36 project partners from 11 different countries took part

On 18 and 19 April the second working session of the European Metaskills4TCFL project was held at the Adoberia Bella, headquarters of Leather Cluster Barcelona.

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.

The new Metaskills4TCLF project is funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme with 4 million euros, involves 36 partners from 11 countries and will run for four years.

The project 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.

Following the kick-off meeting in Porto in September 2023, and a first session also held at the cluster’s headquarters at the end of November, this workshop took place 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 working meeting was opened by Patrícia Illa, Deputy Mayor of Igualada Town Council, who highlighted the importance of training and public-private collaboration in driving strategic projects. She also shared with all those attending the strategic lines of the city of Igualada for social and business improvement.

The workshop at the Adoberia Bella set out in detail how the project is progressing, examining in depth the work done in these first six months. The various working groups provided information on, among other topics, the desk and field research and the results obtained in recent surveys, on the sector’s specific skills needs and on the exploration of innovative learning experiences, and they were also able to test a first training experience in augmented virtual reality.

At the close of this second Metaskills4TCFL working session, a summary was given of the work done during the meeting and the tasks to be carried out over the next six months were set out.

During their stay in Igualada, the international delegation of the Metaskills4TCLF project learned about the projects on which Leather Cluster Barcelona is working, ranging from research and innovation to sustainability, the circular economy, traceability, training and communication with the end consumer. They also took the opportunity to discover the cluster’s leather ecosystem with visits to the Curtidos Badia tannery and to A3 Leather Innovation Center UdL.

You can follow the progress and news of the Metaskills4TCLF project on the website, on Linkedin and Instagram.

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.