SDU is investing in lifelong learning in the Triangle Region
With SDUx Vejle, the University of Southern Denmark, Vejle Municipality and DANDY Business Park will develop a laboratory for lifelong learning that can provide research-based continuing and further education and ensure strong cohesion between the university and the labour market.
Just over a year ago, the University of Southern Denmark, Vejle Municipality and DANDY Business Park shook hands on a collaboration to establish SDU Vejle – an educational and research environment within the area of IT, health and engineering in close collaboration with the business community.
Things have progressed since then – and while we wait for the Ministry of Higher Education and Science’s mapping of the need for IT and engineering education in the Triangle Region, the close and ambitious collaboration has continued unwaveringly.
It is clear that – in addition to a shortage of IT specialists and engineers – there is also a great need for more vocational, research-based continuing and further education in the Triangle Region.
New laboratory for lifelong learning
Through SDUx Vejle, the University of Southern Denmark, Vejle Municipality and DANDY Business Park are launching a number of activities with a focus on identifying and meeting the specific needs that will create a strong cohesion between the university and the labour market over a long working life.
- The ‘X’ in SDUx underlines our ambition to develop and experiment with new educational formats within lifelong learning. With a network of more than 1000 different companies, DANDY Business Park in Vejle has huge potential for building a consolidated, agile laboratory for lifelong learning, says Pro-Rector Helle Waagepetersen about the initiative.
The new activities will naturally be based on the very latest research from a broad range of the University of Southern Denmark’s disciplines and the strong tradition of interdisciplinary collaborations between the health sciences, natural sciences, humanities, social sciences and technical sciences.
Green transition, food of the future and health
At SDUx Vejle, work is being done to develop everything from three-hour courses and individual modules to longer educational courses in flexible formats, with the goal of contributing to the individual’s lifelong learning as well as the overall innovation power, growth and productivity of companies.
- It’s important to collaborate closely with the companies so that the formats are adapted to their needs, just as the active involvement of the companies and other relevant stakeholders in the teaching itself is an important parameter, says Jørgen Andersen, CEO of DANDY Business Park.
In the coming weeks, dialogue meetings are to be held with companies and institutions in the area to identify their need for skill development with a view to creating targeted courses in binding partnerships.
Pivoting on digitalisation, the focus will be on a start to the green transition, food of the future and digitalisation in the health sector.