Participation in the Digitalized World of Work – Potentials of Vocational Schools for “Qualification 4.0”

Aims and objectives

Digitalization presents vocational colleges with the challenge of adapting their educational programmes to increasing competence and qualification requirements as well as changing job profiles. The focus here is on targeted and needs-oriented competence promotion that opens up opportunities for young adults with different educational backgrounds in order to participate in a digitalized working world. To achieve this, vocational schools must advance their own work and organization. Despite their central importance for vocational education and training in the region, vocational schools often receive little attention in research and local education policy. As far as vocational qualification 4.0 is concerned, there are few findings to date on institutional adaptation requirements, on the potential to strengthen the participation of young people in the digitized working world through custom-fit educational offers, and on the status and perspectives of organizational development.

With regard to these research needs, the BeQua 4.0 project is concerned with researching and further developing design concepts for vocational qualification 4.0 at vocational schools. In keeping with the research paradigm of Design-based research, i.e. in co-construction with science and practice, the survey of the current status is to be combined with a development of new solutions for organization development (research-based design concepts) and a transfer strategy. The analysis will focus on the Ruhr Area, since the challenges of economic and social change described above are particularly evident here. Thus, a regional analysis in the Ruhr Area is of particular scientific and political interest.

Central research questions

Using eight case studies we will work out

• to what extent and under what conditions vocational schools have adapted or are adapting their training programmes and their design to changed and new occupational profiles,

• in what form and how intensively vocational schools support the (further) qualification of teachers in order to prepare them for the changed requirements of digitization processes,

• how the use of digital learning applications in education is organized,

• what (media and digitization) skills are taught in the various educational pathways – especially those for low-skilled young people – to ensure that qualifications are tailored to needs and that the transition to employment is guaranteed,

• with which out-of-school actors (e.g. Chambers of Industry and Commerce, companies, employment agency, job centre, etc.) vocational schools cooperate in order to successfully meet the challenges of vocational qualification 4.0.

The project will analyse at which levels problems, obstacles and barriers arise, which organizational development measures are implemented at vocational schools, which further developments are necessary and which examples of good practice can be identified.

Procedure

The project is divided into three work packages. In WP 1 (Context analysis and development of the study design) an overview of the relevant state of research and discussion, with reference to the discourse on digitization processes in vocational education and training and their contextual conditions, will be developed on the basis of existing preliminary work in a secondary analysis. This will provide insights into changing competence and qualification requirements and examples of good practice with regard to the planning, organization and implementation of vocational qualification 4.0 at vocational schools. A one-day expert workshop with about 20 experts from vocational schools, companies, educational research institutions, chambers of industry and commerce, employers' and company associations, trade unions and education policy will be one of the key elements of this work package. In addition to the secondary analysis, this workshop is intended to provide information on the significance of digitization for vocational qualification in the Ruhr Area, to promote the exchange between the various relevant actors and scientists and to publicize the research project. The current state of research and discussion as well as the results of the workshop serve as a basis for the operationalization of the research design.

In order to analyse the current status of the potential of vocational schools for successful vocational qualification 4.0 in work-study sandwich courses and school-based vocational training, school-based and vocational qualification and training preparation, eight case studies will be carried out in  WP 2 (Empirical Survey – Current status of the potential of vocational schools with regard to vocational qualification 4.0), based on expert interviews with school administrators, education course coordinators, company representatives and other relevant stakeholders as well as group discussions with students from different educational programmes. This is followed by discussion of the balance sheet with those involved in the vocational colleges. On the one hand, this intends to provide a general overview of the status of digitization processes in vocational schools, for example with regard to the qualification of teachers and (needs for and ideas on) infrastructural and institutional adjustments in the organization. On the other hand, we aim to gain comprehensive insights into the content and structural framework conditions of the various educational programmes to be examined. At the same time, it is also important to record the implementation and integration of digital (learning) applications in company practice (current status of digitization in companies) and the perceived competence and quality requirements as well as the assessments of how trainees and young people are prepared for the changed and new competence requirements.

In WP 3 (Development of design concepts and transfer of results), the method of the Future Workshop is used to derive and concretize strategies for successful vocational qualification 4.0 at vocational schools in regions undergoing structural change. Finally, the results of the project will be brought together in this work package and used as a basis for the development of research-based design concepts for a successful vocational qualification 4.0 at vocational schools.