TEACHING AND TRAINING FOR INDUSTRIAL PRACTICE IN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR: A GUIDE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

In an earlier publication, Guidance on Implementation of Education 5.0’, the authors provide a broad definition of the word competence: a specific skill, or knowledge of ability that is both observable and measurable. The ‘competence required to observe or measure the degree to which a skill becomes perceptible can be further broken into two dimensions: knowledge about the product or service; a skill that may be specialised (technical) or personal and perhaps social. The relevant attributes can be intuitively acquired or are learned by observation and intense practice. The implementation of Education 5.0 is premised on the addition to the learning architecture (In Zimbabwe's case the British System of Education) of two new pillars: innovation and industrialization. Since the introduction of formal education in the last quarter of the 19th century, Zimbabwe's education system has remained rooted in the production of graduates for the job market using the three learning pillars: teaching, research and community outreach. Overtly, this has limited our knowledge application in everyday use to the repair and maintenance domain.

The creation and delivery of new competent products via the manufacturing domain has been provided for in product use literature that is usually supplied to the customer at the point of sale. Knowledge about how the product (technical specifications) is made and the materials used are often described in broad terminology. The technology or skill (intuitive and practical) that is used to make (mass production or manufacturing practice) the product is little described. Sometimes, this information appears in very small print. The idea is to not fully give away detailed information about mass production education!!

In this monograph, the authors have attempted to provide pathways or appropriate approaches that may be applied in the teaching of skills that are required to achieve a degree of technical competence in the mass production of specified goods and services. The evolution of these skills and the required competence add up to define innovation (intuitive and idea-driven). Depending on demand, more of the same product may have to be produced leading to industrialization (practice and technology-driven).

The learning process starts with an idea that often is taken through design, construction of prototype, testing and commissioning. Throughout, the concepts of interest covered will include ‘the teaching factory’ model which has its genesis in the first industrial revolution (18th century) and the Capstone Project Approach (20th century) that introduced mass production and innovation, respectively. Collaboration and teamwork are seen as important attributes in improving both manufacturing and technology and introducing new product variations. The element of product or technology viability from a business perspective is dealt with using the ‘stage-gate process’ that was adopted for the mass production of aircraft parts and used extensively in the 1960s and 1970s. The stage-gate process has been widely used in many large and complex industrial programmes.

The move from ‘standardized education or knowledge of facts and procedures’ that has been Africa's undoing is treated in a manner that allows for the development of a suitable transitional model from Education 3.0 to Education 5.0. In the latter case, adequate learning time and space are given to define a product and develop learning tools that permit the introduction of innovations to improve manufacturing technology without compromising the quality of the product. Here the authors make a bold attempt to bring to the fore the elements of the learning process that constitute the pedagogies that give rise to the teaching and learning of practical skills and the training thereof, and how these may be linked to the technical manufacturing education for both operator and technical support staff. There are clusters or families of practical innovative pedagogical approaches, and these are derived or developed from existing theoretical spectra of science and engineering knowledge. They lie between fundamental technical learning (practice) principles that are inclusive of culture and heritage and are instinctively learnt and practised through life on the one hand, and the specific learning attributes that on the other hand must be taught. The African traditional rite of passage boot camps have provision for the latter.

Pedagogies for practical skills training are proposed and presented in this monograph. The learning tools covered and suggested in this monograph are not exhaustive, but provide a glimpse into how innovative thinking should be embraced, taught and translated from prototype to industry. In a fast-changing education landscape, the three concepts provide a starting point: ideation, design and prototype construction. Mass production to realise the industrialization pillar in Education 5.0 is dependent on raw material and manufacturing technology created, adapted or adopted for product processing. It is the teaching of competence about the materials and the technology to process these materials into products that is the subject of this monograph.