Why and How to Educate Selected Industry 4.0 Stakeholders in Technical and Non-technical Issues

In this paper, the author tries to present and analyse their thoughts, as well as introduce and discuss the results of their earlier research focused on surveying the needs and possibilities of educating stakeholders of processes related to the implementation of the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) paradigm into practice. Special attention was – and still is – paid to Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSME) as a specific group participating in I4.0 processes. The first part of the paper focuses on presenting and classifying the I4.0 stakeholders, who are taking part in the mentioned processes. The second part briefly presents the results of investigating the level of knowledge about I4.0 in selected groups of individuals potentially engaged in the fourth industrial revolution in Poland. In the next part of the paper, selected results of a wider survey of Polish MSMEs are presented. Based on the results of this research, the author formulates their opinions on the educational needs of the specified group of I4.0 stakeholders and presents some proposals of methods and tools in order to increase the level of their readiness to participate in the mentioned processes. As a particular problem of educating, the possibility and/or necessity of assessing the social impacts of new (innovative) products and technologies appearing in the modern world (Technology Assessment-TA) are treated. Finally, a few personal comments from the author are presented on the Covid-19 pandemic impact on modern activities in industry.