Abstract:

To have specific knowledge and competence directly related to a company´s key business area is important for the well-being and future of an enterprise. Informal knowledge that has been acquired through practical experience or task solving is often a hidden treasure and a resource that is not used with full capacity in many companies. To recognise, facilitate and make better use of this unexplored competence that the staff has and combine it with other relevant knowledge can be very beneficial for internal work based learning activities, especially in the industrial engineering sector. The Life Long Learning/ Leonardo da Vinci project, WBL-IE (Work Based Learning-Industrial Engineering) targets this area and presents an innovative approach on how to implement work based learning in an efficient way for industrial engineering.

The WBL-IE project team and its members have gathered experiences and knowledge from previous projects. In the Experience Transfer Model (ETM) project a platform for exchange of experiences among people active in industry was developed. The ETM concept was well accepted by the participants and the cross disciplinary activities were seen as beneficial for both problem solving and strategy proposals. PHASE (Processer til håndtering af skræddersyede efteruddannelsesforløb) is another project that has contributed with experiences. Focus in PHASE has been on how education providers can meet the need for knowledge and updates in industry, in which forms the education should be delivered and how education can be tailor made to meet the needs from companies, especially SME´s. The evaluation showed that the Worked Based Learning (WBL) concept was considered to have a high potential and that all of the interviewed companies ranked tailor made CE-activities high.

The ongoing learning processes in engineering organizations are very powerful and can be further enhanced by actions which are time and cost effective. In order to make use of this possibility it is important to create awareness about the existence of these learning processes. Some of the processes are self-supporting but others can be effectively enhanced. Example of the first is contact with colleagues, look for previous experiences. Other process as for instance learning by mistake, searching for information and contacts with outside experts can be effectively supported. The WBL-IE concept takes a holistic view on the learning for both individuals and the organization. Mapping of the learning situation show the potential improvement areas and give possibilities to plan for actions. The WBL-IE concept includes both support of on-going processes and introduction of new tailor made activities.

The intention of the WBL-IE concept is to improve the possibilities for slimmed and work loaded organization to increase their skill and knowledge. Experiences from the introduction of the concept and how it is received are presented. This part of the implementation is very crucial to the development of the support program. Examples of the facilitator function are given and also how to secure the continuation of the program.
The future work includes development of the support function and its financing possibilities. More feedback from experiences will be used for both the introduction process and development of tailor made activities.

Keywords:

Work Based Learning, Industrial Engineering, Continuous Education, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.