Necessary competences of employees in the field of standardization

Companies' actions are increasingly influenced by standards which, for various reasons, are becoming more important. Against this background, the requirements on employees have increased, as standards influence ever further reaching areas of their tasks. On the one hand, products and processes need to be designed according to standards, and on the other hand, companies might consider to actively participate in standardisation processes to ensure that the resulting standards have a positive impact on their businesses. Consequently, we can already differentiate the employees into the large share implementing standards in product development or production processes and the very small number actively involved in standardisation processes. This contribution deals with the question for which ""technical and non-technical job profiles"" the present European employment market requests standardisation-related competences. In the search for the answer to this question an extensive literature survey as well as an additional field survey have been carried out to identify most relevant topics for standardisation education and job specific requirements. As an overall result of both studies, we present the most important job profiles and their particular demands for standardisation-related competences. Based on these insights contents for general higher education are defined taking different scientific fields, technologies or sectors into account.