Design Culture in the Era of Industry 5.0: A Review of Skills and Needs

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyse the designer skills and company needs that are important for design culture development in the coming era of Industry 5.0. For this purpose, 83 SMEs operating in the manufacturing sector in Italy, Spain, Romania, and Poland were analysed. Qualitative and quantita-tive research conducted within the European project Intride let the authors state that in the 21st century context, companies will need to look for designers with specific skills. Based on their study, the authors indicate the most important skills for further development of design culture from the areas of soft, technological, design, digital, and green skills. Further, the authors suggest that it is necessary to con-tinue research on identifying the most needed skills for smart designers in manufacturing and in rele-vant curricula at universities, which might fill educational gaps related to these skills. They propose the concept of the “smart designer” as a design innovation trigger in the manufacturing sector.

Industry 5.0 Beyond Technology: An Analysis Through the Lens of Business and Operations Management Literature

“…In general, I5.0 demands the ability to work with data, knowledge of interaction with computers, robots, and machines, and technical know-how in the areas of sustainable development, interdisciplinary knowledge, and mastering product, process, and system complexity (de Miranda et al, 2021). Soft skills are in the roll, including the art of communication and the ability to think in a creative and critical manner (Chin, 2021), as well as green skills or those that relate to the environment (Taverner et al, 2021). Despite these generic suggestions of abilities and skills, the literature calls attention to I5.0 presenting with unknown skills, competencies, and characteristics, due to its recent appearance in concept and little practical application (Shahbakhsh et al, 2022).…”

Go green in a greener world

“…On the other hand, businesses also need to acquire new skills to cope with the impacts of climate change. Training can strengthen business management capacities to encourage the adoption of innovative and environmentally friendly technologies, human resource development, and productivity improvement (Adarina et al, 2020;Savchenko & Borodina, 2020;Taverner et al, 2021) As a result, many Latin American member states have already begun to take steps to promote green growth: Costa Rica introduced a low-carbon agenda in 2009, intending to become carbon neutral by 2021, while the Mexican government has also taken steps to reform the energy sector to make the transition to clean energy. Chile is taking steps to implement its Green Growth Strategy, while Colombia implements a Low Carbon Development Strategy to promote growth in sectors that generate fewer GHG emissions (Cárdenas & Guzmán, 2020;Cárdenas et al, 2022).…”

“…Besides that, the government should encourage vocational schools and universities to equip their students with green skills to prepare for the industry in a real work context (Cecere & Mazzanti, 2017). And finally, to alleviate the problem of skills shortages in the labor market, the government should encourage companies, especially those in the private sector, to focus on upgrading and retraining their employees (Napathorn, 2021) The importance of green skills is that several sources have referred to it as the Industrial 5.0 revolution (Taverner et al, 2021), where green skills are the foundation of a low-carbon, low-emission economy. Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all, the fourth sustainable development goal on the UN agenda is crucial for development.…”

“…Consequently, in our opinion, Higher Education institutions (HEIs) will be required to provide solutions to the market, providing new young professionals able to tackle the New Green Challenge. HEIs not just in Europe, in all the Regions should include "green" new elements in their curricula; students should be exposed to green technologies during training (Heong et al, 2016;Song & Xie, 2020;Taverner et al, 2021). Furthermore, adapting to global change and achieving a green economy will require a range of new skills, including new job competencies, learning modes, management approaches, and research efforts (Vaquero et al, 2021).…”

European Union Conceptualisation of Industry 5.0: Opportunities and Challenges for Transdisciplinary Engineering

“…Supporting three of the Commission's priorities "An economy that works for people", "European Green Deal" and "Europe fit for the digital age", it has been the subject of a high-level expert group advising the Commission on research and innovation policy and is already being woven into policy initiatives. Despite its recent publication academic papers referencing this document are starting to be seen [15,[18][19][20].…”