Making training personnel fit for the future

The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) is expanding its continuing VET offer for company-based training personnel working in vocational education and training. BIBB's MIKA CAMPUS web offer is available now at mika.foraus.de. The learning platform developed by BIBB helps personnel acquire the basics of digital and media pedagogy and is the first of three elements in the project "Media and IT competence for training personnel" (MIKA).

 This continuing VET offer, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), aims to establish the use of digital media in company-based training. It uses guided practical exercises to support company-based training personnel at in-person events, webinars and in phases of independent learning, thus helping training personnel to acquire or to expand their competencies in digital and media pedagogy.

The continuing education and training is completed alongside work. It has been developed at BIBB and trialled with external partners, for example with chambers of crafts and trades, chambers of industry and commerce, and with vocational training centres.

 Trainers on the MIKA CAMPUS can discover in a very practical way how best to interact with their trainees virtually, or how teamwork and feedback discussions can be organised digitally. Other learning modules cover, for example, the influence of digitalisation on the world of work or the question of which licence permits content researched on the internet to be used for training in a way which is legally compliant. Users are accompanied through the various learning modules by Mika, the virtual presenter and trainee.

 In the view of BIBB President Friedrich Hubert Esser, the quality of the dual vocational education and training system in Germany depends entirely on the quality of the training personnel. "The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training therefore very much prioritises ongoing support for trainers in the role they have as learning facilitators for trainees. This didactic approach to embedding the acquisition of media and IT competence in the actual training process for trainers has been deliberately selected and from this we anticipate a high-level of acceptance for this continuing education and training format. A detailed analysis of the overall MIKA concept launched in the summer of 2022 should also make it possible for BIBB to set an initial national standard for the development of media and IT competence for company-based training personnel."

The two further project elements then followed at the start of the new training year in the summer of 2022: the MIKA SEMINARS, an easy-to-access continuing VET offer for company-based training personnel in a blended learning format, and a train-the-trainer concept (MIKA TRAINER). The two-day training for future leaders of MIKA SEMINARS is obligatory. In this case, the objective is to guarantee a quality standard across Germany for the implementation of the MIKA SEMINARS which have been developed.

 Background:

 In company-based training, the creative potential offered by digital media has barely been exploited until now. Its use is often unsystematic and haphazard, and dependent on how familiar training personnel are with digital media. There is huge uncertainty as regards legal parameters and minimal knowledge of didactic potential or possible applications in the company. The MIKA continuing VET offer is seeking to close this gap and to strengthen the digital occupational competence of training personnel.