The entire company needs to be on board when making production more circular. Therefore, small and medium-sized manufacturing companies must have access to the right skills – at all levels of the organization – to implement a green transition to circular production.

Today, just under 10 percent of the approximately 300,000 employees in the Danish manufacturing sector are involved in the work with circularity – and only a few are working in depth with the circular transition. This is evident from the Danish Circularity Gap Report, which was published in 2023.

These numbers may be an expression of the fact that there is a large, untapped competence potential that is paving the way for the transition to circular production.
With a targeted Danish focus on education, a circular competence upgrade must therefore be implemented for all employees in and around Danish industry.

Specifically, four strong educational institutions are joining forces – AMU Nordjylland, AMU Syd, UCN and IBA Erhvervsakademi Kolding – to develop and test a holistic competence model, where all levels and types of employees in the companies are engaged and trained.

In this way, the circular mindset is high on the agenda of boards of directors, management, middle managers and operators, and they also receive the necessary tools and skills to create circular change in practice.