Didactical Considerations for Further Education Learning Factories: a Three Case Study

Abstract

Industrial upskilling becomes increasingly essential as higher skill requirements and workforce scarcity spread throughout the manufacturing industry. While hiring and consulting strategies often require a significant investment of time and expense before seeing performance improvement or low knowledge absorption, the upskilling of in-house workers often results in an immediate, long-term benefit for companies. However, industrial upskilling strategies have often underperformed due to a misalignment with the learning requirements for the enrolled workers. Learning factories have shown promising results, but the way to teach and facilitate learning still needs to be tailored for this industrial upskilling. This article investigates how upskilling works in three learning factories under the MADE Learning Factory Initiative. The study examines the didactical dimension compared to the adaptability and authenticity of the technology used during instruction. The results show that the learning factories’ dimensions must be considered together with the didactics to ensure authenticity, adaptability and learning. Lastly, the article discusses balancing these considerations with the targeted industrial learners based on lessons learned from the MADE Learning Factory Initiative.

Keywords: Upskilling, Blue collar, Adaptability, Authenticity