Education for the Digital Transformation of Industry in Upper Lusatia

A region’s structural transformation is closely linked to the people who are expected to drive innovation. In this context, the professional development of skilled workers is an integral part of innovative technological developments and has a significant positive impact on economic innovation. The new research project, which is part of the large-scale structural transformation project and alliance “Lausitz – Life and Technology,” aims to design, test, and—in the long term—establish a continuing education academy in Upper Lusatia called the “Europe Open Academy” (“EurOpA”), and to eventually establish and consolidate it. The team led by Project Director Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Sophia Keil is currently addressing the following key questions:

What educational offerings are needed for promising digital technologies in the context of the economy’s digital transformation? What regional potential already exists in Upper Lusatia for this? How can education and innovation be further promoted, especially in our region? Initially, the focus will be primarily on

• the needs of large companies as well as small and medium-sized enterprises in Upper Lusatia will be identified,
• an evidence-based and needs-oriented program design will be developed,
• concrete teaching scenarios will be developed,
• a video workshop will be set up,
• the continuing education program will be tested and evaluated with partner companies based on specific criteria, and
• developed a well-founded sustainability strategy.

Large companies such as Siemens and SMEs such as Arnell and ULT from the Upper Lusatia region have already been identified as pilot participants for this continuing education academy.

This contributes to increasing the global competitiveness of companies in Upper Lusatia by equipping employees, for example, to:

1. designing digital business processes and
2. trained in the use of digital technologies.

The project to design and test the “European Open Academy” (EurOpA) in the Upper Lusatia Innovation Region is supported by the Expert Working Group on Digitalization and Student-Centered Approaches in Competency-Oriented Higher Education (Diskoh) and the Science Center Upper Lusatia – Technology Transfer Innovation (SCO-TTi).

#Research #University #UniversityPedagogy #ContinuingEducation #StructuralChange