{"id":105236,"date":"2024-08-15T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/industry-science.com\/?post_type=article&p=105236"},"modified":"2025-02-26T08:44:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T07:44:16","slug":"learning-factories-sme","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/industry-science.com\/en\/articles\/learning-factories-sme\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Factories as Innovative Training Locations for SMEs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The introduction of new technologies can lead to increasing demands on employees and require an adaptation of professional skills [1]. Many companies are currently in an extensive search process. There are two main questions: which new technologies should be introduced in the workplace and how employees should be trained [2, 3]. At the same time, participation in continuing education is lower in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) than in large companies [4<\/a>, 5<\/a>]. The German federal program \u201cDevelopment of Continuing Education and Training Networks\u201d (“Aufbau von Weiterbildungsverb\u00fcnden”) was therefore initiated as part of the \u201cNational Skills Strategy\u201d [6<\/a>, 7<\/a>].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funding program defines \u201ccontinuing education and training networks\u201d (CET networks), respectively \u201cWeiterbildungsverb\u00fcnde\u201d (WBV), as “networks in which several companies and players in the continuing education landscape as well as regional labor market players enter into cooperation”. One of the aims of the politically initiated funding program is to increase participation in continuing education in SMEs beyond company boundaries and to strengthen networking [8<\/a>].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the literature, CET networks have been described as a special form of cooperation between learning locations and distinguished from more formal training networks on the one hand and less formal qualification networks on the other hand [9]. Empirical evidence shows that cooperation between learning locations is not a decisive characteristic of WBV. The funding guideline is explicitly open to WBV and also allows for less formalized forms of cooperation. WBV can be differentiated by other specific characteristics, e.g. according to the actors involved and their network relationships as well as according to sectors and regional area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As traditional further training approaches reach their limits in the context of Industry 4.0, learning factories are gaining a new relevance for the development of practical skills [10, 11]. In the context of Industry 4.0, there is still a research gap around how learning factories are suitable for further training in SMEs and how cooperation differs. This interdisciplinary article therefore focuses on three learning factories and combines central discourses of adult education in order to illustrate potentials for continuing education in SMEs by analyzing learning locations and educational cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theoretical framework of the study<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Learning factories are defined as specific learning locations oriented towards real production companies and enable work-related learning activities along the value chain through didactic concepts [12-16]. This study refers to this understanding and incorporates two separate discourses: a debate on learning location and a debate on educational networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the learning location debate, learning factories fall into the category of company-based learning locations and thus distinguish themselves from learning in the process of work or from learning in traditional educational institutions [9]. Historically, however, the learning location concept has continued to develop and since the 1990s, an increase in company-based learning locations in learning factories has been discernible with digitalization. Consequently, this has led to two contradictory positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, the convergence of learning locations, in which simulations of real work and production processes can be identified as digital twins in learning factories, which lead to the merging of physical and virtual learning locations [9, 17-19]. Secondly, the decentralization of learning, which points to a differentiation of learning locations. Initially, learning factories were only intended for the academic education of students in order to enable them to learn in a practical way for later work in industrial companies [20, 21]. In the meantime, learning factories have become relevant in vocational training so that young trainees also have the opportunity to learn how to work with machines and systems at an early stage [22-25].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning factories are new for further training. They increasingly take older or low-skilled employees from assembly and logistics into account, which place different demands on the learning location and the didactic concept [26, 27]. Within the learning location debate, cooperations are defined as learning location cooperations according to the degree of formalization. These refer to didactic-organizational contexts for the formal definition of objectives, content and methods of learning [9].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, the educational network debate, which also deals with cooperation in continuing education, is primarily concerned with the relationship between entities and individuals [28]. Cooperation is thus defined as “a prerequisite for networks” and at the same time as a “result of networking activities between organizations” [29].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A distinction is made between forms of cooperation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n