Promoting Competencies of the Future – The Role of University-integrated Makerspaces

Abstract

An increasing interaction between man and machine in all areas of society leads not only to new job profiles but also initiates a discussion about the needed digital competencies in the future. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre has developed in a multi-stakeholder approach an initial framework to describe and measure the needed competencies such as problem solving ability, capacity of teamwork and programming skills (Carretero et al. 2017). It is expected that the transfer of technical, occupation-oriented and personality-building competencies alongside subject-related knowledge will become increasingly important in higher education (Association of Sponsors of German Science 2016, pp. 26-27). In order to avoid inequalities among students -those with and without so-called digital competencies - new learning approaches are needed. One possible approach towards the enhancement of digital competencies can be found within the maker movement.