The Role of Competence Profiles in Industry 5.0-Related Vocational Education and Training: Exemplary Development of a Competence Profile for Industrial Logistics Engineering Education

Abstract

Industry 5.0 and the associated transformation into Society 5.0 require a complete realignment of the skills required of the engineers of tomorrow. Thereby, the pre-dominant and policy-driven drivers of digitalization, and sustainability in particular, demand a complex variety of enhanced special competencies (e.g., lean thinking, data science skills) and transversal competencies from engineers working in manufacturing companies which must be systematically developed and continuously expanded. Since methodical approaches to systematic competence development in the environment of Industry 5.0-related engineering education are scarce, this article develops a competence profile for industrial logistics engineering education as an example of Industry 5.0-related vocational education and training initiatives. After elaborating on the relevant theoretical aspects of systematic competence development in adult education, an exemplary competence profile for industrial logistics engineering education is developed. Moreover, this paper presents a preliminary investigation of the impact of competencies on job performance and job satisfaction. The research results serve as a basis for the development of new teaching and learning concepts as well as for the investigation of causal relationships between competence-orientation and individual performance for industrial engineers in manufacturing enterprises.