Knowledge Gap and Innovative Models for Higher Education in Industrial Engineering and Management

As the world and economy changes, so change the needs and requirements on knowledge and skills of workers. Knowledge and skills of workers have to be consistent with the content of work and since the content changes continuously, workers have the solid background within their specialization but also ability to adapt and learn. Flexibility is a personal feature, which can be practiced and developed while solid knowledge background needs to be provided by education institution. The main objective of the paper is to present the gap between the offer of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) on Industrial Engineering and Management (IE&M) knowledge and industry demand on knowledge required to implement the new paradigm and technologies of Industry 4.0. The gap identified is to be characterised and analysed in further steps of the research project. The gap will define educational needs and will lead to definition of the new educational model. The education model aims at changing the push approach - generally followed by HEIs - into a pull, knowledge demand-driven approach by updating and creating academic curricula for university students and industry workforce, jointly defined and offered by University and Industry professors.