Upskilling and reskilling for engineering workforce: implementing an automated manufacturing 4.0 technology training course

Abstract

In today’s world of rapid technological advancement, engineers constantly need to upskill and reskill for a successful career. Industry 4.0 technologies are essential for engineers who must have up-to-date knowledge of automation and data exchange in manufacturing, such as cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things, cloud technology and the smart factory. However, many training courses fail to provide the required knowledge due to a lack of strategies to motivate engineers to learn and engage with new technology practices. In view of this, a training course has been designed and implemented to improve the performance of engineering workforce in industrial remote control. A programmable logic controller (PLC) has been used to collect sensor data and send it to databases through open platform communications unified architecture (OPC-UA). This enabled data analysis and visualisation in real time, and supported more significant decision-making in the automated industrial manufacturing process. The results from the course, including feedback from the trainees, indicated that active training can enhance engineers’ performance and their perception on technology