4.The CENTRINNO School 21st century skills

The year 2023 has been designated by the European Commission as the European Year of Skills. As the name suggests, this year’s initiatives focuses on helping people get the right skills for quality jobs for long-term sustainable growth.

The series of initiatives around this theme perfectly matches with the ambitions of the CENTRINNO school programme, that puts skills centre-stage. Specifically, the CENTRINNO School focuses on building programmes and activities for developing 21st century skills and lifelong learning to create a better fit for vocational and post-vocational training with the needs of 21st century urban manufacturing and circular economy based on local needs where it is implemented.

The skills that shall be acquired in a CENTRINNO school initiative might be technical or transversal and ideally shall be combined. They should ensure that the green and digital transitions are facilitated and socially fair and just.  The twin transition will indeed restructure the entire economy, with tremendous effects on the labour market. In the framework of the CENTRINNO School programme, Onl’fait and Metabolic supported by all the CENTRINNO pilots identified a list of circular skills, a subset of the skills needed for the green transition and digital transition. Four categories were created to group the skills: circular food, circular products, circular building and assisting the circular economy.

Circular food. The circular economy transition requires everyone along the food value chain to develop new knowledge, expertise and skills. It starts with reviving old techniques and finding new ways of growing food in a way that requires less materials, fertilzers and generates less waste. Examples of skills: creating pollinator-friendly habitats, using robotics and drones in farming, extracting biochemicals from food waste

Circular products. Making products fit for a circular economy calls for a lifecycle approach. Designers, product developers and manufacturers all are required to think about their products as part of a system. Especially in cities, where makership is becoming a rare resource, small-scale producers can profit from combining digital manufacturing technologies with craftsmanship. Examples of skills: eco-design, modeling softwares, experience with traceability

Circular building. The building sector is one of the largest emitters of carbon as well as generators of waste. Changing construction and demolition practices towards a circular system requires special attention to new skills and knowledge. Examples of skills: experience with secondary material inventories, modular building, thermal insulation

Assisting the circular economy. Circular economy needs infrastructure and transversal skills to scale up and become an efficient alternative to linear economy. Examples of skills: lobbying, interpreting environmental data, open documentation

For the full research: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPiwIt5c=/