The primary goal of the TRAIN-ECO project has been to develop training materials on eco-innovation for electronics professionals and entrepreneurs from SMEs and start-ups. SMEs and start-ups play an important role in the EU economy and need to transition to sustainable business models in order to support the EU’s efforts to build a green economy. For example, waste from the electronics industry is an growing problem not only within the EU but also across the world. However, currently SME and start-up staff often lack the training and skills necessary to develop innovative and eco-sustainable electronics products that comply with EU regulations. To address this, TRAIN-ECO has:

I) To adhere to sustainable development goals, developed training materials on eco-innovation and quality management in electronics product development, including a focus on EU environmental and safety standards:

II) Design a MOOC that will comprehensively cover above topics

The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed by TRAIN-ECO targets entrepreneurs, professionals, and students in the field of electronics, but will benefit anyone seeking to supplement their existing knowledge and expertise. Developed by University partners from Estonia, Finland, Germany, and Latvia, the MOOC is in video-lecture format and fully covers the development stages necessary for more eco-sustainable electronics production.

The MOOC is provided in the English language on YouTube but, if necessary, captions and automatic translation can be turned on in multiple native languages to assist in understanding the lectures, although the translation may be imperfect. The MOOC is free and available online to anybody, anywhere. The first MOOC took place in May/June 2023. It consists of 26 academic hours; each participant is able to individually decide on the time and date for accessing the course, allowing greater flexibility in taking it. After successfully completing the course, participants will be accredited with 1 ECTS by the University of Tartu (Estonia).

III) Created shorter e-modules on these topics and an open repository of project materials

All objectives have been set in recognition of the specific needs of electronics professionals and entrepreneurs. Since working professionals often lack time to engage in longer-term continuing VET programs, TRAIN-ECO has paid special attention to creating flexible learning opportunities for this group, in particular by designing the MOOC and a series of shorter e-modules on eco-innovation. In addition to staff from SMEs and start-ups, the project targets continuing education learners, students of electronics engineering, and VET and adult education providers, who will be able to freely use TRAIN-ECO materials.

The training materials developed by all partners have not only been evaluated and improved among the consortium itself, the project also organized several so-called Multiplier Events (MEs) where the main target groups were regionally gathered and included into the development process. Those events had two core parts: training material presentation by the partner and discussion with attending experts on potential improvements. As the partners have been solely responsible for the national / regional implementation of such events, different approaches and techniques have been used as well as format differed between online and offline sessions.

Below, the implemented MEs by the partnership are listed.

TRAIN-ECO Multiplier Event in Wismar, 20.06.2023

TRAIN-ECO Multiplier Event in Tartu, 26.05.2023

TRAIN-ECO Final Partner Meeting, Riga 09.-12.05.2023

TRAIN-ECO Multiplier Event at CONECT2023 Conference, Riga 11.05.2023

Webinar by Centria University, 23. & 24.11.2022

MOOC Recording, Tartu 03.-05.10.2022

Seminar in Riga, 05.04.2022

Event in Wismar, 10.05.2022

Webinar by Tartu & Riga University, 23.05.2022

Event in Wismar, 24.05.2022

Webinar by Riga University, 21.06.2022

TRAIN-ECO Partner Meeting, Wismar 26.-28.10.2021

TRAIN-ECO Session at CONECT2023 – Register now!

We would like to invite you to join the upcoming CONECT Conference session on circular economy held by our colleague

TRAIN-ECO MOOC starts at May 15th – Registration open!

University of Tartu (Estonia) is offering free online course for entrepreneurs and professionals working at Small and medium-sized enterprises (or SMEs)

UNEP & WRF publish Eco-i Manual as Electronics Supplement

The United Nation’s Environment Programme (UNEP) published an Eco-i Manual as supplement for electronics sector in cooperation with World Resources

TRAIN-ECO MOOC launch coming soon

One of the main objectives of TRAIN-ECO project is the preparation of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). It is

The most important Tech Trends for 2023

A new year brings up new chances and opportunities to answer societal and economic challenges. Reducing costs through IT optimisation, scaling

Critical Raw Materials – a huge Recycling Challenge

Critical raw metals, including the lanthanide series, scandium and yttrium, are critical components built into permanent magnets, electric vehicles, smartphones

MOOC Recording DONE!

In October, the TRAIN-ECO consortium implemented the recording of all courses and modules being implemented within the Massive Open Online

European Union declares USB-C as future standard charging type

The EU Parliament has given its final approval to the USB-C uniform charging standard for smartphones and many other devices.

The network of testing laboratories TEST-4-SME makes the development of electronic equipment easier for a small local manufacturer

The TEST-4-SME network of testing laboratories provides testing of electronic equipment to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in laboratories close to

How to comply with requirements and role of testing in electronic product development

University of Tartu in cooperation of Metrosert AS organized an online training for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the

University of Tartu

Hochschule Wismar, University of Applied Sciences: Technology, Business and Design

European Project Center

Centria University of Applied Sciences

Riga Technical University

Intellectual Outputs 1 & 2

To achieve the set taget and objectives of TRAIN-ECO project, the content implementation is based on a trilateral approach being represented by the so-called Intellectual Outputs (OIs). Whereas the final MOOC represents OI3, two outputs were developed and piloted jointly in advance, which serve as thematic frameworks for the MOOC. However, IO1 focuses on eco-innovation and quality management in electronics, whereas IO2 addresses EU environmental, safety and other regulations pertaining to the field of electronics.

Already at the beginning of the content development, which started with an intensive literature review on existing research items, application reports, economic studies and data mining, the consortium identified several spillovers on the proposed topics for IO1 & IO2. Hence, as logical consequence, four pillars have been introduced to more sufficiently cover and combine aspects coming from both areas. Based on these pillars, the first training materials have been developed for an internal mutual training. Here, first impressions and knowledge were shared among the partnership to improve the materials towards their training purpose and the development of an extensive and detailed guidebook on covered eco-innovation topics.

Subsequent, the guidebook and materials have been further elaborated and piloted in four regional multiplier events organized by each partner in the respective country. Experts in electronics, academics and entrepreneurs joined these first sessions presenting developed materials as training materials. The gathered feedback from the audiences were capitalized on to finalise the content materials for all four pillars as they are published below.

Please note: the materials are published open-access and should be cited as follows:

TRAIN-ECO (2022). Name of pillar. (Retrieved from: http://www.testelectronics.eu/train-eco/#1648644046280-ee57eaa1-6010, Access: xx.xx.xxxx).

Guidebook

Eco-innovation in Electronics Product Development - Guidebook

TRAIN-ECO’s developed guidebook offers a comprehensive and detailed analysis on important topics to improve eco-innovation capacities and competencies for professionals and entrepreneurs engaged in electronics SMEs & start-ups, as well as for students who are studying electronics/electrical machinery topics. The guidebook is based on the Four Pillars identified and developed by the project consortium: Quality of Product, Eco- and Circular Design, Quality of Production, and New Circular Business Models. The guidebook is intended to serve as the backbone of the training materials below and as the reference book to assist the learning process for all participants of the online MOOC course. Moreover, it is also a stand-alone publication covering the latest insights from research and economics in regard to eco-innovation for electronics products aiming towards approaches to a more circular economy. To comply with this aspiration, the guidebook is regularly updated by the consortium, making it a working document on the latest developments in the field. (ISBN: 978-9985-4-1345-6)

Pillar 1

Quality of Product

In the first pillar, an overview of existing regulations and standards pertaining to electronics products is given. This includes not only an introduction of main directives and how they affect electronics product development, but also safety requirements (human and product perspective) towards directives for environmental improvements in product performances and waste handling. This also includes main labeling mechanisms such as CE and IEC standards.

Pillar 2

Eco- and Circular Design

This pillar is covering a positioning of electronics within the concept of circular economy with focus on its waste management. In addition, the pillar offers approaches and guidelines for SMEs to reuse electronic waste products. Such E-waste is a growing challenge for European society as it is seen as crucial materials being reused in production and manufacturing. Through this, environmental performances of electronics can be heavily improved.

Pillar 3

Quality of Production

The quality of production does not only measures for improving the value of a product or service. Moreover, workplace and product safety are key criteria for qualitative production chains as well. Hence, this pillar is introducing into general performance optimisation and product safety principles, but also provides a stronger focus on workplace safety to elaborate and position the human factor in electronics production chains.

Pillar 4

New Circular Business Models

The fourth pillar mainly covers new circular business models in terms of the electronics consumption and its lifetime, waste and recycling procedures, including the aspects of growing needs for electronics and its challenges, rationale marketing, marketing methods and tools, marketing framework and sustainability, efficient and effective marketing of electronics and different practices. Environmental dimensions of supply chain, product life cycle, key social impacts of electronic production and Wee-recycling as well as policies and actions are being taken in order to reduce the negative impacts of it.

MOOC

EU Eco-Innovation Policies

The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed by TRAIN-ECO targets entrepreneurs, professionals, and students in the field of electronics, but will benefit anyone seeking to supplement their existing knowledge and expertise. Developed by University partners from Estonia, Finland, Germany, and Latvia, the MOOC is in video-lecture format and fully covers the development stages necessary for more eco-sustainable electronics production. The MOOC is provided in the English language on YouTube but, if necessary, captions and automatic translation can be turned on in multiple native languages to assist in understanding the lectures, although the translation may be imperfect. The MOOC is free and available online to anybody, anywhere.

MOOC - Massive Open Online Course

University of Tartu (Estonia) is offering free online course for entrepreneurs and professionals working at Small and medium-sized enterprises (or SMEs) and start-ups in the field of electronicsThe course is also meant for students of electronics engineering and related subjects. The goal of the course is to help entrepreneurs to learn more about development of innovative and eco-sustainable electronics products. The course starts on 23rd of October and ends on December 4th, lasting 6 weeks in total. The course has 6 Modules, which assume self-paced learning, so the course participant can complete them as soon as they like. After successful completion participants will receive 1 ECTS certificate digitally signed by the University of Tartu. The course is conducted entirely in English. Video lectures of the course are also available online on YouTube.

 

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