This September 14-16 the French national Worldskills competitions took place in Lyon, home to DIGITRONICS coordinator Interprofessionnelle Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. During these three days, over 800 French competitors in 69 different professions faced technical challenges, testing “precision, efficiency, and rapidity of executing various tasks in real-world situations, all the while judged by a jury of experts in the field. The professions are separated into different groups of disciplines:
- Arts,
- Construction,
- Hospitality, Catering and Cleaning Services,
- Industry
- Transportation/mobility
- Taste (butchery, bakery, pastry-making),
- Service and proximity (personal assistance, hair styling, nursing, cosmetics),
- Vegetation (floral art, horticulture, gardening and landscaping)
In addition to the competition, some event partners proposed complementary activities, like the Metallurgy professional syndicate, UIMM with a “Build your own Robot” activity and quizzes on industrial professions for visiting students (middle and high school) and the general public.
In terms of Industry professions in competition, 16 different professions were in competition from mobile robotics and CAO mechanical engineering to technical refrigeration and boiler making. In addition to mechatronics, there was also the Industry 4.0 profession, added this year. For the Industry 4.0 profession, the challenges consisted of creating systems based on a real-world case of implementation of Industry 4.0.
The mechatronics challenges boiled down to recreating real-world production lines on a smaller level in teams of two. As described by Worldskills, competitors “must be able to carry out and build a project using industrial components according to the documentation or design criteria provided. This includes assembling and controlling a machine, connecting cables and pipes; writing a program using software; programming a PLC; and designing pneumatic, hydraulic and electrical circuits using modern software tools.”
Another interesting aspect of the competition were the contestant information cards, presenting not only who was competing and from which region they came, but also their own personal “strong” traits and why they enjoy working in the profession. Take for example the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, home to cities like Lyon, Grenoble and Valence: the competitors cited personal traits like being inventive, objective, precise, creative, determined and patient. They also described that what they liked best about the profession was handling and developing subjects with perseverance, working with care and precision, solving difficult problems, using ingenuity and looking for solutions, learning quickly new working methods and techniques, and exploring things in detail and wanting to understand them. Worldskills allows young people to practice what they’ve learned, either in class or through various work study opportunities, and implement it not only through this skills competition but hopefully as they continue their careers within Industry 4.0.
The traits and actions described above as part of the mechatronics profession echoes what the DIGITRONICS project partners have identified, tested and demonstrated through project tasks and outputs. The personal traits are not only about technique and rigor, but also about creativity and patience which echoes what was described in the DIGITRONICS Competence framework, a mixture of technical but also soft skills that remain important for mechatronics professionals.
Worldskills will return to Lyon September 10-15, 2024 for the international competition. Although the DIGITRONICS project will have been completed by this time, the learning/training resources will still be available. DIGITRONICS partners hope to encourage looking at teaching/training in an innovative way, all the while promoting the promises of Industry 4.0 and lifelong learning for mechatronics professionals, teachers and trainers alike.
