This paper aims at presenting a new approach to workforce upskilling based on remote training, exploiting a novel platform designed for enabling asynchronous learning. The educational experience is made by self-consistent modules dealing with specific, well-defined topics in the manufacturing digitalization area; an ordered set of these modules constitutes a course, called learning path. More in detail, the course could consist of several modules belonging to the same topic, or it could be made by several modules belonging to different topics but driven by the same file rouge. The creation of the learning contents has been performed over a two-years horizon and involved a network of Learning Factories (LFs) whose activities are focused on building a broad ecosystem, where research and technology transfer between academia and industry is constantly promoted. This activity has been focused in building up the needed skills through ad-hoc training paths, implemented and validated by peer review and pilot execution, to ensure competitiveness of European manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), trying to overcome some of the most important barriers towards a wider adoption of the "Industry 4.0" paradigm in the manufacturing sector, such as availability of specific knowledge, usability, customization capability and cost.

asynchronous learning; workforce upskilling; continuous training; learning management system; learning factories