Our proWeiterbildung PLUS project runs until the end of August 2024, but we have already successfully completed key task packages. That’s why we held the UN conference in Holzwickede on June 13, 2024 to present the most important project results, shed light on prospects for vocational training in the region, network and step out of our own bubble – more on this later. Our continuing education network in the region is to be strengthened overall. The focus here is on digital and AI skills. The aim is to improve networking between the players in the existing further education landscape. In addition, several skills models for strategic HR development were developed in our project in collaboration with company managers for the four REGIO job families of production, sales/marketing, logistics and sustainability.
Why a UN conference?
We deliberately chose this innovative format as it refers to the region of our further education network – the district of Unna and the extended Westphalian Ruhr area – and also refers to an unconventional process that did not primarily provide frontally conveyed information, but focused on the involvement and activity of all participants and allowed for a wide range of topics. At the beginning, Sascha Dorday, Managing Director of WFG Kreis Unna, welcomed the guests in the Bauhaus of Haus Opherdicke in Holzwickede and gave a brief review of the milestones that had been achieved. He emphasized the importance of intensive cooperation between companies and training providers in order to be able to offer even more tailored vocational training. This has been supported at various levels over the past few months as part of the project. Sascha Dorday provided some figures on the goals achieved so far.
Various online workshops were held for training service providers. These dealt with information security for education service providers and providers as well as practice-oriented data protection in education and training.
The workshop series “KI-Guide für proWeiterbildung PLUS” in cooperation with the Zukunftszentrum KI NRW was very successful. This series comprised a total of seven workshops. One workshop dealt with specific issues of each of the four REGIO job families. The workshops reached a total of 223 participants.
Together with managers from companies in the region, 41 skills models were developed for the areas of production, sales/marketing, logistics and sustainability.
So far, 37 training service providers and 136 companies have been reached. A total of 375 employees have taken part in a training course arranged or initiated by the training network. Ingrid Lange, our Managing Director, welcomed the guests and explained the further course of the UN conference.
Gallery walk and discussion in small groups
Instead of individual presentations, there were talks and discussions in small groups in the form of a gallery walk. For this purpose, concise theses on key topics were displayed on posters at eight stations. They served as a basis for discussion. In two rounds, the individual groups walked around the posters and each had eight minutes to discuss the theses. Angéla van den Boom, Managing Director of the Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft für eine andere Weiterbildung in Nordrhein-Westfalen (LAAW.NRW), stood for continuing education out of the box and beyond borders. Dr. Andreas Kohne from itkon Unternehmensberatung focused on innovation and provided input on change management and AI. Tina Riedel and Patrycja Peters from Regionalagentur Westfälisches Ruhrgebiet contributed, among other things, thoughts on the role managers play in developing a positive mindset towards lifelong learning and further training in the company. Fabian Heim from BlackBox focused on how effective feedback can be given – and that it is not that difficult. As a software expert, he was involved in creating the skills models for the four REGIO job families.
Roman Wink and Silja Erdsiek from the Bertelsmann Stiftung showed that AI-generated further training suggestions can increase the fit between further training and those seeking training by providing individualized further training.
Escape rooms can also enable new formats in terms of further training. Daniel Steinbach from Verschlusssache explained: “Nobody wants to be in a seminar room painted white. Learning needs emotions.
Frank Opitz from the NH Computer Learning Center Dortmund provided input on tailor-made training for teams and unusual learning methods for the future.
Ann-Kathrin Fechner from our team explained the skills models developed in the project and how these can specifically improve personnel development, selection and assessment in order to support the strategic orientation of the company.
Lisa Schafran and Felix Senger, both from WFG Kreis Unna, also provided information on the digital platform, which is currently in the final phase of programming and is expected to go online in August 2024 at the end of the project. It is intended to increase the visibility of educational service providers and the existing offers, provide interested parties with easy access to further education offers in the region and also promote networking between companies and educational service providers in the future to consolidate the further education network.
Keynote for further training out of the box
At the end of our UN conference, Angéla van den Boom, Managing Director of the Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft für eine andere Weiterbildung in Nordrhein-Westfalen (LAAW.NRW), summarized in her keynote speech what had become clear at various points during the afternoon: Talking to each other, listening, exchanging ideas and networking are essential ingredients for a successful continuing education network. She appealed to the participants to get out of their own circle in order to get to know other opinions and perspectives. Mutual inspiration and motivation are important. After all, there are always parallel challenges that can be better tackled together. It invited people to leave their own bubble, disrupt their own algorithm, establish and maintain personal contacts, contribute their own knowledge and share experiences – all of this was the case during the UN conference. Networks such as the continuing education network become stronger, more diverse and jointly supported by many players. Our project team would like to take this opportunity to thank all participants for their active, lively, sometimes controversial and always open discussions, which made this UN conference a lively and entertaining event. Many thanks also to all participants who presented their theses for discussion on the poster walls and thus made a wide range of topics possible. Special thanks go to the supporter Regionalagentur Westfälisches Ruhrgebiet, who made sure that cakes, drinks and small treats were available for refreshment in between.
