Abstract:

EU directives, harmonized standards, and educational guidelines targeting the interplay with the expanding SME fabrication industry promote new production systems where Quality Assurance (QA) of knowledge-based production is a convenient and necessary tool. A measurable QA aspect of the production is frequently often not properly addressed within management of distributed virtual subsidiaries, resulting in a steady increase of withdrawal of products from the market with subsequent sky-rocketing repair costs that effectively slow down the modernization of industrial production systems and technologies within Europe. Though production standards, guidelines and diplomas are identical, know-how, expertise and QA associated with the new production technologies vary enormously throughout Europe when obtained on the job through the daily work.

The ongoing Titus project aims to use activity based training (ABT) to disseminate a new competence transfer model, a new quality assurance system, and a new pedagogical principle for organizing, delivering, and deploying effective production technology transfer within and between companies, as well as towards VET schools. ABT includes 4 basic components:

- Specification of a product from a customer, that is delivered to the students as an order when the training starts. The product must be completed and delivered to the customer within the timeframe provided in the specification. This is often done towards the end of a vocational education and training course.
- The pedagogical method utilizes ABT to produce a product by following the (industrial) production flow of an object in such that theoretical training is immediately applied into practice. The students shall apply their knowledge as fast as possible, and use it to investigate how they shall complete the next component in the product.
- It provides interactive training that may utilize students own Smartphones through modern, web-based Student Response Systems. Teachers and instructors may use these services to enhance interaction and communication in class, and to provide feedback from the class to the teacher and vice versa.
- Use of video material that provides self paced on-line education, and high quality instructional video of learning material to institutes, SME and VET schools. The training method promotes for instance the use of modern learning tools in quality assurance and quality management training.

At the end of a course, the students have produced a product based up on specifications provided through an order from the external customer. During the course they will need to learn more theory based up on the specifications in the order, and the practical problem solving process where they must decide in which sequence they are going to produce the components and afterwards assemble them. Quality assurance is integrated into the education model, since the students must check the ingoing and outgoing quality of their products during the production process, and compare the measured values with the specification in the order. Video is used as a facilitator for initiating discussions based up on cases that are illustrated by use of HOW to DO, as well as HOW NOT to DO.

The article reports how the new learning environment with the ABT model close the traditional gap between VET training and the industrial production process workflow. The methods are generic, whereby they are applicable to European wide manufactoring industry sectors

Keywords:

Activity based training, workplace training, VET training, video in education.