Automation, Work Process, Maintenance Skilled Work, and Curriculum

The model of progressive automation objectifying human skills found its counterpart in social science theories that predicted a process of de-skilling with progressive automation in the field of skilled work. However, all relevant studies showed that the reality of work processes in automation is characterized by a high work-related competence of the workforce. This has implications for the structure of occupations: The increase in objective work process knowledge, which skilled workers in production and maintenance must have, goes hand in hand with a reduction in specialized occupational structures. The number of occupations is decreasing. This development has positive effects on the quality of vocational training. The withdrawal of horizontal and vertical division of tasks in occupational development results from business process-oriented organizational structures of work processes. In this way, significantly higher labor productivity can be achieved. This leads to important conclusions for curricula development. The results of the study on the change in skilled work suggest that vocational education and training should not be treated as an instance for repairing problematic automation concepts, but should make vocational work process knowledge a development dimension of automation in the world of work. This relieves the burden on the vocational curriculum.