Closing the Skills Gap in the Era of Industrial Digitalisation

Manufacturing industry is in the midst of reshaping modern manufacturing by employing digital technologies due to its promising results. More and more companies are marching towards migrating their product offering and production infrastructure into Industry 4.0-compliant solutions. In this new era of industrial scenario, companies will need technicians and workers with digital skills mainly having abilities and competences in the Industry 4.0 Key Enabling Technologies (KET). However, lack of digital skills in the UK is considered perhaps the most serious obstacle to the practical implementation and investment in manufacturing digitalization technologies and is thus a major contributing factor to the UK productivity gap. Aiming to bridge the gap between the implementation of Industry 4.0 and educational organizations that focus on this field, the study presented here focuses on the development of a degree apprenticeship program in Digital technology solutions (DTS). The DTS program is developed in collaboration with leading UK industry partners to acquaint apprentices with appropriate knowledge that can help them to contribute towards digital transformation of their businesses