EU4DUAL Staff Week at FH JOANNEUM
From May 13th to May 17th 2024, FH JOANNEUM had the pleasure of hosting its first International Staff Week in the framework of EU4DUAL. The topic of the week was “Future of Work”, which is also one of EU4DUAL’s three Grand Challenges. We welcomed 21 participants from 11 countries to Austria and enjoyed five days of workshops, company visit and cultural activities.
The Staff Week started off at FH JOANNEUM, with welcoming speeches and a keynote speech held by Nava Shaked from Holon Institute of Technology on the topic of Artificial Intelligence. The participants were then given a tour of the FH JOANNEUM campus and spent the afternoon getting to know each other. The participants come from various backgrounds, but they all have a connection to the Future of Work in their jobs.
On Tuesday, we visited the FH JOANNEUM campus in Kapfenberg and learned about the dual study model at FH JOANNEUM and were shown around the Smart Production Lab. In the afternoon, it was time for the first company visit of the week at the Gösser Brewery in Leoben, where FH JOANNEUM graduates showed us the production facilities on site. Of course, no brewery visit would be complete without a beer tasting, and Gösser’s wide variety of beers made the tasting very interesting!
The second company visit to Andritz was the main part of Wednesday morning. We received an extensive tour of the facilities as well as a presentation of Andritz’s main areas of work. In the afternoon, Arrate Alonso from Mondragon University held a workshop on Digital Transformation in Europe. Manuel Grassler and Georg Wagner from FH JOANNEUM introduced the group to LEGO® Serious Play® in their workshop “Shaping the Future of Work”.
Sain Lopez from Mondragon University spoke about Entrepreneurial Universities in her workshop on Thursday morning, while Katja Stamer and Gerhard Lechner from Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg ended the workshop series with their workshop on Digitalization Along the Value Chain. The final company visit of the week took place on Thursday afternoon with a visit to the Zotter chocolate factory.
On Friday morning, the participants reflected on the experiences of the week and discussed further possibilities for cooperation. The participants agreed that the EU4DUAL Staff Week will have a significant impact on their work, as many were inspired to start new cooperations, to establish new formats and activities within their university and to think differently about the term “Future of Work”.
The FH JOANNEUM team is very grateful for the many discussions, fun moments, and new ideas from the Staff Week. We were honored to host so many participants from the EU4DUAL network and our other partner universities and look forward to staying in touch!
