Being "innovative" often means forging new paths: In the KMUdigital research network, we support selected partners in entering digital further education – and learn in practice how our platform can pave the way for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Terms like "Work 4.0" or "Industry 4.0" are becoming increasingly present in our increasingly digitalized society. What is often forgotten alongside work and production: Knowledge transfer is also changing rapidly!
On the path to "Continuing Education 4.0", hundreds of trainers and companies already trust blink.it. The biggest challenge for us is to meet all the requirements with the blink.it learning platform: Digital further education is a tightrope walk between freelance trainers with small learning groups and large companies with thousands of employees.
In between are small and medium-sized companies: In Germany, they account for 99% of taxable companies! Therefore, the needs of these businesses are the focus of the KMUdigital joint project:
The blink.it founders Michael Witzke (front center) and Konstantin Ristl (back right) with the consortium partners from KMUdigital
KMU Digital: Promoting Continuing Education 4.0 in SMEs
KMUdigital is a joint project that supports selected SMEs on their journey towards Work and Industry 4.0.
The research project, planned for two years with 5 consortium partners, is actively supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. We at blink.it are both participants and technology providers: With our learning platform, we support our partners Werner Dosiertechnik, bauer Maschinen & Technologie, and LaKo in implementing e-learning and blended learning.
Info: You can find more information on the KMUdigital website
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Our mission: Solving SMEs' challenges easily!
In direct collaboration with the project partners, we want to enhance and optimize our own platform. Our goal is to provide small and medium-sized enterprises with a perfect solution for Continuing Education 4.0 in the future.
To make this possible, we develop the requirements of medium-sized companies for digital further education – and develop suitable solutions on the blink.it learning platform. In one and a half years of practical research, we have developed a variety of new features. Among others, the following three:
1. Improved communication between participants and instructors
Trainers usually communicate with their small learning groups in person. Large companies often use specialized communication software. For medium-sized companies, both solutions are not ideal outside the platform.
Our solution: Participants can not only write comments under learning units but can now also upload their own files and directly address and notify other participants.
In the comment section, participants can ask questions, upload files, and directly address other participants / Source: blink.it learning platform
2. Voluntary learning content for motivated participants
Trainers and large companies usually primarily offer courses on specific topics that are mandatory for all participants. Our SME partners' desire was to break this strict allocation of learning material.
Our solution: Courses can be offered freely on the platform for all participants. This makes further education possible on a voluntary basis for motivated employees.
In the comment section, participants can ask questions, upload files, and directly address other participants / Source: blink.it learning platform
3. Identifying and directly addressing inactive participants
In medium-sized companies, the participant groups are often too large to individually check the learning progress. At the same time, there is usually no “Learning and Development” department that can handle this control for large groups of participants.
Our solution: The blink.it platform automatically recognizes when participants have not actively participated in courses for an extended period. These participants can be targeted for notification to motivate them, for example, to continue their work.
In addition to mandatory courses, voluntary learning content can also be offered in the “Discover” section. Source: blink.it learning platform
We, of course, do not only make these features available to the consortium partners but to all blink.it customers! 🙂
Our goal: The perfect learning platform for Continuing Education 4.0
Managing Director Konstantin Ristl has a clear goal in mind for the KMUdigital project:
“We want to improve our platform not only for medium-sized companies but also create real added value for all educators and businesses with our research. Independent trainers and coaches, as well as companies of all sizes, should have the opportunity to make further education simple, modern, and sustainable. And especially the support of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research shows us how important this topic is – and that we are making a valuable contribution!”
