Overall Project Description
A human-centric Smart Industry through a scalable skill development
The Smart Industry sector in the Netherlands is facing a critical challenge: how to ensure that production workers can keep up with the rapid digital and technological transformation of their work environments. This large-scale, eight-year national project brings together research institutions, Smart Industry communities, SMEs, and educational and social partners to develop a robust and resilient workforce and a sustainable Smart Industry.
By combining scientific research and practical tools, the project aims to build a scalable, integrated skills approach. This approach supports workers and organisations in adopting and embedding Smart Industry technologies by focusing on four pillars: Smart Production Systems, Smart Jobs & Careers, Smart Workplaces, and Smart Interorganisational Infrastructures. The ambition of S@S is to create operational workplaces and career paths where production workers continuously adapt, learn, and contribute to innovation; making the Smart Industry not only smarter but also more inclusive and future-proof.
Description project Work package 3: Smart Workplaces
Building smart workplaces for continuous up- and reskilling
Work package 3 focuses on how we can design and support smart workplaces (i.e., environments that stimulate production workers to continuously update their skills while on the job). In today's fast-changing industrial landscape, traditional training programs are often too slow or inaccessible, especially for vocationally educated workers. Instead, we need practical, job-integrated learning solutions that adapt to daily work contexts.
This work package explores how to build smart workplaces, creating an environment that not only provide the right tools but also actively trigger learning, collaboration, and innovation. Using advanced research methods such as experience sampling, ethnography, and AI-based tool development, we investigate:
- What key drivers (personal, team, and organisational) stimulate day-to-day learning, skill updating, and renewal
- How adaptive tools embedded in daily work processes can guide and reinforce learning
- How informal, social-organisational learning pathways and practices (e.g., learning from experienced colleagues) are affected by smart technologies
The insights and tools developed in WP3 will enable companies to create resourceful, learning-rich smart workplaces where production workers are empowered to grow alongside and contribute to technology.
Expected outcomes: Work package 3
The expected outputs of WP3 are diverse and aimed at both scientific advancement and practical implementation:
- A dynamic development framework identifying the key personal and contextual drivers that support daily up- and reskilling
- Smart self-assessment tool for organisations and individual workers to assess and improve their smart workplace learning conditions (e.g., self-scan)
- A smart, AI-based adaptive tool that offers real-time learning support during work and stimulates production workers to contribute to Smart Industry practices
- Guidelines and scenarios for designing smart workplaces that support informal and adaptive learning processes
- Best practices for informal learning pathways, including practical examples and redesigned learning routes that help production workers upskill in environments with advanced technologies
- Scientific papers, dissertations, and professional publications that disseminate insights from WP3
Together, these outputs will contribute to building a Smart Industry workforce that is not only technically skilled but also adaptable, empowered, and future-ready.
involved researchers
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