An Approach of Effective Integration of Traditional University Education and Academic Continuing Education Programs

The twin transition driven by digitalization and automation, set against the backdrop of climate change, is leading to a sustainable restructuring of our world of work. Consequently, this is transforming learning environments, particularly within universities. As knowledge and technology life cycles become shorter, and universities must prepare individuals for professions that do not yet exist, lifelong learning will become essential for maintaining employability, even for highly qualified graduates. As one relevant example, the mobility and transportation sector is challenged by two main trends, targeting to a reduction of emissions and environmental impact as well as digitalization and automation of systems and services. In this way, huge knowledge demand and skills gaps exist in various areas. Traditional expertise, e.g., mechanical-, electrical-, and construction engineering, architecture, city- and traffic planning, but also expertise related to infrastructure and energy supply, is challenged by the new knowledge required.

In this context, the present publication introduces a holistic approach of high-level education on the example of the mobility and transportation sector. The approach targets to both, university initial education programs and continuing education in the sense of lifelong learning. The basic idea is based on an integration of university study programs and high-level continuing education to benefit from each other and utilizing synergies. The approach has been developed in the course of long-lasting industrial trainings, which have been offered by the Life-Long-Learning Institute of Graz University of Technology in a close co-operation with university professors and experts. In this way, high-quality training for professionals is provided for post-graduate and expert staff by also enabling knowledge transfer from professional experience into university courses at the same time. The presented approach has been applied on university level, supporting an increased transfer orientation within the master program curricula of mechanical engineering by enhancement with new lectures and project works. On the side of post-graduate and expert education, a number of new programs have been introduced. This includes the “Tech MBA” program of business administration “Leadership in Digital Transformation” and the development of several shorter post-graduate and expert training programs. These programs include industrial-oriented university courses as well as shorter courses that support enterprises on their way towards zero carbon emissions. The lifelong learning programs target to fulfill requirements of different groups, including industry, research institutions, public- and governmental organizations. In addition, it is planned to extend the approach by opening standard university courses to participants of post-graduate training programs to facilitate a higher integration level between university- and lifelong learning education, breaking down synergy barriers and thus benefiting from the potential of enforced discussions as well as knowledge- and problems exchange between university students and participants of post graduate courses. In this way, the presented approach has great potential to support holistic future-oriented educational programs by integrating teaching on university level and enhanced training of professionals, supporting the bidirectional opening between the world of work and the world of learning.