Innovation laboratories of digital transformation

What will be the effect of developments such as the digital manufacturing of dentures using a 3D printer, self-driving vehicles or intelligent building service systems and energy networks (“smart home”) on dual vocational education and training in, for example, the occupations of dental technician, professional driver or plant mechanic for sanitary, heating and air conditioning systems? These questions are amongst the topics being tackled with immediate effect by the eight pilot projects forming part of the “Inter-company Vocational Training Centres Special Programme on Digital Transformation”, which convened for its first network meeting on 20 October at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in Bonn.

These projects will be conducted at training institutions and centres of excellence over a period of three years. They will investigate the effects of digital transformation on occupational profiles and identify the requirements and consequences arising for the training of skilled workers and training staff. The network aims to create a joint learning and teaching platform for inter-company training which can be accessed at a national level. This is intended to ensure the transferability of results and broadly-based application of the concepts and models developed.

“Increasing spreading of digital technology will bring about lasting changes to the future world of learning and work and to the skills requirements of employees,” stressed BIBB President Friedrich Hubert Esser, who opened the meeting. “The training institutions and centres of excellence operated within the scope of inter-company additional training provision are taking on a pioneering role in this regard. They are crucially involved in driving forward digital Transformation in small and medium-sized enterprises in particular and are fostering the ability of such companies to deliver training. They are thus fulfilling a beacon function and, in their capacity as innovation laboratories, are making a major contribution towards further development and quality improvement in the ‘4.0’ age.”

The “Inter-company Vocational Training Centres Special Programme” has been allocated total funding of €74 million by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). BIBB is carrying out coordination and implementation of the programme and evaluation research on behalf of the BMBF. The programme has been divided into two funding streams, and the eight pilot projects are being financed within the scope of Funding Line 2. Their work will end on 30 June 2019. Projects may receive grants for equipment investment projects at inter-company vocational training centres as part of Funding Guideline 1. Applications in this regard may be submitted to BIBB on an ongoing basis until September 2019.

Further (German language) information is available on the BIBB website at www.bibb.de/uebs-digitalisierung

Contact partner at BIBB:
Dr. Claudia Schreier

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