Planning and installing e-charging stations, cleaning industrial parts, developing micro and nanotechnology or intelligently networking building technology: Many industries are undergoing radical change and are desperately looking for qualified specialists for the new fields of work. Other training companies are asking themselves how they can enable people with poor school grades to train or how they can combine vocational and academic education. As part of the BMBF competition “Shaping the future - Innovations for excellent vocational training” (InnoVET), projects are therefore being funded that develop innovative qualification programs for vocational training in order to meet the challenges of a dynamic working world.
At the beginning of May, the 17 InnoVet projects will present their results at the InnoVET Conference 2023 in Berlin under the motto “Experience innovation. Shaping excellence. Strengthening vocational training.” Over 350 participants from practice, politics and science exchanged views on the solutions presented, which ranged from learning platforms and cross-trade training to redesigned career paths and study-integrated training.
The innovation competition is being scientifically supported by the University of Paderborn, the University of Magdeburg and the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in Bonn.
The aim of the accompanying research is to disseminate the innovative educational offerings and to make findings, concepts and prototype developments from the InnoVET projects accessible for vocational education and training as a whole.A panel discussion on the second day of the symposium provided initial insights into the accompanying research.Prof. Dr. H.-Hugo Kremer (University of Paderborn) discussed together with Prof. Dr. Hubert Ertl (BIBB), Prof. Dr. Dina Kuhlee (University of Magdeburg) and Christoph Acker (Federal Ministry of Education and Research). “The design and implementation of innovations are becoming increasingly important in vocational education and training.The research support of the InnoVET project line of the BMBF offers us the opportunity to take a look at very different innovation processes and thus gain fundamental insights for dealing with innovations, but also for transfer.In this way, we are helping to future-proof vocational education and training and to shape the transformation process.This is because vocational education and training staff are confronted with changes in the professional fields of activity and the underlying work and business processes as well as changes in vocational education and training pathways.
One thing is certain: strengthening the next generation of skilled workers requires professional educational staff.
This is where our research provides important impetus,” says Prof. Dr. H-Hugo Kremer, summarizing the efforts of the accompanying research at his own location.Prof. Dr. Hubert Ertl concludes the panel discussion with a reference to the junior research group structure, emphasizing another special feature of the overarching accompanying research, which is also reflected in the ITiB project at Paderborn University.
About the accompanying research project “ITiB”
In the project entitled “Innovation and Transfer Processes in Vocational Education and Training” (“ITiB”), pre-doctoral and post-doctoral students work together with professors from the Department of Business Education with the joint aim of creating competence profiles for educational staff based on the new requirements and testing and implementing innovative qualification offers in vocational education and training.The individual research focus is on the design of innovation and transfer processes, from which design-based findings are to be derived.At the start of the second project phase of the transfer, the future focus is now primarily on monitoring the transfer processes of the InnoVET innovations developed and exchanging transfer approaches with the transfer recipients.