At the end of November, a working session of the new European project, Metaskills4TCFL, was held at the Adoberia Bella.

This project is the continuation of the Skills4Smart TCLF Blueprint, the ambitious project funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme, which was led here by A3 Leather Innovation Center – UdL with the participation of Leather Cluster Barcelona, and which sought to reskill the European textile, clothing, leather and footwear sectors in order to increase these sectors’ appeal as a career option, while at the same time creating an international working network throughout Europe.

Following the kick-off meeting in Porto in September, this workshop was held at the Adoberia Bella, organised by the Universitat de Lleida and Leather Cluster Barcelona, together with the Confederations of the Footwear, Leather, Textile and Fashion industries (CEC, COTANCE and EURATEX). The event was attended by La Gaspar, the municipal school of art and design of Igualada, the Unió Empresarial de l’Anoia, and international stakeholders and associations.

The new Metaskills4TCLF project is funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme with 4 million euros, involves 30 partners from 11 different countries and will run for four years.

The project, whose purpose is to incorporate digital metaverse technologies in order to improve training and talent, is structured around 3 lines of work:

– Strategically, the aim is to expand the European network and create 7 national strategies, one of them the Catalan Region for the TCLF sectors: textile, leather, footwear and fashion.

– In the field of education, 8 courses focused on the circular economy and digitalisation will be created: 2 at EQF level 3-4 (intermediate vocational level), 2 at EQF level 4-5 (higher vocational level) and 2 at EQF level 6-7 (university level). These courses will be designed within the metaverse.

– On a social level, work will be carried out to make these sectors even more inclusive.

During the working session at the Adoberia Bella, the objectives and expected results of the Metaskills4TCLF project were defined, together with its alignment with the “Pact for Skills” at regional and local level. A new proposal of actions for Catalonia was also put forward, and the conclusions and the roadmap for the next 4 years were presented.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting and transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving forward the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited body within the Catalonia Clusters programme and has the support of Acció.