New impressions for incluMOVE
As part of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s funding program “Digital media in vocational training”, this year’s symposium eQualification took place in Berlin on 5th and 6th March, 2018. Adressing the main topic “Digitally linking learning and profession”, representatives of all funded projects had the opportunity to get informed on and to exchange experiences about the use of digital media in the area of vocational education and training.
The first day’s keynote speech and the subsequent panel discussion highlighted the topic „Labor 4.0 – No change without cultural change“. The discussion focused on the new requirements to businesses and their employees and the possible contribution of digital education processes therefor. Both speakers from the sciences (Prof. Dr. Igel, Scientific Director of the Educational Technology Lab, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence DFKI, Berlin) as well as the industry (e.g. Susanne Blüml, Education Advisor, dm-drogerie markt, Berlin or Jan Westerbarkey, CEO WESTAFLEX, Gütersloh), discussed how employees could be assisted to develop a “digital mindset” and further how to convey media literacy, self-organization and self-reliance.
Main finding of the discussion was the necessity of a change in corporate culture towards a culture of candor, transparency and cooperation to facilitate a digital transformation. Employees should be offered the chance to actively and gradually influence and co-design this change process.
The subsequent workshops and project panels could be joined to exchange knowledge and experience with other projects. Contacts to projects related to incluMOVE were made and ideas for advancement in our project were gathered. Rather than just regarding the contents of the different projects, the emphasis of the panels and workshops was on transfer and application opportunities of the project results.
Projects not presented in form of a workshop or panel were highlighted in a project exhibition. As the participating representatives of the project incluMOVE we used this exhibition to facilitate a dialogue with interested parties and used it as a networking opportunity with other projects. A 3D-printed first model of the assisted-placement device served as an “eye-catcher” and conversation starter (see Fig. 1). After this first symposium we are excited to search for ways to apply the newly-found insights to incluMOVE and happily anticipate our participation in future exhibitions and conferences.
In the course of the guided tours offered by the BMBF, or rather the project executing organization, our project venture was presented to two groups of interested partcipants (see figure 2).
The following project representatives participated in the symposium(see figure 1, from left to right):
Mr. Dirk Schlenker (Fraunhofer IPA)
Mr. Moritz Umfahrer (Offenburg University)
Mr. Roland Wertz (IEF Werner GmbH)
Ms. Maren Plehn (Femos gGmbH)
