Living Learning Environments

Learning factories and innovation laboratories are current approaches for the qualification of participants from the field of Industrial Engineering. The focus here is on a transfer of knowledge from research to the manufacturing industry. For more than 10 years different learning concepts and scenarios in the working context close to value creation have been developed and tested in learning factories. The participants can experience new situations through different scenarios and learn from them. These concepts are already being used in vocational education and training courses. In innovation laboratories various technologies and scenarios are being investigated and tested. As an example, a well-known innovation lab in Stuttgart focuses on the working environment of the future. Various demonstrators are used to simulate and present specific scenarios from the manufacturing industry, integrating the respective stakeholders. In this paper, two learning environments are compared and evaluated with regard to their potential applications for qualification. For the analysis, evaluation sheets of training events in the Learning Factory advanced Industrial Engineering (LF aIE) and an exemplary innovation lab in Stuttgart have been used. It assess the different learning environments in terms of their suitability as a qualification tool. Based on this, it will be examined how the current learning systems meet the requirements of a value-added integrated competence development.