VI-Train

VIrtuell TRAINing for traditional crafts

This educational project has set itself the goal of bringing craft activities that are hardly ever trained any more to the fore. Many of these craft areas require a lot of experience and guidance by experienced craftsmen and women. In particular, this training is promoted through various digitalisation measures.

An educational project introduces itself

The project description

Cultural Heritage (CH) is in the focus of the European Union as motor for employment, economic drive and development. In order to guarantee longevity & usability of European Heritage it is inevitable to keep up with the requirements of society like new technology and digitisation.

The Covid19 crisis added some urgency to the issue as training organisations strongly suffer from restrictions and new rules, which are threatening traditional education and training activities. Especially in regards to hands-on-training, where instructors need to get really close to learners in order to teach practical skills.

The challenges and the focus

The consortium of VI-Train takes on the challenge of developing innovative training for traditional respectively threatened crafts and handling of building damages, which will boost the digitisation of training in (built) Cultural Heritage. A big focus is given to crafts that are almost nowhere trained any more. Lots of those crafts do need a lot of experience and guidance by experienced craftspeople. This training in particular will be boosted by various digitisation support.

Participants of the courses developed in VI-Train can obtain a European certificate by undergoing an certification process provided by ECQA , which is an internationally active organisation specialised in certification of skills and competences.

VI-Train nicely enriches the offer of the European Heritage Academy (EHA), which will be in charge of delivering VI-Train training courses after completion of the project. EHA is situated at Charterhouse Mauerbach, the future EU Competence and Community Centre for Architectural Conservation, being set up during Innovation and Creative Solutions for Cultural Heritage (INCREAS), a Pilot project for Cultural and Creative Industries, Finance, Learning, Innovation and Patenting for Cultural and Creative Industries.

Objectives VI-Train

to identify appropriate means of distance learning for the training of craftspeople (manual work)
to identify appropriate means of online cooperation in training, regarding functionality, GDPR and data security
to derive success criteria for highly accepted digital solutions
to develop and test a virtual/3D-crafts training system by using sensors and VR/AR
to develop and test a virtual/3D-buidling damage identification training system
to investigate and test options overcoming restrictions, for example move sickness
to develop a train-the-trainer system for application of selected tools in training of traditional crafts

Project management

Prof. (FH) Mag. Michael Reiner
Department of Science & Technology
Educational Project VI-Train