW.

A similar challenge is also present for the French and UK micro-/nanoelectronics sector. All three MS are generally characterised by a lack of multinational headquarters and production facilities and a focus on components (not end-products). These factors severely limit the sector’s potential to increase awareness for micro-/nanoelectronics courses and jobs, and to increase the attractiveness of the sector.

Finally, with regards to retraining of the existing workforce, all three MS indicate that current investments in training and development are too low. Although the benefits of training are mostly known to companies, the substantial costs associated with it, limited internal capacity for training, limited external availability of technical training, and the risk of job mobility especially amongst younger workers, prevents companies from adequately retraining the existing workforce. These problems particularly hold for SMEs, which form the largest share of companies in all three Member States.

Proposed measures for each of the Member States

With regards to the alignment of skill needs between academia and industry, a key measure is to better embed technical multi-disciplinarity and non-technical courses in technical curricula. Across all three MS, we identified a need for more non-technical skills, including team working, communication an presentation skills, flexibility, and out-of-the-box thinking. In addition, there is a clear need amongst industry for electronics engineers that are not just specialists in their own field of expertise, but that are able to develop client-oriented overarching solutions in multi-disciplinary teams. This means that engineers need to be able to present their findings to technicians in other fields of expertise and simultaneously, have to adequately assess the outputs of their finance, marketing, IPR or sales departments.

All three MS would benefit from updating the skills of teachers and professors, and the promotion of innovation in teaching. These measures can help to generate structural change in the education system, by ensuring that education does not lag behind industry developments and needs. This includes constant updating of the skills of teachers by for example arranging for structural exchanges between educational institutes and industry.

When considering the retraining of the existing workforce, collectively organising training programs and apprenticeships were proposed to both Germany and the UK. This measures was positively received by stakeholders from both MS.

In France, tax facilities exist that offset the costs that companies face when organising continuous education efforts. However, it proves difficult to attract enough workers to retraining programmes. Attention needs to be paid to demonstrating workers the benefits of


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participating in training activities. Workers should thus be encouraged to invest time in up-skilling.

With regards to raising the awareness of micro-/nanoelectronics sector in society, stakeholders from all MS positively received the idea of developing a targeted communication strategy for KETs. These national communication plans should include a careful selection of media to reach out to the targeted publics. In order to achieve large-scale effects, mainstream media should be employed as much as possible. These national communication plans should bring coherence and coordination to already existing initiatives on the local/regional level.

Besides these large-scale coordinated measures, small-scale measures were also proposed that should provide individual stakeholders (educators or companies) with tools to increase awareness for (specific) KETs. These include the development of educational kits and KETs-related MOOCs.

Finally, the issue of an unattractive image of the micro-/nanoelectronics sector could be addressed. Various stakeholders, however, emphasised that lack of safety or hygiene is not a problem for workers in the micro-/nanoelectronics sector.

Impact of the sectoral pilots

The sectoral pilots showed that stakeholders across all three MS share the sense of urgency that Europe has to act to counter the KETs skills challenges. With the stakeholder workshops in each MS, we did not only validate the proposed measures but also generated support for their implementation. However, what also became apparent is that many companies active in the nanoelectronics sectors are already struggling with finding enough funds for retraining, let alone making funds available to drive communication campaigns, contribute to educational curricula or develop new tools like educational kits and MOOCs. To conclude, local, national and European policy makers need to take the initiative to start implementing proposed measures and stimulate large industry to take up their share of the workload.

6.6. Conclusions

The following conclusions can be drawn from this Chapter:

• Stakeholders from France and Germany indicate that the current supply of engineers is still sufficient to address industry needs. In the UK, short-term shortages of electronics engineers appear to be a bigger challenge already at this point.

• While in Germany, stakeholders report a misalignment in terms of what industry needs in graduates and what universities are able to deliver (quality), stakeholders in France indicate that the skills that new engineers bring to the market are quite well aligned with industry needs.

• With regards to long-term industry needs, however, across all three MS, stakeholders clearly indicate that the number of engineers in the field of micro-/nanoelectronics will be insufficient to address industry needs in the future.

• All three MS are generally characterised by a lack of multinational headquarters and production facilities and a focus on components (not end-products).

• In Germany, unattractiveness of the engineering profession was not identified as a key challenge. This is different in the UK, in which the engineering profession holds less esteem. However, the German nanoelectronics sector is lacking a shining star to attract engineering talent.

• With regards to retraining of the existing workforce, all three MS indicate that current investments in training and development are too low.


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• There is a clear need amongst industry for electronics engineers that are not just specialists in their own field of expertise, but that are able to develop client-oriented overarching solutions in multi-disciplinary teams.

• All three MS would benefit from updating the skills of teachers and professors, and the promotion of innovation in teaching.

• Stakeholders from all MS positively received the idea of developing a targeted communication strategy for KETs.

• Many companies active in the nanoelectronics sectors are already struggling with finding enough funds for retraining, let alone making funds available to drive communication campaigns, contribute to educational curricula or develop new tools like educational kits and MOOCs.

• Local, national and European policy makers need to take the initiative to start implementing proposed measures and stimulate large industry to take up their share of the workload.

Vision and Sectoral Pilot on Skills for Key Enabling Technologies Annex A

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Annex A: Core KETs competences, knowledge and skills

Vision and Sectoral Pilot on Skills for Key Enabling Technologies Annex A

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TABLE A-1: Core KETs competences, knowledge and skills

Nr Competence Description Examples of knowledge and skills

1 TECHNICAL

1.1 Technical background

1. Chemistry A science that deals with the structure and properties of substances and with the changes that they go through209.

Colloidal Chemistry, Wet Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Molecular Chemistry

2. Physics A science that deals with matter and energy and the way they act on each other in heat, light, electricity, and sound210.

Classical Mechanics, Electromagnetics, Thermodynamics, Statistical Mechanics, Molecular quantum Mechanics

3. Engineering (incl. Systems Engineering)

The application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people211.

Chemical, Electrical, Materials, Mechanical

4. Electronics (Branch of Physics) The study of flow and control of electrons (electricity) and the study of their behaviour and effects in vacuums, gases, and semiconductors, and with devices using such electrons212.

5. Biology A science that deals with living organisms and vital processes213.

Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Biophysics

6. Optics (Branch of Physics) The study of behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it214.

Geometrical optics, Physical Optics, lasers

209 Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary 210 Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary 211 Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary 212 http://www.electronicsandyou.com/electronics-basics/electronics_definitions.html 213 Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary 214 McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (5th ed.). McGraw-Hill. 1993

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7. Photonics The science of generation, emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and detection/sensing of light215.

Biophotonics, Mictrophotonics, Nano-Optics, Holography, Optical Computing

8. Computer science The systematic study of the feasibility, structure, expression, and mechanisation of the methodical processes (or algorithms) that underlie the acquisition, representation, processing, storage, communication of, and access to information216.

Algorithms and Data Structures, Programming language, Computational Science, Databases, Software Engineering, Computer Graphics and Visualisation

9. Nanoscience The study of the performance of ultra-small structures, materials, and devices, usually 0.1 to 100 nm; also, the study of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale217.

Nanoscale Quantum Effects; Nanoscale Devices and Systems218 etc.

10. Materials Science Study of the properties of solid materials and how those properties are determined by the material's composition and structure, both macroscopic and microscopic219.

New Material Properties and Selection

11. Mathematics The science of numbers and their operations, interrelations, combinations, generalisations, and abstractions and of space configurations and their structure, measurement, transformations, and generalisations220.

Algebra, geometry, analysis, logic, applied mathematics

12. Statistics The study of the collection, organisation, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. It deals with all

215 http://www.np.edu.sg/~sat/Schprj/Photonics/photonics.html 216 http://www.cs.bu.edu/AboutCS/WhatIsCS.pdf 217 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nanoscience 218 Nanoscale CMOS technologies; Non-silicon nanoelectronic devices and systems; Semiconductor nanowires and other solid-state nanostructures; Plasmonic phenomena in

nanostructures; Nanophotonic materials, devices, and systems; High-density magnetic storage media and systems; Nanomagnetic and spintronic devices; Micro- and nanofluidics; New technologies for energy generation, conversion, and storage; Advanced sensor devices, at: http://www.ece.ucsd.edu/nds

219 Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary 220 Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary


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aspects of data including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments221.

13. Metrology The study of units of measurement; includes all theoretical and practical aspects of measurement222. (Ultra-precise measurement and testing techniques)

1.2 Design

14. Design Methodology Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principals involved in production of technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models223.

15. Operations Analysis Analysing needs and product requirements to create a design224.

16. Systems Analysis Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes225.

17. Computer-Aided Design (CAD) The use of computer systems to assist in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimisation of a design. CAD software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve communications through documentation, and to create a database for manufacturing. CAD output is often in the form of electronic files for print, machining, or other manufacturing operations226.

221 Dodge, Y. (2006) The Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms, OUP 222 Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary 223 http://www.mymajors.com/skills-and-knowledge/materials-engineers 224 http://www.mymajors.com/ 225 http://www.mymajors.com/ 226 Narayan, K. Lalit (2008). Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India. p. 3.


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18. Multidisciplinary design optimisation A field of engineering that focuses on the use of numerical optimisation for the design of systems that involve a number of disciplines or subsystems. The main motivation for using MDO is that the performance of a multidisciplinary system is driven not only by the performance of the individual disciplines but also by their interactions227.

19. Process Layout & Optimisation Adjusting a process in order to optimise specific parameters without violating constraints. The most common goals of process layout & optimisation are minimising cost, maximising throughput, and/or efficiency.

20. Life-cycle analysis Ability to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life from-cradle-to-grave.

21. Scalability analysis Ability to assess if a system, network, or process is able to handle a growing amount of work in a capable manner.

1.3 ICT skills

22. Computer skills Computer skills necessary to carry out research and development in KETs. Basic computer skills are considered foundational. In addition to technical software applications, fluency with basic Microsoft Office software is highly valued in new applicants, such as the ability to develop a PowerPoint presentation or use Excel spreadsheets228.

MS Office Applications, Enterprise Resource Planning, Visio, CAD

Specific data processing skills, such as information management systems in the laboratory and the use of databanks with nanotechnology related parameters229.

227 Martins, J. R., & Lambe, A. B. (2013). Multidisciplinary design optimization: a survey of architectures. AIAA journal, 51(9), 2049-2075.

228 Hardcastle A., Waterman-Hoey S. (2010) “Advanced Materials Manufacturing, Sustainability and Workforce Development”, Pilot Study, Washington State University 229 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology


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23. Programming Writing computer programs for various purposes230. Programming environments (X, Motif, Visual; Programming tools (shell scripting, sed, awk, m4 perl); Algorithms (optimisation, AI, list-based interfaces); Assembly language, Client/Server, Documentation)

24. Computational thinking Ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and to understand data-based reasoning231.

1.4 Modelling and simulation

25. Mathematical modelling and simulation

Method of simulating real-life situations with mathematical equations to forecast their future behaviour. Mathematical modelling uses tools such as decision-theory, queuing theory, and linear programming, and requires large amounts of number crunching232.

26. Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) The use of computer software to simulate performance in order to improve product designs or assist in the resolution of engineering problems for a wide range of industries. This includes simulation, validation, and optimisation of products, processes, and manufacturing tools233.

• Stress analysis on components and assemblies using FEA (Finite Element Analysis);

• Thermal and fluid flow analysis Computational fluid dynamics (CFD);

• Multi-body dynamics (MBD) & Kinematics;

• Analysis tools for process simulation for operations such as casting, moulding, and die press forming.

230 http://www.mymajors.com/ 231 “Future Work Skills 2020”, Institute for the Future for the University of Phoenix Research Institute, 2011 232 http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/mathematical-model.html 233 http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/plm/cae.shtml


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• Optimisation of the product or process.

• Safety analysis of postulate loss-of-coolant accident in nuclear reactor using realistic thermal-hydraulics code.

27. Non-destructive testing A wide group of analysis techniques used in science and industry to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage234. The terms Non-destructive examination (NDE), Non-destructive inspection (NDI), and Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) are also commonly used to describe this technology. Because NDT does not permanently alter the article being inspected, it is a highly valuable technique that can save both money and time in product evaluation, troubleshooting, and research.

Ultrasonic, magnetic-particle, liquid penetrant, radiographic, remote visual inspection (RVI), eddy-current testing, and low coherence interferometry

28. Real-time modelling and simulations Real-time simulation refers to a computer model of a physical system that can execute at the same rate as actual “wall clock” time. In other words, the computer model runs at the same rate as the actual physical system. Real-time simulation is important in the industrial market for operator training and off-line controller tuning235.

1.5 Equipment handling skills

29. Equipment Selection Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job236.

234 Cartz, Louis (1995). Nondestructive Testing. A S M International. 235 http://www.vega-group.com/assets/documents/10000421matlabsimulink.pdf 236 http://www.mymajors.com/


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30. Installation Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications237.

31. Equipment running skills Highly skilled technicians are required who are capable of running complex equipment (such as scanning tunnelling microscopes and electron microscopes)238.

32. Operation Monitoring Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly

33. Troubleshooting skills Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it239.

34. Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO)

All actions which have the objective of retaining or restoring an item in or to a state in which it can perform its required function. The actions include the combination of all technical and corresponding administrative, managerial, and supervision actions240.

1.6 Manufacturing

35. Process improvement tools Process Improvement is used to identify, analyse and improve existing processes within an organisation to meet new goals and objectives241.

Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma

36. Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) The use of computer software to control machine tools and related machinery in the manufacturing of work pieces242. CAM is a subsequent computer-aided process after computer-aided design (CAD) and sometimes

237 http://www.mymajors.com/ 238 “Skills and the future of Advanced Manufacturing: A Summary Skills Assessment for the SSC Advanced Manufacturing Cluster”, SEMTA, December 2009, at http://www.cogent-

ssc.com/research/Publications/ADVMFG_FINAL_March2010publish.pdf 239 http://www.mymajors.com/ 240 European Federation of National Maintenance Societies 241 http://www.simul8.com/process_methodologies 242 Matthews, Clifford (2005). Aeronautical engineer's data book (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 229.


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computer-aided engineering (CAE), as the model generated in CAD and verified in CAE can be input into CAM software, which then controls the machine tool.

37. Systems Evaluation Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system243.

38. Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Knowledge of written documents that describe the step by step instructions for the process to be performed along with the required list of materials and equipment necessary for the procedure244.

39. Product labelling and packaging Packaging is the technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Package labelling is any written, electronic, or graphic communications on the package or on a separate but associated label245.

40. Top-down fabrication techniques The top-down approach to nanofabrication involves the creation of nanostructures from a large parent entity. This type of fabrication is based on a number of tools and methodologies which consist of three major steps:

(1) The deposition of thin films/coatings on a substrate;

Top-down techniques include247:

• Next generation lithography248: o Lithographic patterning

techniques using short wavelength optical sources;

o Lithographic printing techniques using extreme ultraviolet and X-ray;

243 http://www.mymajors.com/skills-and-knowledge/robotics-technicians 244 http://awfi.org/using-standard-operating-procedures 245 Soroka (2002) Fundamentals of Packaging Technology, Institute of Packaging Professionals


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(2) Obtaining the desired shapes via photolithography;

(3) Pattern transfer using either a lift-off process or selective etching of the films246.

o Scanning beam techniques such as electron-beam lithography;

o Electron-beam lithography; o Scanning probes to deposit or

remove thin layers. • Mechanical printing techniques

including nanoscale imprinting, stamping and moulding;

• Carbon nanotubes including use for field emitter applications;

• Nanostructures for optical and magnetic applications;

• Dispersion solution drop & evaporation method249;

• Langmuir Blodgett (LB) method; • Nano template method; • Atomic layer deposition (ALD; • Giant magneto resistance; • Advanced solid state physics and

process technology tools; • Focused ion beam techniques; • Atomic force microscope tip

techniques. 41. Bottom-up fabrication

techniques/Synthesis Synthesis strategies for functional nanostructures include concepts for self-assembly, non-covalent interactions, host-guest chemistry and template-based structural evolution. To understand these nano-systems and to create specific nanostructures for technological

247 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/apps/projects/logos/1/257051/080/deliverables/001_EurodotsD12.pdf 248 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/962484/nanotechnology/236453/Top-down-approach 246 Liu, M., Ji, Z., & Shang, L. (2010). Top-Down Fabrication of Nanostructures. Nanotechnology. 249 http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/266291/1/cpaper_125.pdf


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applications, a wide range of microscopic and spectroscopic characterisation techniques is employed250.

42. Micro-assembly The assembly of objects with microscale and/or mesoscale features under microscale tolerances. It integrates techniques from many different areas such as robotics, computer vision, microfabrication and surface science251.

• Clean room-based lithographic and related methods of microfabrication

• Bonding technologies • Micro-assembly and packaging

technologies for micro-optical systems

• Handling, positioning, alignment • Wafer-level-optics

43. Macro-assembly Ability to fabricate high complexity micro systems integrated and packaged in 3D with various heterogeneous parts, components, and interconnections, including electrical, optical, mechanical as well as fluidic means. It is based on the drive to establish intelligent/smart assembly and disassembly for manufacturing to reach a new level of autonomy, quality and productivity by taking full advantage of the advancement in robotics and machine intelligence252.

1.7 Diverse other technical competences

44. Systems integration Joining different subsystems or components as one large system. It ensures that each integrated subsystem functions as required. Systems integration is also used to add value to a system through new functionalities provided by connecting functions of different systems253.

250 http://www.ams.cup.uni-muenchen.de/research.html 251 http://www.researchgate.net/publication/233071951_A_Microassembly_System_for_the_Flexible_Assembly_of_Hybrid_Robotic_Mems_Devices 252 Lee, S. (2010) Micro/Macro Assembly and Disassembly, Frontiers of Assembly and Manufacturing (pp. 97-98), Springer Berlin Heidelberg 253 http://www.techopedia.com/definition/9614/system-integration-si


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45. Characterisation and analysis Nanotechnology R&D, manufacturing, and quality control require mastering some characterisation and analysis tools, which are decisive to determine the atomic structure of materials. These new instruments are increasingly complex and automated254.

Specific characterisation and analysis tools

255:

• Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

• Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)

• Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) • Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy

(STM) • Optical Microscopy • Fluorescence Microscopy • Confocal Microscopy • X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy

(XPS) • Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

(SIMS) • X-Ray

46. General Lab Skills A set of fundamental skills needed to be able to safely work in a laboratory environment.

Examples of skills256:

• Organising compounds • Requesting tests and matching

request to test sample • Setting up and working reactions • Preparing test subject for

sampling • Performing tests/assays • Maintaining inventory of

laboratory supplies

254 Invernizzi, N. (2011) “Nanotechnology between the lab and the shop floor: what are the effects on labo?” Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 13(6), 2249-2268. 255 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 256 “Combined Academic Knowledge Technical Skills, and Employability Skills from Bioscience and Agricultural Biotechnology Skills Standards”, Education Development Center, Inc.

and FFA Foundation, available at: http://www.bio-link.org/EDCskills.htm


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• Ordering supplies and reagents • Dating, labelling, storing supplies

and/or reagents • Maintaining and storing

manufactured products inventory 47. Specific Lab Skills A set of specific skills needed to use living cells (such as

bacteria, yeast, algae) or component cells like enzymes, to generate industrial products and processes. Products include biomass-based materials such as fuels and chemicals, while processes include the treatment of waste water and energy efficiency measures257.

Cell Biology Techniques258:

• Isolating and characterising cell lines;

• Propagating plant and animal tissue;

• Using cryogenic techniques; • Performing cytological tests, i.e.

sectioning and staining; • Performing bioassays etc.

2 QUALITY, RISK & SAFETY

2.1 Quality

48. Quality management Management activities and functions involved in determination of quality policy and its implementation through means such as quality planning and quality assurance (including quality control)259.

Quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement

49. Computer-Aided Quality Assurance (CAQ)

The use of the computers for quality control of the product260. This includes:

Examples of skills:

• Computer aided inspection with

257 http://www.innovation.gov.au/industry/biotechnology/IndustrialBiotechnology/Pages/default.aspx 258 "Combined Academic Knowledge Technical Skills, and Employability Skills from Bioscience and Agricultural Biotechnology Skills Standards", Education Development Center, Inc.

and FFA Foundation, available at: http://www.bio-link.org/EDCskills.htm 259 http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/quality-management.html 260 http://www.brighthubengineering.com/cad-autocad-reviews-tips/64482-computer-aided-quality-control-or-caqc/


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• Statistical process control (SPC) • Measuring equipment management • Goods inward inspection • Vendor rating • Attribute chart • Documentation

coordinate-measuring machine (CMM)

• FMEA Failure mode and effects analysis

• SPC Statistical process control • Tolerance stack-up analysis using

PMI models.

50. Quality Control Analysis Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance261.

2.2 Risk & safety

51. Risk Assessment Knowledge associated with risk appraisals, risk assessments, risk containment and management of emerging technologies and their impact on society262.

52. Working conditions/ Health and safety

A growing range of nano applications will require an increasingly sophisticated workforce prepared to deal with issues such as cleanliness and nanofabrication quality control263. Knowledge of regulation and legislation affecting the health and safety of people at work264.

Nanotechnology R&D and production sometimes require special working conditions such as clean rooms, and, in general, involve new materials and substances that require Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) knowledge and practices, such as special protective

Examples of skills:

• Identifying hazard potentials and following laboratory safety rules and regulations266;

• Identifying potential safety hazards and developing and implementing safe operating procedures per company specifications267;

• Using appropriate personal protective equipment (gloves, gown, apron, face

261 http://www.mymajors.com 262 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 263 http://theinstitute.ieee.org/career-and-education/career-guidance/big-opportunities-for-those-who-think-small 264 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology


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clothing, material handling methods, product cycle, environmental care, etc. 265.

shield, safety glasses, etc.) 268

53. Emergency Management and Response

The efforts of communities or businesses to plan for and coordinate all the personnel and materials required to either mitigate the effects of, or recover from, natural or man-made disasters, or acts of terrorism269.

54. Industrial Hygiene Industrial hygiene is generally defined as the domain dedicated to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, communication and control of environmental stressors in, or arising from, the work place that may result in injury, illness, impairment, or affect the well-being of workers and members of the community. These stressors are divided into the categories biological, chemical, physical, ergonomic and psychosocial270.

55. Equipment Safety Equipment safety implies following strict safety procedures, including wearing protective clothing (e.g. helmets, goggles etc.).

56. Ethics Knowledge of ethical conduct in relation to generation, application and dissemination of information related to scientific breakthroughs and novel innovations271.

3 MANAGEMENT & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

266 The National Photonics Skill Standards for Technicians, OPTEC (3d edition) 267 The National Photonics Skill Standards for Technicians, OPTEC (3d edition) 265 Invernizzi, N. (2011) “Nanotechnology between the lab and the shop floor: what are the effects on labo?” Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 13(6), 2249-2268. 268 The National Photonics Skill Standards for Technicians, OPTEC (3d edition) 269 "Maine Emergency Management Agency" (2007). "What is Emergency Management?". Retrieved 2014-02-22. 270 http://www.ors.od.nih.gov/sr/dohs/aboutDOHS/TAB/Pages/technical_branch_ih.aspx 271 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology


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3.1 Business development

57. Strategic analysis The strategic skills increasingly relate to being able to recognise market opportunities and develop cost-effective responses which allow companies to ensure that they fend off the competition and capture the profits272.

58. Technology strategy Knowledge associated with concepts of strategy, and the way organisations building their competitive advantage on technology273.

59. New Product and Process Development (NPPD)

Skills and knowledge associated with bringing new products and processes to the market. Products and markets are still at the development stage, getting the products to market quickly will be highly important and NPDI skills will be crucial in increasing the rate of growth of the sector274.

60. Marketing Knowledge associated with application of marketing tools, techniques and concepts to management of new products developed by high technology organisations275.

61. Customer Focus Demonstrating concern for meeting internal and external customers’ needs in a manner that provides satisfaction for the customer within the resources that can be made available276.

Examples of skills:

• Asking questions to identify customer’s needs or expectations or to determine customer’s awareness of the full range of available services;

• Involving stakeholders in the decision-making or problem-

272 “Sector Skills Insights: Advanced Manufacturing”, UK Commission for Employment and Skills, Evidence Report 48 July 2012 273 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 274 “Sector Skills Insights: Advanced Manufacturing”, UK Commission for Employment and Skills, Evidence Report 48 July 2012 275 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 276 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf


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solving process as early as possible;

• Taking a variety of actions to fully understand and meet a customer’s needs;

• Monitoring customer satisfaction regularly;

• Responding to customers with an appropriate level of urgency;

• Looking for ways to continuously improve results or outcomes to increase customer satisfaction;

• Working with customers to develop realistic objectives or time frames277

3.2 Operational management

62. Project Management Project management is the application of knowledge, skills and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently. It’s a strategic competency allowing organisations to tie project results to business goals — and thus, better compete in their markets278.

63. Time Management Managing one’s own time and the time of others279.

64. Teamwork skills Skill associated with collaborating with other people in a team to achieve an objective280.

• Asking for the input of group members and encourages the participation of all;

• Giving credit and recognition to those who have contributed

277 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 278 http://www.pmi.org/About-Us/About-Us-What-is-Project-Management.aspx 279 http://www.mymajors.com 280 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology


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• Demonstrating interest in helping others solve problems and accomplish work objectives;

• Following up on inquiries and requests from peers and co-workers;

• Participating actively in accomplishing group goals, doing his or her share willingly;

• Sharing information and own expertise with others to enable them to accomplish group goals;

• Working to develop consensus in pursuit of group goals;

• Acknowledging and working through conflict in a productive way; shares concerns and differing opinions in a constructive, positive way;

• Respecting and being tolerant of differing opinions and those who hold them;

• Obtaining cooperation of others for whom one has no direct supervisory responsibility281.

65. Coaching & Developing Working to improve the immediate performance of others; facilitating their skill development; and giving feedback in a manner that facilitates confidence and maintains self-esteem282.

• Reinforcing effective behaviours or results through acknowledgement, recognition and/or feedback in a timely manner;

• Clearly stating actual performance compared to expected or desired performance;

281 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 282 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf


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• Devoting time to providing task-related help to others;

• Asking questions that help other people recognize the need for performance improvement;

• Expressing confidence in an individual’s ability to meet or exceed expectations;

• Taking time to listen to other’s issues and concerns;

• Discussing problems immediately, before they are forgotten or out of control;

• Encouraging others to voice their concerns and constructive criticism283.

66. Delegation skills Delegation is the assignment of authority and responsibility to another person (normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific activities284.

67. Monitoring Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organisations to make improvements or take corrective action285.

68. Risk Management Knowledge associated with risk appraisals, risk assessments, risk containment and management of emerging technologies and their impact on society286.

69. Management of Personnel Resources Motivating, developing, and directing people as they

283 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 284 Angst, Lukas and Karol J. Borowiecki (2013) Delegation and Motivation, Theory and Decision, forthcoming 285 http://www.mymajors.com 286 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology


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work, identifying the best people for the job287.

70. Management of Financial Resources Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures288.

71. Supply chain management The active management of supply chain activities to maximise customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. It represents a conscious effort by the supply chain firms to develop and run supply chains in the most effective & efficient ways possible289.

Supply chain activities cover everything from product development, sourcing, production, and logistics, as well as the information systems needed to coordinate these activities290.

72. Cost modelling skills In order to produce a part profitably, and yet compete successfully in the market, a company must have solid estimates of input factors’ (material, labour and transportation) cost variability and how this would impact the ultimate cost of the finished part. Cost Modelling allows one to capture all these costs, relate them to the final cost of the product and help one develop accurate forecast ranges for the input factors’ costs291.

73. Generation of shop floor work instructions

Ability to create, publish and manage shop floor work instructions292.

Examples of skills293:

• Managing work instruction templates;

• Presenting visual data; • Making sure that shop floor

workers have easy access to the

287 http://www.mymajors.com 288 http://www.mymajors.com 289 http://scm.ncsu.edu/scm-articles/article/what-is-supply-chain-management 290 http://scm.ncsu.edu/scm-articles/article/what-is-supply-chain-management 291 http://www.simafore.com/blog/bid/75578/Cost-Modeling-and-Cost-Forecasting-for-Small-Manufacturing-Business 292 http://blog.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com/blog/2013/05/31/teamcenter-tecnomatix-ewi/ 293 http://blog.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com/blog/2013/05/31/teamcenter-tecnomatix-ewi/


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system. 74. Procurement skills Knowledge and understanding of procurement practices

and processes including demand planning, supplier research and selection, value analysis, price negotiation, supply contract administration and inventory control.

Be acquainted with vendors and equipment sources and know how to complete a purchase order.

3.3 Entrepreneurship

75. Deal negotiation skills Ability to effectively engage in deal negotiations and reach a favourable agreement.

76. Acquisition of funding Ability to attract various sources of funding (public grants, venture capital etc.)

78. Intellectual Property (IP) management

Knowledge associated with intellectual property right such as patents, copyrights and trademarks. The subject also covers strategies of protecting these right and application for maximum value creation294.

79. International regulatory affairs Knowledge associated with the existing regulation and legislation in relation to emerging technology, and their limitations295.

4 COMMUNICATION

80. Interpersonal skills The ability to interact effectively with others with sensitivity and skill296.

81. Verbal communication Ability to convey thoughts and express ideas effectively using speech in individual or group situations; attending to and fully comprehends what others are saying297.

• Being clear and articulating when speaking with an individual or before a group;

294 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 295 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 296 Williams, P. (1998), Employability skills in the undergraduate business curriculum and job market preparedness: perceptions of Faculty and Final Year Students in Five Tertiary

Institutions (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI.


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Because the interdisciplinary nature of nanoscale work requires people to be able to talk to others in a wide range of fields and understand their often-divergent terminologies and goals298.

• Using examples and paraphrasing in speech, as necessary, to clarify ideas and concepts;

• Using vocabulary appropriate to the audience;

• Checking for understanding of the communication by asking open-ended questions that draw out the listener’s understanding;

• Thinking through what is to be communicated and organising thoughts and ideas effectively;

• Demonstrating effective listening by providing feedback to the speaker in such a way that it is clear that the message was understood299.

82. Written communication Knowledge competencies associated with communicating and explaining the implications of technical breakthrough through written methods300.

Ability to express ideas, thought and concepts clearly in writing, using correct and appropriate grammar, organization and structure301.

• Organising written work in a manner that is clear and easy to follow;

• Producing written material that is understandable, as evidenced by the reactions of the recipients;

• Keeping written material concise and relevant;

• Using proper grammar, spelling and punctuation and paragraph structure;

• Writing in a manner that commands attention and achieves desired results.

83. Presentation skills A set of techniques to successfully present oral

297 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 298 http://theinstitute.ieee.org/career-and-education/career-guidance/big-opportunities-for-those-who-think-small 299 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 300 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 301 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf


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information to others302.

84. Public communication Ability to work productively, drive engagement and demonstrate presence as a member of a virtual team303.

85. Virtual collaboration Knowledge associated with communicating and engaging with general public on matters of science and innovation304.

5 INNOVATION

86. Integration skills Ability to use and integrate other disciplines into joint solutions to complex problems.

87. Design mind-set The key principles of design mind-set are305:

(1) Practicing a methodology that involves identifying the problem, issue, or question at hand, and approaching it from various perspectives.

(2) Allowing any idea, regardless of quality, to appear on the table before it is judged.

(3) Taking risks with approaches and solutions that have never been applied or attempted before.

(4) Continuously striving to improve upon a current situation or condition, in an endless cycle.

88. Continuous experimentation Trying out new approaches, methods, techniques and combinations.

89. Complex Problem Solving Practical approach to problem solving (often using mathematical techniques)306 by means of reviewing

302 http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/presentation-skills 303 “Future Work Skills 2020”, Institute for the Future for the University of Phoenix Research Institute, 2011 304 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 305 http://www.ashmenon.com/the-design-mindset-8-principles-you-can-apply-in-your-life/


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related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions307.

90. Creativity Ability to generates novel and valuable ideas, using these ideas to development new or improved processes, methods, systems, or services or products308.

• Trying new methods for completing required tasks, eventually finding a “better way”;

• Challenging conventional practices in a constructive manner;

• Devising new ways to approach existing issues to add value through efficiency, effectiveness or customer satisfaction;

• Displaying a high level of curiosity and translates it into new approaches to problem identification and solution;

• Turning “lemons” into “lemonade”309. 91. Systems thinking Ability to understanding a system by examining the

linkages and interactions between the components that comprise the entirety of that defined system310.

6 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

6.1 Self-management

92. Persistence Persistence in the face of obstacles311.

306 http://www.iop.org/careers/future-with-physics/nanotechnology/page_58446.html 307 http://www.mymajors.com/careers-and-jobs/materials-engineers 308 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 309 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 310 http://www.systemicleadershipinstitute.org/systemic-leadership/theories/basic-principles-of-systems-thinking-as-applied-to-management-and-leadership-2/ 311 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology


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93. Passion, enthusiasm and curiosity A strong feeling of excitement for something or about doing something312.

Ability to learn new things and the desire to delve into new areas313; desire to question what everyone else accepts as fact. To ask the “why” questions and challenge ideas314.

94. Sense of responsibility Knowledge and understanding of a responsible and conscientious working attitude, as well as the skills required to bring this attitude into working practice315.

• Being punctual for work days, assignments, and tasks;

• Working responsibly with minimal supervision

95. Stress tolerance Accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high stress situations316.

• Providing accurate, consistent numbers on all paperwork;

• Providing information in a useable form and on a timely basis to others who need to act on it;

• Maintaining a checklist, schedule, calendar, etc. to ensure that small details are not overlooked;

• Following policies, procedure, safety and security measures in using various equipment;

• Work results require little or no checking;

• Writing down important details in messages or communications so the details are not lost or forgotten317.

312 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/passion 313 Invernizzi, N. (2011) “Nanotechnology between the lab and the shop floor: what are the effects on labo?” Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 13(6), 2249-2268. 314 http://ideastations.org/science-matters/steam-rising/hot-jobs-nanotechnology 315 http://www.mymajors.com 316 http://www.mymajors.com 317 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf


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96. Attention to detail Ability to achieve thoroughness and accuracy when accomplishing a task through concern for all the areas involved318.

• Providing accurate, consistent numbers on all paperwork;

• Providing information in a useable form and on a timely basis to others who need to act on it;

• Maintaining a checklist, schedule, calendar, etc. to ensure that small details are not overlooked;

• Following policies, procedure, safety and security measures in using various equipment;

• Work results require little or no checking;

• Writing down important details in messages or communications so the details are not lost or forgotten319.

97. Adaptability Being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace. The ability to accept, prepare for and handle organisational change320.

98. Ability to thrive on failures Ability to learn from unexpected results and transform these results into new opportunities.

99. Balancing life and work demands Ability to effectively balance life and work demands.

100. Self-discipline Ability to overcome one’s weaknesses321 by continuously working on self-improvement.

101. Self-control Maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger, and avoiding aggressive behaviour,

318 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 319 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 320 http://www.mymajors.com 321 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/self-discipline


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even in very difficult situations322.

102. Proactivity Evaluating, selecting and acting on various methods and strategies for solving problems and meeting objectives before being asked or required to do so323.

• Recognising and acting on opportunities;

• Digging beneath the obvious to get at the facts, even when not asked to do so;

• Creating opportunities or minimising potential problems by anticipating and preparing for these in advance;

• Anticipating needs in different situations and takes appropriate action;

Requiring minimum supervision and is self-directed within the scope of his/her accountabilities324..

103. Continuous improvement orientation A willingness to take on responsibilities and challenge325. • Paying attention to processes or steps leading to the accomplishment of results, looking for ways to improve quality, efficiency and/or effectiveness;

• Looking for ways to eliminate redundancy or in processes, for example repetition of steps in a process that provide no value-add;

• Looking for ways to streamline work processes, for example eliminating steps that do not add value or rearranging the steps in a process to

322 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 323 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 324 http://www.mymajors.com 325 http://www.mymajors.com


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facilitate workflow; • Looking for ways to reduce rework;

rework being anything that requires additional effort and attention to “fix” before the process can be successfully completed;

• Looking beyond symptoms to uncover root causes of problems;

• Looking for ways to reduce duplication of effort in and between departments;

• Questions “the way things have always been done around here” to ensure that processes and results continue to be relevant and add value326.

104. Active Learning Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making327.

105. Alertness Ability to constantly monitor internal and external (i.e. economic, social, cultural, political, technological etc.) developments, thereby gaining awareness of the latest trends, as well as the ability to act on them rapidly.

106. Judgment and decision making Ability to make decisional authoritatively and wisely, after adequately considering various available courses of action328.

• Weighting a considers alternative available actions before selecting a method for accomplishing a task or project;

• Refraining from “jumping to conclusions’ based on no or minimal fact-based or data-based information; taking time to collect facts before decision-making;

326 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 327 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 328 http://www.mymajors.com


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• Balancing needs and desires with available resources and constraints;

• Recognising when to escalate appropriate or specific situations to the next higher level of expertise;

• Considering the impact of an action or decision on customers and the institution;

• Listening to both sides of any story before making a commitment or taking action329.

6.2 Social skills

107. Friendliness/Being respectful of others

Friendly behaviour with people at work and outside work330.

108. Leadership Ability to develop and uses effective strategies, change management and interpersonal skills to influence others toward the accomplishment of identified objectives331.

• Soliciting input of others who are affected by plans, actions or proposed changes;

• Developing and using subtle, positive approaches or strategies to influence others;

• Serving as a role model to others, demonstrating commitment and a vision of challenging goals and objectives;

• Being approachable and establishes rapport with employees;

• Establishing measurable and achievable results expectations;

• Holding self and others accountable for

329 http://www.mymajors.com 330 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 331 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf


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achieving established performance expectations;

• Communicating a vision to pull others through a changing environment effectively332.

109. Integrity Being honest and ethical333.

110. Cooperation Being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude334.

111. Multi-cultural/global orientation Appreciation of a diverse workplace335, openness towards other cultures and acceptance of cultural differences, ability to work in an international environment.

• Pursuing inclusion of those with different backgrounds in day-to-day interactions within the team;

• Examining one’s own thought and language for assumptions and stereotypical responses;

• Establishing relationships with people who are different form oneself;

• Seeking to understand the individual person rather than seeing the person as a representative of a group;

• Accommodating different personal styles that are effective in accomplishing desired outcomes336.

332 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf 333 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 334 Singh K.A. (2007) “Nanotechnology skills and training survey”, Institute of Nanotechnology 335 http://www.dcccd.edu/cd/dcc/mech/semi/pages/careers.aspx 336 http://www.udayton.edu/hr/_resources/documents/CompetencyDictionary.pdf

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