German-Asian cooperation

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Overview 

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The challenge of future skill development

The deve­lo­p­ment of future skills, also known as future skills or digi­tal skills, is com­plex. There are dif­fe­ren­ces not only bet­ween regi­ons, but also bet­ween dif­fe­rent levels of action and approa­ches. There are often simi­la­ri­ties bet­ween actors in coope­ra­ti­ons and pro­jects, alt­hough com­pa­nies and edu­ca­tio­nal insti­tu­ti­ons often have dif­fe­rent approa­ches, even in the respec­tive coun­try. This is evi­dent, for exam­ple, in the auto­mo­tive indus­try, where both count­ries are loo­king for »future-proof« qua­li­fi­ca­tion models and cor­re­spon­ding inter­faces in the edu­ca­tion sec­tor. It is also evi­dent when an Indian HR mana­ger from the soft­ware indus­try empha­si­zes that he needs, above all, »the right peo­ple in the right place at the right time.« The examp­les show that the rela­ti­onship bet­ween aca­de­mic edu­ca­tion and the world of work must be rede­fi­ned. Cur­rent requi­re­ments of the pro­fes­sio­nal world and edu­ca­tion for long-term employa­bi­lity must be brought tog­e­ther in a new way.

Different paths to the same goals

There are many dif­fe­rent approa­ches to deve­lo­ping future skills. These include both orga­niza­tion-wide and indi­vi­dual approa­ches, extra­cur­ri­cu­lar or exter­nal offers. Alt­hough we still know little about the qua­li­fi­ca­tion needs of the future, it is pos­si­ble to iden­tify cur­rent needs and create tar­ge­ted offers. This must be sup­ple­men­ted by streng­thening lifel­ong lear­ning, but exis­ting edu­ca­tio­nal struc­tures often do not yet achieve this. It is also clear that the skills in demand can­not be acqui­red »in advance« but must go hand in hand with prac­tice. Ins­tead of loo­king for the one right way, we should deve­lop com­pa­ti­ble per­spec­ti­ves that inte­grate the dif­fe­rent approaches.

 

Common approaches for future vocational training

The com­mon goal is to pro­mote indi­vi­dual deve­lo­p­ment through sui­ta­ble lear­ning oppor­tu­ni­ties and to inte­grate pro­fes­sio­nal and per­so­nal growth oppor­tu­ni­ties. Lear­ning-cen­te­red and holi­stic con­cepts are glo­bally accepted tea­ching and lear­ning for­mats for this, and not just in voca­tio­nal trai­ning. These glo­bally shared approa­ches are the­r­e­fore a sta­ble basis for fin­ding a com­mon path. Coope­ra­tion and equa­lity are the gui­ding values ​​in the deve­lo­p­ment pro­ces­ses. On the one hand, TUD­FaCE uses con­cepts of com­pe­tence deve­lo­p­ment that have long been ancho­red in the Ger­man voca­tio­nal trai­ning sys­tem. On the other hand, we strive to find the exis­ting »com­mu­ni­ties of prac­tice« on site in inter­na­tio­nal pro­jects and part­ner­ships, to under­stand them and to cooperate.

For example, micro-credentials as an innovative approach

One pro­mi­sing approach can be the deve­lo­p­ment of micro-cre­den­ti­als. On the one hand, they offer the oppor­tu­nity to create new forms of coope­ra­tion and to bring part­ners from busi­ness and edu­ca­tion tog­e­ther. These com­pact edu­ca­tio­nal offe­rings at an aca­de­mic level also require know­ledge, skills, qua­li­fi­ca­ti­ons and per­so­nal deve­lo­p­ment to be pro­vi­ded simul­ta­neously. This brings us full cir­cle to a lear­ning-cen­te­red and prac­tice-ori­en­ted implementation.