The digital transformation of the working world will affect the employment system in Europe. Which kind of competences and qualifications are going to be required for these changes and new opportunities of employment? The answer of this question is going to be examined and anticipated in just a few funded research-projects currently. Basing on the empirical results of the research-project "PROKOM 4.0", funded by the BMBF, particularly regarding to the subproject of the Europa-Universität Flensburg on "Net-Competence / Netzkompetenz", this project-proposal intends that the mentioned innovative European partners are going to develope "Net-Competence / Netzkompetenz" in an international context. "Net-Competence / Netzkompetenz" is to describe as an individual disposition that enables people today and in the future to participate in a reflective and critical evaluation of the changes in a digitized society and the working world. The goal will be to develop a common understanding of competence requirements and their development in cross-border dialogues for higher vocational education and training at the EQF level 6 and to participate in the already existing expertise of the individual international partners. By analyzing country-specific best practice, all partners benefit. This strengthens and enlarges their own institutional capacities and self-image. These international exchanges have constant effects on the progression of the educational staff and their professional competences. The seven network partners will conduct four transnational project-meetings at the partner-institutions in Germany / Denmark, Portugal, Lithuania and Austria. These meetings provide an individual dialogue on good practice, based on the official partnership of the seven stakeholders. During the meetings every stakeholder will get regional and national insights about the technological developments and digital transformation towards an Industry 4.0 and digitalization. A transnational understanding and sensitization for an individual competence development, in the context of digital-transformation and Industry 4.0, should be result. The design-ability of work and technology is a basic concern of vocational education. Thus, in vocational education and training, as well as in the education and training of vocational teachers and trainers, competences should be developed that can deal with the challenges of digitalization. Building on the results and construction-process of this project-network, a further project is going to be developed to support innovation.
The participating VET-institutions got to know each other and their way of good teaching practices. One goal was to find out how local VET-practice in individual European environments is already meeting the growing complexity and current changes of the digitized world and at different vocational qualification levels. The partners also positioned themselves in relation to the vocational training needs of the Netcompetence-construct. They agreed that Netcompetence could be described as an individual disposition and can be integrated into the VET-practice, in order to further develop the understanding of the changes in a digitized society and working world for learners and teachers. In this way, the consortium ensured the current challenges and needs to help shaping VET in a sustainable and future-oriented manner thus the background of megatrends: Such as Industry 4.0 and digitalization. There was a consensus to conceptualize a follow-up project with authentic didactic implementation options of Netcompetence for VET as possibility of further training for the practicing teachers in the respective institutions. At the same time this further training concepts should be executed by the practicing teachers themselves, to make them concrete and useful for the participating vocational teachers. It was agreed that the teachers themselves will be the strongest basis for the innovations and must be directly involved in the conceptualization of vocational education in the context of Industry 4.0 and digitalisation. Vocational teachers need to experience different concepts for vocational training by themselves, before transferring and implementing it into their own vocational practice of teaching. In this way, new learning concepts are to flow directly into the VET on site, so that they are prepared more authentically and sustainably for the changes in the world of work and life with these new concepts. Based on the individual needs and competences, it was agreed that a broad international and interdisciplinary spectrum for the design of Netcompetence for a future-oriented VET needs to cover different VET-levels. Accordingly there was a high demand for the following topics: • Collaborative robots in Industry 4.0 • Encourage interdisciplinary thinking in Industry 4.0 • Learning concepts for the Internet of Things (IoT) - Security • Augmented reality with real-time data • Production planning and control in authentic Industry 4.0 environments • new concepts for the cooperation of learning venues 4.0