Innovative skills for an old vocation – which sub-dimensions of globalisation, digitalisation and sustainability are of relevance for which spheres of activity?
Context: As all sectors, the sector of industrial footwear production faces the mega-trends of globalisation, digitalisation and sustainability. Many studies on these trends refer to the meta-level, an example might be the study conducted by Jeske et al. (2021), who stated for the German metal and electrical industry increasing “Qualification requirements for skilled workers” due to digitalisation (p. 378). Findings like the one quoted are published broadly for all three trends and lead to enormous uncertainties among workforce; skilled workers are asking their foremen and themselves: “What does this mean for my workplace?”
Skilled work in the sector of industrial footwear production can be described by 18 Spheres of Activity (SoA), and this paper aims at discerning those SoA, that are affected most by the different sub-dimensions of the trends (for example: collaborative robots as sub-dimension of digitalisation).
Approach: Desk research was undertaken to figure out the potential sub-dimensions, which were summarised in three matrices (one for each trend). The matrices have been filled in with the experienced or expected developments in nine expert-workshops.
Findings: Results reveal, quite surprisingly, that classic “blue collar” SoA like “cutting” are expected to stay more stable than “white collar” SoA like “design”.
Conclusions: The findings might help reduce the uncertainties about the consequences of the trends for workplaces and business processes among workforce and small and medium (SME) companies in the sector of industrial shoe production – and serve as basis for fitting continuous education and training where needed.
In
Nägele, Christof
(Hrsg.)
;
Stalder, Barbara E.
(Hrsg.)
;
Kaiser, Franz
(Hrsg.)
;
Malloch, Margaret
(Hrsg.)
;
Kersh, Natasha
(Hrsg.)
(2025):Trends in vocational education and training research,
OAPublishin: VETNET
