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The spring of 2021 has seen a concerted, virtual, effort to attract new talent to the European Textiles, Clothing, Leather and Footwear (TCLF) sectors by the partners of the Erasmus+ Skills4Smart TCLF industries 2030 Blueprint (S4TCLF) project. Between February and April, over 600 14-18 year olds from Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Romania took part in ‘Your First Step in TCLF’ virtual career and opportunity orientations webinars, introducing them to these sectors, relevant contributors to the European economy. In 2019, the TCLF industries generated more than E200 billion in turnover and directly employ more than 2 million European workers across almost 225 thousand companies.

The Chair Siro Badon: “Now, more than ever, we need to support Italian manufacturing abroad, as this is the only driver for the post-Covid economic recovery” ASSOCALZATURIFICI ORGANISES A COLLECTIVE OF ITALIAN COMPANIES AT THE AYMOD INTERNATIONAL FAIR IN TURKEY Italian shoes land in Turkey. Assocalzaturifici is organising a collective of Italian companies for the Aymod international fair, which is scheduled to take place in Istanbul between 31 March and 3 April 2021. A total of fourteen companies will be participating and represent some of the most important Italian footwear brands. “Turkey is a leading manufacturer, but it is also a market with great potential – states Siro Badon, Chair of Assocalzaturifici – It is the 6th largest global footwear manufacturer in terms of volume, with 535 million pairs produced in 2019, and is also the 6th largest exporter, with 275 million pairs. However, local products cater to a very different market segment than Italian shoes. According to calculations by the Confindustria Moda Research Centre based on ISTAT data, in the first 11 months of 2020, Italy exported 760,242 pairs of shoes (-9.1%, a reduction that was less severe than many other markets, in this very difficult year) for a corresponding value of 42.08 million euro (-14.3%), with an average price per pair of 55.35 euro (-5.7%). The top three Italian exporting regions are Lombardy, Veneto and Marche, which account for 64% of total exports. Despite the difficult economic situation Turkey is currently experiencing, this is a market that should not be overlooked for our medium-high quality footwear production and it is also a country that can be reached safely even during the pandemic. For this reason, we continue to support our companies in their internationalisation efforts in Turkey and other important markets, by helping them attend foreign trade fairs, which still represents a great opportunity to come into contact with local players from the sector and improve business prospects.”

On the 22nd of March 2021, the European Footwear Confederation (CEC) and partners from Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Spain, and Romania met remotely to kick off the new Erasmus+ project digitalFABLAB. New, innovative Vocational Education and Training (VET) practices and digital learning and teaching technologies must be taken up to reduce the skills gap between the education and the workplace, attract new professionals, and adapt to a highly digitalized post-COVID-19 world. The project will build on partners’ expertise in research, education, and digital tools elaboration to develop a digital Fablab using Augmented Reality, an associated international training course for students, and a methodology brief for teachers on how to incorporate the new platform into their training programmes.