One Leather Training

19 October 2005

“One Leather Training” launches the customer satisfaction survey on the Self Training Kit for the Leather Industry  

The EU sponsored Leonardo[1] project “One Leather Training” that started on 3^rd of October 2005 is advancing quickly. 

The project that aims at providing Europe’s Tanneries with a modern e-learning system for a number of job profiles which are key to a successful leather business operation is managed by a partnership of EU Leather R&D and Training Centres (AIICA/ES, BLC/UK, ELKEDE/GR, ICPI/RO, LGR/DE, PIPS/PL, SSIP/IT, Scalconsult/PT) led by CTIC/PT under the auspices of COTANCE and ETUF:TCL, the leather sector’s Social Partners at EU level. 

The first step consists of a customer satisfaction survey regarding the training material that was developed in a previous Leonardo project by almost the same group and that was distributed to Europe’s tanneries. This survey will be carried out by the Leather Technology Centres of the countries involved in this initiative (UK, Germany, Greece, Poland and Portugal) through the means of a questionnaire designed to get feedback from the users and other stakeholders on the way to improve the content and make the use of the training material more user friendly. 

The project’s partnership will count on the support and contribution from the tanneries and their staff that received the Self-Training Kit for the Leather Industry in the framework of the first Leonardo project.

The questionnaire and the survey constitute important instruments for the project partnership that will allow it evaluating the adjustments of form and content required for making “One Leather Training” a useful and accepted self-training system for Europe’s Leather industry.

 The results of this survey will be processed by the end of November 2005 so as to start working on the extension of the training kit and on the improvement of the existing training material as planned.

7 October 2005

Europe’s Leather Training goes on-line

 On 3^rd October 2005 Europe’s leather research and training centres together with a number of European leather trade associations launched in Naples, at the SSIP, the start of “ONE LEATHER TRAINING”, a EU supported project that will develop, over the next two years, a multilingual Internet platform capable of delivering professional training and skills development for tannery workers and managers as well as initial training to unemployed people and first job seekers.

 The project partners are CTIC (Portugal), LGR (Germany), ELKEDE (Greece), UK Leather Federation (former BLC, United Kingdom), PIPS (Poland), AIICA (Spain), SSIP (Italy) and ICPI (Romania). COTANCE and ETUF-TCL, the respective employers and workers organisations at EU level, as well as Scalconsult, a consultancy specialised in innovative training systems, will assist them.

 The project partners held their kick-off meeting under the chairmanship of Dr Alcino Martinho, director of CTIC and current GERIC President. CTIC, the Portuguese leather research and training centre, is the coordinator of this European leather-training course.

This initiative received the approval and financial support of the EU through the Leonardo da Vinci Programme. It is a follow-up project to a successful previous Leonardo pilot project (Self Training Kit for the Leather Industry) developed by almost the same partnership where self-training courses for 3 professional profiles (Foremen, Sorters & Graders, Salesmen) were elaborated in 5 languages (EN, DE, PT, GR, PL) on a paper-based and CD-ROM support.

This second exercise 
-         expands the group to Italy (SSIP), Spain (AIICA) and Romania (ICPI), 
-          enlarges the number of languages (IT, ES, RO), 
-          adds a new professional profile (Raw Materials Purchase Manager), 
-          reviews, up-dates and adapts the existing content so that it allows also unemployed and first job seekers to get acquainted with tanning operations facilitating their eventual insertion, and
-          develops an Internet platform where the training courses can be accessed.

 The partnership will start with a customer satisfaction survey of the previous training tool so as to get feedback from the actual users on how the content can be improved and made user-friendlier. A list of organisations assisting and providing qualification or re-qualification to jobseekers will be drawn up by all partners as potential candidates for intermediating in the supply of the initial training service. 

The on-line training will become available to Europe’s tanneries within two years. It will be freely accessible to COTANCE members’ affiliated companies and to Polish and Romanian tanneries. Continuing communication and information to the industry through the project partners will keep the sector’s operators informed on the development of the new training tool.