SAM 1st Validation Workshop for validation of skills needs in Additive Manufacturing


The 1st validation workshop of the European project SAM took place last 27 of February, in Brussels. The project partners CECIMO, EWF, Materialise and IDONIAL presented the objectives and the motivation that brought the project consortium to develop SAM, as well as the first project results to a group of selected of additive manufacturing (AM) stakeholders (such as OEM, training center, industry national associations etc.)

The opening presentation was delivered by Carlo Scatoli, Senior Expert in DG EMPL at the European Commission (EC). In his presentation, Mr Scatoli outlined the challenges that the EU currently faces in developing the right set of skills in a fast-changing industrial job market. The EC is currently finalizing the new EU Skills strategy, which should be published in the same days as the Industry Strategy, to highlight the importance of moving these two topics together.


Michel Janssens, Materialise, explained the company’s reason for joining the project. He underlined that it is essential to work on fostering education throughout the whole AM value chain as the technology and applications continue to develop and expand. Eurico Assuncao, EWF, gave the audience some background information about the project, looking at the reasons why we need a strategic approach in the development of AM skills and profiles at European level.

The workshop continued with the presentation of the first project results. Paula Queipo Rodriguez, IDONEAL, presented the AM skills trends, which are the results of a series of surveys with industry experts and academia experts.

Full presentations available here: PPT1 / PPT2 / PPT3

Finally, participants were divided into three groups to tackle crucial issues such as:

  • • Training needs in AM
  • • Reskilling of the AM Workforce
  • • National implementation with a European Scope

The result of this interaction will be available soon on the SAM website. Stay tuned!