Sustainable solutions, automation and digitalisation as well as communication on a European level will be part of the education and training programmes. The ultimate goal of the project is to increase labour mobility in the inland shipping sector. COMPETING is an Erasmus+ project. The duration of COMPETING is from the 1st of January 2019 until the 31st December 2021.

COMPETING will develop curricula and lesson materials as well as a Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) system to ensure the highest level of quality concerning the implementation of future proof IWT (Inland Waterway Transport) education and training throughout the EU. There are fifteen partners participating in this project.The COMPETING consortium consists of different categories of stakeholders such as: (i) IWT education and training institutes, which have to modify their lesson programmes towards a European wide competency-based recognised education and training programme, (ii) social partners (employers and unions) representing the industry and crew members working in the industry and (iii) competent authorities and umbrella organisations as well as members of the Advisory Board.

For the first time all key stakeholders cooperate on an European level to develop an European wide recognised and modern curriculum for IWT, in combination with lesson materials as well as a Quality Assurance /Quality Control system (QA/QC). These achievements will in the end lead to the implementation of EU legislation, resulting in a comparable system for the recognition of educational programmes and properly qualified crew with the possession of a Union certificate.

Details on the progress of the project can be found in the December newsletter here.