A management concept of competencies improvement for students with prior vocational, advanced education, and work experience in technical fields

To overcome a severe shortage of university graduates working in the German industry, the universities plan to tap into the reservoir of skilled vocational workers for recruiting them as students. To shorten the time required for finishing an academic degree, but also as an incentive, the candidates shall receive credit for matching vocational knowledge. One of the preconditions for establishing such a new access route is to implement clear criteria for acknowledging vocational talents. This paper presents the approach taken by the Leibniz Universitaet Hannoverpsilas Institute for Microtechnology (IMT) for accrediting vocational knowledge in the areas of Micro and Nano Technology (MNT) and Mechatronics and compares it to alternatives pursued taken by Information Technologies as well as Health and Life Sciences and Economics. The approach taken by the IMT uses the system of Moon, comparing vocational knowledge and required learning outcomes on six levels. Information technology plans to apply the European Qualification Framework that depends on external experts for establishing competencies classified into formal, non-formal, and informal ones. The approach taken by Economics is based on the concept of Anderson and Krathwohl following the taxonomy of Bloom. It compares formal competences within a six level system.