DEKRA Media GmbH – Das BIBB und DEKRA Media – Innovationen seit 20 Jahren

DEKRA Media and the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) can look back on a very successful cooperation since 2001 featuring a number of projects. “Our cooperation with DEKRA Media has always been characterised by great trust in the innovative strength and creativity of the team and there have been no problems with any of the many projects we have realised together over the past 20 years. I have always been impressed by the reliability and quality of DEKRA Media's work,” says Prof. Dr. Michael Heister, who has worked together with DEKRA on various projects as department manager at BIBB. From the very beginning, the trainer portal www.foraus.de was at the heart of the cooperation - a portal that DEKRA Media planned, technically developed and edited for many years on behalf of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. Germany-wide and also internationally, www.foraus.de was and still is a flagship project showing how the possibilities of technological development can be creatively used to build target group-specific educational solutions, in this case for training staff.

When the internet was established beyond the boundaries of colleges and universities at the beginning of the 1990s, it quickly became apparent that the internet, and later on the community technology, would enable completely new forms of communication. People around the world could network with each other and share experiences more easily than ever before. For Wolfgang Reichelt, now Managing Director of DEKRA Media, the question arose at the time as to how this potential could be used in a smart way with a view to training staff. The creative collaboration between BIBB and the DEKRA Media team, which was still operating under the name thinkhouse GmbH at the time, resulted in the idea of building a “Knowledge Community”. Foraus.de was born and has developed into one of the largest trainer communities in Europe. “The development of www.foraus.de was a milestone on BIBB's road towards the digital transformation of its information and communication offers. In many respects, it is still an outstanding example of how such transformation processes can succeed over many years on the basis of a good, contemporary idea and persistent editorial work,” says Michael Härtel, head of division at BIBB.

Foraus.de – the very first online portal for training staff

Unlike the rudimentary chat rooms of the 90s or the Usenet, as it was developed in the 80s, the “Knowledge Community” www.foraus.de was intended to be more than just a place for communication. Instead, it should specifically support training staff in sharing experiences and learning, as well as make important information easily accessible to training staff.

The focus was always on sharing experience and information

DEKRA Media not only took over the complete technical development of the portal, but also supplied the new system with information as part of the initial provision. Up until 2016, the editorial maintenance of the platform was also in the hands of DEKRA Media. BIBB then decided to incorporate this work into the internal editorial department for BIBB’s websites. But by then, DEKRA Media had written hundreds of news items and forum posts, supplied the learning portal in foraus.de with self-study materials, looked for and found authors for book reviews, and engaged education experts as forum moderators. “By closely monitoring user behaviour in foraus.de and flexibly adapting the editorial and moderating work, BIBB and the DEKRA Media Team have succeeded over the years in building up a stable online community. www.foraus.de is highly valued by trainers and also other educational professionals,” explains Heister.

Pioneering role requires research work

However, Foraus.de was more than just a development project. As one of the first systems in this field, it was also an important research project that showed the potential that community platforms hold for vocational education and training and how they can be designed to suit the target group. This resulted in several publications on the subject between 2001 and 2004, which were jointly published by Wolfgang Reichelt and BIBB.

Innovation ensures sustainability

Nevertheless, the cooperation between the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training and DEKRA Media continued. Just like the early days of the internet in the 80s and 90s, the ongoing digitalisation of recent years has made waves in the world of work. What is now commonly known as “Industry 4.0” has far-reaching implications for training methods. The question was how to prepare the training staff for these new requirements. The solution: an innovative series of explanatory films produced by DEKRA Media for the foraus.de platform. “In our twelve webcasts, which is what we call these films, we visit companies and show how these companies use new technologies, such as tablets or VR, in a relevant manner in training. However, the films not only consist of footage shot on location, but also of moderated sections recorded in the studio and great animated clips,” explains Michael Härtel, the responsible project coordinator at BIBB. “In the films, we not only show successful examples of these new learning methods, but also explain how companies can implement similar measures themselves”.

Webcasts – modern format for modern content

Nevertheless, the cooperation between the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training and DEKRA Media continued. Just like the early days of the internet in the 80s and 90s, the ongoing digitalisation of recent years has made waves in the world of work. What is now commonly known as “Industry 4.0” has far-reaching implications for training methods. The question was how to prepare the training staff for these new requirements. The solution: an innovative series of explanatory films produced by DEKRA Media for the foraus.de platform. “In our twelve webcasts, which is what we call these films, we visit companies and show how these companies use new technologies, such as tablets or VR, in a relevant manner in training. However, the films not only consist of footage shot on location, but also of moderated sections recorded in the studio and great animated clips,” explains Michael Härtel, the responsible project coordinator at BIBB. “In the films, we not only show successful examples of these new learning methods, but also explain how companies can implement similar measures themselves”.

Have we piqued your interest?