EXPERIENCES WITH ACTIVITY BASED TRAINING METHODS FOR JUST-IN-TIME TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND COMPETENCE IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION PROCESSES

Training offered in combination with job and industrial production activities at the workplace, is one of the best available training methods since it is planned, organized, and conducted at the employee's worksite. Such training will generally be the primary method used for broadening employee skills and increasing productivity. Successful construction and transfer of knowledge at just-in-time basis at the workplace require that the teacher utilize a variety of pedagogical methodologies and communication techniques that engage and motivate the students. Blended learning and training solutions are often used.

Such effective training solutions that offer certification based workplace-learning processes on a just-in-time basis have recently been developed and validated. This paper reports experiences obtained by using the Activity Based Training (ABT) methodology to provide in-company training to adult students from mechanical industry in Norway, Slovakia and Hungary. ABT follows an industrial production process. The training sessions combine the ABT methodology with use of digital blackboards, videoconferencing and video streaming into one joint blended learning environment. This blended learning and training environment utilizes:

• Traditional classroom structured face-to-face training
• Self-paced learning by using Learning Management Systems
• Hands-on practical training and collaborative laboratory work
• Inclusion of various video services offering high quality multipoint real time communication to groups of students

It is a core idea of ABT that the student during the training activities produces a product, by going through an industrial production process that utilizes work orders. Such orders contain of a number of steps that may be treated as standalone work packages. ABT delivers theoretical training just in front of the practical training tasks, linking directly theory and practice in order to promote relevance and motivate the student. Quality Assurance is promoted by letting the students exchange their products during the training sessions.

ABT targets especially certification based training processes. The ABT pedagogical practices facilitate:
• a just-in-time on-the-job production workflow competence and knowledge transfer approach
• a sound pedagogical model where theoretical training is always immediately followed by practical training
• coordinated use of advanced video technology
• promotion of industrial quality assurance management designs processes where students exchange their products several times during a course.

Experienced obtained: i) teachers use more time on preparation, ii) highly focused video examples were very useful, iii) instructor training is required, iv) students start asking for more indebt theoretical explanations, v) evaluations show that ABT is a convenient methodology since the students become more motivated to study theoretical material, vi) presentation techniques must be adapted to include live digital multimedia formats, vii) ABT leads to reflective cognition processes founded on just-in-time transfer of production process knowledge.

This pilot research is co-financed by the European Commission and the Lifelong Learning Program.