European companies might still face a serious challenge to remain competitive in an increasingly global supply base, but the growing membership of the European Aerospace Cluster Partnership (EACP) has found that cooperation in keys areas such as building skills and research-and-development work can benefit them collectively more than if they battle with each other at every level. For instance, attendees of the EACP’s recent annual meeting in Bilbao, Spain, heard how new funding from the European Union’s Leonardo da Vinci program is helping schools across the continent teach skills required by aerospace firms locally through the European Skills Hub for Aerospace project. “There are greater skills shortages in some parts of Europe than in others, but overall if you look at the huge growth in the industry then there could be a wider shortage of people in the future and we have to do something about this,” said Walter Birkhan, managing director of Hamburg Aviation, which participates in the Niedersachsen Aviation cluster in Germany’s Lower Saxony region.
