Conceptual framework of Industry 5.0 to study workforce skills: D1.1

The research note “Conceptual framework of Industry 5.0 to study workforce skills” (D1.1) is a guide for the Bridges 5.0 project. A theoretical and conceptual framework is developed, providing insights to understand workforce skills for Industry 5.0. Industry 5.0 builds upon Industry 4.0 and tries to improve the technological achievements of Industry 4.0. But Industry 4.0 is seen as too ‘technologically deterministic’. Therefore, Industry 5.0 brings a new perspective on technology development and organisational behaviour in the industry. Companies need to focus on human-centricity, sustainability and resilience. This means that societal values are central to Industry 5.0. Industry 5.0 is new but already embedded in EU policy and needs to find a place at the national level, especially at the level of companies and work organisations. Industry 5.0 is a complex concept with many dimensions, which makes it difficult to define precisely. It is not our intention to make an all-encompassing analysis of Industry 5.0 dimensions. Instead, this research note focuses on workforce skills within Industry 5.0. In this context, Industry 5.0 has multiple goals (i.e. human-centricity, sustainability and resilience) and applied to multiple levels in the industrial ecosystem (society, industry level, organisations, workplaces, jobs) and is directed at different target groups (managers, employees, job seekers, students). By first studying the dimensions independent from each other and second studying the interactions between these dimensions, it is possible to translate Industry 5.0 into skill requirements. The focus is on requirements for companies and their policy and strategy and what human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience mean for them. Subsequently, this demands a translation into needed workforce skills. The report provides guidelines for this exercise at a general level, which means that these guidelines have to be tailored and operationalised for specific applications and implementations in practical interventions at the company level and for research design and data analysis. The interaction between Industry 5.0 goals and the target groups provides requirements for workers, company policies and other societal actors (such as educational institutes). This research note provides a first overview of what these requirements are. The interaction between ecosystem levels and the target groups provides the requirements needed for Industry 5.0 workforce skills. These skilling requirements will be further developed and tested throughout the Bridges 5.0 project. As such, this research note is a ‘moment in time’ of the conceptual framework that will continue to evolve.