Digitalisation is changing the world of work. Now it is even possible to train as an e-commerce assistant. However, experts are calling for a greater willingness to change.
Digitalisation is advancing into the world of work with increasing speed. Trainees are now able to retrieve their job instructions from the cloud, they have been able to operate machines using tablets for some time, and they learn in social networks. Job profiles have also not been immune to the impact of the digital transformation. However, the transformation from the old world of work to the new is not proceeding quickly enough for some.
At least the new training year began in good shape for digitalisation. As of 1 August 2018, young people have been able to train nationally for the first time as an online retailer. The official title of the new training offer is "Management Assistant for E-Commerce". It is intended as a response to the boom in online commerce which has been with us for some time. A response which comes ten years too late, is the critical response from experts, who are calling for greater urgency in matters concerning digitalisation. No less than the future viability of Germany hangs in the balance.
Roofers work with drones
"The training isn't ten years too late, it's actually right on time," says Martin Groß-Albenhausen, Vice President of the German Federal Association for E-Commerce and Distance Selling. Because, according to Groß-Albenhausen, these are the skilled workers who might make the "next big thing in commerce" happen. "We have created an occupation where, on the first day of training, we say to each trainee that, at the end of the three years of training, there will probably be some things they learned in the first few months which they will no longer use." The Trade Association for Germany expects more than 1,000 e-commerce trainees this year.
However, it is not only in the area of commerce that digitalisation is causing a stir in training. In contrast to just a few years ago, programmes and robots have long since been part of everyday work in industry, and things are also changing where roofers are concerned. According to the German Roofing Federation, drones have increasingly been used in this sector for some time in order to make it easier to identify damage. They explain that, with these unmanned aircraft becoming increasingly affordable, it is fair to say that this is almost a trend. According to the federation, however, a pilot's licence for drones is still not yet on the agenda in vocational education and training.
New media in vocational school training
Why not? Josef Buschbacher, an expert in initial and continuing education and training, wants to see a more lively debate surrounding vocational education and training in Germany. Not just regarding content, but also form. Many people should give some thought to this, says the Managing Director of Corporate Learning + Change GmbH: "The issue of 'learning to learn' ought to be far more established in framework curricula." He adds that the era in which you could practice the profession you're trained in, in the same way and for your entire life, is long gone.
We ought to be looking to new media to convey knowledge in vocational school teaching. "What I mean is, don't start printing books for management assistants in e-commerce," explains the expert. Instead, use modern teaching and learning methods such as web seminars or social networks. "Companies are increasingly looking to these because they can see that the new training generation has grown up with such things." So why not make use of these? "Why not, instead of 3 training years, introduce 36 levels, a bit like a computer game structure?" He explained that studies had shown how gaining a sense of achievement quickly was a real booster to motivation for young people.