Despite monumental technological progress in these complex industries in recent years, the topic of the human element and the role of the workforce in the sustainability of the industries are under-researched (Pace, Saritas, and Deidun 2023). This study addresses this gap by investigating the potential workforce characteristics, necessary skills, effective training solutions, and sustainable pathways for transitioning to advanced Blue Economy industries.

Therefore, this study has the following interrelated research objectives-

a) Analysing the impact of Industry 4.0 on the Blue Economy industries.

b) Identifying the changes in employment structure in the era of fourth industrial revolution where workforce interacts with intelligent systems and machines.

c) Identifying the skills required for the future workforce in the Blue Economy industries.

d) Developing a novel education and training framework capable of training the required skills effectively and developing an intelligent and innovative workforce for the Blue Economy industries.

The literature review in other industries shows that the training of the future workforce is mostly beyond the capability of the current education and training systems. As a result, this study carries paramount importance in fulfilling the BE CRC milestones by developing a novel education and training framework for the new breed of workforce capable of operating in the Human-Cyber Physical System (H-CPS) where a cognitive operator interacts with intelligent systems and machines. It will contribute to capacity-building initiatives for sustainable human resources in the Blue Economy industries.

This study will help the Blue Economy CRC to ensure the long-term sustainability of the high-value technological advancement that they developed by ensuring the supply of future skilled operators. Moreover, the study will ‎involve the pathway for utilisation of the Industry 4.0 concept of Operator 4.0 to ‎reach a synergy between humans and machines in a sustainable workplace. Besides, the findings will assist the education and training institutions in developing up-skilling and re-skilling programs to reach the Industry 4.0 required workforce. Moreover, the findings can be utilised by industries as a guide for developing new skills to fulfil the demand of the drastically altered landscape of the Blue Economy caused by technologically evolving workplaces.