Abstract:

The development of digitalization and agile working environments require new competencies and qualifications of university graduates and employees as well. State-of-the-art knowledge and digital skills need to be transferred from universities to companies especially because of knowledge obsolescence. Work experience and process know-how can be exchanged with students in order to provide better education.
The planned project aims at bringing together both students and company employees in order to mutually learn and benefit from each other’s expertise. Subsequently students and employees will receive a unique preparation for the requirements of the new work age.
The project is implemented at the University of applied sciences “Hochschule der Bayerischen Wirtschaft - HDBW” in Munich, Germany. The University is a private school with a strong focus on practical orientation and teaching. The HDBW has many alliances with companies in Bavaria and internationally.

In a previous project, which we also will present in short, the HDBW tested a teaching method that included learning diaries based on discussion boards and reflection. The students were stimulated to discuss the learning subjects open-minded and individually. Research on up-to-date publications were also conducted. During the course of the class, the students asked more questions about the different topics and were significantly more interested in practical implementations. As a result, the idea of collaboration scenarios together with company employees was born.

Within the project, we will implement a new teaching strategy by creating and conducting lectures together with company employees based on the realization of the class mentioned above. In addition to the theoretical teaching content, digital tools will be tested and evaluated by the students as well as company employees. Tools comprise topics like agile working (with change of leadership skills), digitalization, creativity techniques and content verification.

An online evaluation following the courses should answer questions about which tools are feasible for what kind of company scenarios and skills, which tools could easily be implemented and how can we exchange knowledge between universities and companies.
We will publish the results in order to contribute to many efforts by the EU to the “Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition”. We regard our project as a lighthouse project to promote the collaboration between companies and universities. Also, the requirements of work in the digital age are addressed.

Keywords:

Agile work environment, digitalization, knowledge exchange.