Co-Creative Curriculum Design Towards Industry 4.0 Transformation

The latest digital transformation in industry has reinforced the need for agile, future-oriented skills and competence development, especially in the field of Industry 4.0 related sectors. In this transformation process, university-industry collaboration plays an essential role. The collaboration must be based on dialogue, iterative by nature, open and co-creation oriented.

In this article, we describe Tampere University of Applied Sciences’ (TAMK) educational and pedagogical approach for Industry 4.0 capability creation, where TAMK FieldLab plays a vital role. TAMK FieldLab is the latest strategic initiative and major investment by TAMK consisting both of state-of-the-art equipment and novel co-creative operational model.

How to respond to the Industry 4.0 transformation needs?

Industry 4.0 is commonly used to describe the widespread integration of ICT in the industrial value chain. Industry 4.0 opens up new opportunities for value creation and increases the competitiveness of companies. However, this improvement in competitiveness will not be achieved without the continuous updating and upscaling of both technological and soft skills of students and professionals working in companies. This requires co-creative curriculum design and implementation both in terms of content and pedagogical solutions.

TAMK FieldLab fostering knowledge transfer for Industry 4.0

FieldLab promotes the expansion of Digital Competencies 4.0. In this way, TAMK FieldLab responds to the knowledge challenges posed by digital transformation as well as encourages capitalization of new business opportunities and more effective utilization of new technologies. TAMK FieldLab’s novel operational model emphasizes an open co-innovation process allowing the use of versatile machines in an industrial-like experimental environment by students, staff and companies alike. Ensuring TAMK FieldLab as an industrial testbed to be compatible with the Industry 4.0 requirements, special attention as regards to technology investments has been paid to accessibility and communication capabilities. TAMK FieldLab improves student learning as it increases research and innovation activities. In addition to developed skills, students receive new contact space for interaction with companies together with opportunities for internships and job vacancies.

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This is a short preview of the article, authored by Petri Pohjola and Hanna-Greta Puurtinen featured in The University-Industry Innovation Magazine (UIIM). UIIM showcases interesting stories from different international stakeholders on their activities and endeavours in university-industry interaction.

The University-Industry Innovation Magazine
Universities of Applied Sciences as Regional Powerhouses
Issue: January 2020

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For more information and to download your copy of the University-Industry Innovation Magazine visit our website www.uiin.org.

Header photo by Clint Adair – Unsplash