Abstract:

There is no doubt that the ongoing digitization of the production (industry 4.0) and service sector will affect the working conditions of the employees. Associated with the changes in the workplace an alteration of the main tasks and activities also takes place. These developments lead to the assumption that there also will be new skill requirements for the professionals. Actually a lot of respective projects investigate which skills will be essential to work in a digitized surrounding. Mainly these studies focus on one sector of industry, trying to make reliable statements about the general skills needed to keep up with the digital transformation (1) . The present study tries to go deeper and to explore the special, occupation-specific changes of the workplace caused by the progressive digitization. 12 occupations from different sectors of production and craft were examined.

The main research questions were:
• What kind of digitized technologies can be actually found in the operational practice of the respective occupations?
• What kind of (new) job profiles arise as a result of these technologies? How do tasks and acitivities change? How does the occupation change as a whole?
• Which (new) competences are necessary for the professionals due to these changes?
• How do the set of necessary competences fit to the existing training regulations?

The study consists of two phases. In the first phase (6-12) plant inspections per occupation were carried out. During these inspections workplace observations took place as well as semi-structured, guideline based expert interviews with professionals, trainers and CEOs. The results of the qualitative phase serve as base for an online survey in the second phase. The questionnaire contains one general part with questions concerning all occupations and one occupation specific part. Target groups for this online survey were trainers, professionals and supervisors.

The planned conference contribution will present results from the just finished first phase. It will be a comparative observation of selected outcomes from four rather different occupations: Farmer, mechanic in plastics and rubber processing, industrial clerk and orthopaedic technician. The following issues will be focused.

The change of the occupation as a whole:
Some occupations where the digitization enables a high proportion of automated processes are affected by a decrease in need for skilled workers while others undergo a different development. Sometimes a splitting of the occupation could be observed while other occupations tend to merge in the process of digitization.

New skills and competences:
Not only EDP-related skills were important to meet the demands of the new workplaces. Also occupations specific skills such as process knowledge become more relevant. In some cases no remarkable changes in skill requirements could be observed.

The relation to the product of work:
Often the digitization of the working process creates a distance between the professionals and the materials and products of work. The professionals no longer get access to the materials and products by their senses but by the analyzing of data. Again this development is different in each occupation.

References:
[1] Spöttl, G.; Gorldt, C.; Windelband, L. (2016): Industrie 4.0 – Auswirkungen auf Aus- und Weiterbildung in der M+E Industrie; Bremen.

Keywords:

Skills, occupation, digitization, electronic data processing (EDP), industry 4.0, vocational education.