Training programmes are an organized set of elements which try to provide an answer to a particular gap that one wishes to cover. In the case of the automotive industry, there are already training responses to the needs of the job market, but they are incomplete because they do not cover all the demands that the current and future reality require. The gap is evident and is due, on the one hand, to a dynamic job market reality and, on the other, to educational systems that are not agile enough to provide a response to the demands they receive or that require new scenarios.
One of the most important issues when organizing the curriculum is deciding the goals to be achieved. Traditionally, training has been organized based on conceptual, procedural and attitudinal knowledge whose acquisition raised training goals that were expressed as general and specific objectives and were operationalized in the training programme. This orientation enhances knowledge rather than its usefulness and leads to very academic training models.
A training orientation more focused on acting and changing a particular reality has promoted the progressive adoption of competences as a frame of reference for training, although with a broader sense than was initially used in vocational training.
Competences are usually identified by the characteristics of the person related to a successful performance in their workplace. Consisting of the integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes that produce tangible results, their measurement informs us of the degree of mastery achieved. However, they are more than the mere sum of the knowledge mentioned. Initially used in the context of vocational training, the use of competences to describe learning results has expanded into the whole of education systems and also being used in continuing education processes, assuming the challenges and benefits involved.
Linking competences to capabilities means emphasizing the applicability of learning. Indeed, a “competent” person has always been understood as one who is able to solve the problems typical of his field of activity.
Considering this situation, the collaboration between industries and universities to promote the development and improvement of new educational programs, as well as the possibility to collaborate through students stages at companies, the definition of case studies or challenges to be analyzed and solve by students seems to be the future in the automotive training.
Do you know any experiences of collaboration in that field you will like to share?
How we can strength the collaboration between industries and universities in that field?
Do you think our competence centers will be useful to improve students competences?