SmartSkills

Description

The SmartSkills Project was submitted by the companies LKS NEXT and INDABA, together with the Basque Science, Technology and Innovation Network Centre ISEA, to the HAZITEK 2020 call to support the implementation of new product development projects of the Basque Government's Department of Economic Development and Competitiveness. It received aid from the Directorate of Technology and Strategy with file ID no: ZL-2020/00652.

'Soft skills' are a combination of skills that are not considered to be directly linked to the performance of a particular job, but affect the way in which workers perform in general. It encompasses social and communication skills, as well as emotional intelligence.

In the past these skills have been considered unimportant, or at best they were thought to come 'with the person' in an intuitive way, so they were not formally taught. Now, as Automation and Artificial Intelligence threaten a multitude of jobs, soft skills are taking on a new relevance, as everything that makes us human and adds value to our work compared to what a machine could do is increasingly valued. A report by the World Economic Forum states that of the 5 most in-demand skills in the labour market in 2022, 4 will be soft skills.

The purpose of the SmartSkills project is to develop an intelligent system for personalised learning of soft skills, aimed at employees of companies and public bodies. SmartSkills will maintain a continuous link with the students, periodically sending individualised 'educational pills' to their smartphones via an App, which will also collect information from the student, both evaluations of their progress and their interests and study habits. An algorithm equipped with artificial intelligence will dynamically build a personalised educational itinerary for each student, determining what content to send and when.

SmartSkills will contribute to reinforce LKS Next's leadership in the corporate training sector, with this proposal for distance training that is not mass-produced but personalised, and based on self-learning based on educational pills.

During 2020, the project's foundations have been laid and the IT development of the App and the backend has begun. In 2021, the IT system will be completed and validated by carrying out a pilot with real users.