With the aim of improving the training of workers and the competitiveness of the textile, clothing, leather and footwear (TCLF) sectors so that they can face the challenges of the digital era within a framework of transition towards a greener economy, 22 organisations from 9 European Union countries cooperated for more than four years on the Skills4Smart TCLF Blueprint project.

This ambitious project, funded by the European Commission's Erasmus+ programme and led here by A3 Leather Innovation Center – UdL with the participation of Leather Cluster Barcelona, sought to reskill the European textile, clothing, leather and footwear sectors in order to increase their appeal as a career option, while at the same time creating an international working network across Europe.

The Skills4Smart TCLF Blueprint took shape with the launch of the MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), free, massive and open online courses whose objective is to share and disseminate knowledge through the materials that teachers post on the web and the discussions that arise.

Following the good results of this project, its partners want to give it continuity and to keep making progress in the digital upskilling of the TCLF sectors, and have submitted a new proposal, Metaskills4TCLF.

The kick-off of this new European project took place in Porto (Portugal) on 26 and 27 September, with the participation of Anna Bacardit and Concepció Casas on behalf of A3 Leather Innovation Center – UdL and Mònica Santamans of Leather Cluster Barcelona.

Metaskills4TCLF already has the backing of thirty partners and aims to keep taking steps towards the digital transformation of the textile, clothing, leather and footwear sectors, with the development of new curricula and teaching materials with innovative content, learning tools and training in virtual reality.

In this new project presented in Porto, A3 Leather Innovation Center – UdL will be responsible for organising the course content and Leather Cluster Barcelona will carry out the dissemination of the project's results.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an entity accredited under the Catalonia Clusters programme and is supported by Acció.