Technological education and training

Looks at the kind of technological education and training which will be necessary to staff the successful companies of the year 2000, concentrating on the recent European Automation and Robotics Training Conference held in London, where a discussion of this subject took place. Topics covered included ways of unlocking European funds to support education and training projects, the need for hybrid technicians with multi‐disciplinary skills and the launching of the first undergraduate degree course in the UK with robotics as a central theme. Concludes that training in robotics and automation is becoming more difficult as the complexity of controls,monitoring and adaptive devices grows. There is a need for more awareness of industry when developing courses for upcoming technicians and engineering graduates and a need to develop a continuous improvement culture that updates the education training of management and staff at all levels in companies.