The WELDNET consortium came together in Vienna, Austria this month for a consortium meeting to review the status of ongoing work and to refine our plans for the establishment of Centres of Vocational Excellence in welding (particularly focused on Predictive Maintenance (PM) and Circular Material Welding (CMW)) in Austria, Greece, Romania, Serbia, and Spain.
After an introduction from Prof. Fazel Ansari of the Technical University of Vienna’s Chair of Production and Maintenance Management, the morning session was dedicated to a review of the project’s work packages, highlighting work completed and achievements reached to date, as well as taking a look at upcoming work and coordination between work packages.
In addition to the WELDNET consortium meeting, February 11th was also International Day of Women & Girls in Science, so it was a fantastic opportunity for the project to celebrate the contribution of its female partners.
The afternoon was dedicated to workshops in which partners broke into teams to discuss how they will design the Centre of Vocational Excellence in their own country or region to ensure maximum impact. They also considered how best to reach out to Vocational Education & Training (VET) Centres in their country/region. Each region also brainstormed the potential awards schemes and incentives for learners that might be feasible in each country. These workshops provided an excellent opportunity to share ideas and seek alignment between regions. All in all, it was a highly productive meeting!
But the day didn’t end there! After the meeting the partners were able to enjoy a tour of the city, taking in some of its wonderful landmarks and learning about a little of its fascinating history, before joining together for a team-building dinner. Allowing the partners time to get to know each other and share their experiences working on the project was the perfect way to end the meeting and provided extra encouragement as we look forward to the next 3 years of working together to help train the European welding workforce of the future!
