Meeting and site tour with TGM Die Schule der Technic
I have been very fortunate to meet with the director and
lecturers of TGM Die Schule der Technic. TGM is one of the oldest and most
respected vocational technical colleges in Austria and they specialise in
electronics and Information Technology courses.
Wolfgang Scharl, a representative of the Ministry of education also attended the meeting.
My meeting was extensive, it totally amazed me at the highly technical nature of their courses but also at how professional they are in ensuring the delivery and assessment standards are. They particularly questioned me on the standards of Australian vocational teachers in pedagogical practices. They fired just as many questions at me as I did to them, they are genuinely interested in our vocational system.
·
Meeting participants
o
Wolfgang Scharl, Head of Dept(schools, colleges
for engineering, arts and crafts), Federal Ministry of Education and Womens
Affairs
o
Karl Reischer, Director, TGM Die Schule der
Technic
o
Gerhard Vitovec, Lecturer, TGM Die Schule der
Technic
o
Andreas F Dvorak, Lecturer, TGM Die Schule der
Technic
Notes from the
initial meeting and tour of the facilities and classes
·
Founded in 1879, Motto: Rooted in tradition,
Committed to the future
·
2539 students (only 12.7% are female). We
discussed the same issue that we are having in Australia with a small number of
female students being attracted to our technical careers. TGM are as frustrated
and concerned about this as we are.
·
323 teaching staff (22% are female)
·
110 Support and administrative staff
·
They offer courses in:
o
Electrical engineering – power eng, control eng,
information eng.
o
Electronics – computer technology, mobile
communication
o
Biomedical and health engineering
o
Information Technology – systems and IT,
Internet and media
o
Mechanical engineering – Machinery and systems,
welding technology, mobile vehicle engineering
o
Applied Mechatronics
o
Plastics engineering – plastics and
environmental engineering, sports and design
o
Industrial engineering – Business management,
Logistics
o
Electrical Engineering – renewable energy
o
Electronics – IT and network engineering
o
Programming is their biggest course area in IT
·
Delivery modes
o
Fulltime classes
o
Evening courses:
§
Electronics – computing science, biomedical
science, telecommunications
§
Industrial Engineering – business management,
quality control
§
Foreman course – operations technology
o
Most classes have online resources through their
Moodle LMS
o
They don’t appear to have any fully online
courses. We discussed the concerns of operating highly practical courses in a
fully online mode. Students must have access to prac sessions
o
All courses have a hands on practical
requirement with extensive lab time
·
Typical course requirements
o
Very intensive training (37hrs/week Min)
o
Diploma project in 5th year (industry
based)
o
Compulsory work placements (8 weeks minimum
during holiday periods)
·
Teacher requirements:
o
Minimum 4 years of industry experience
o
Must maintain currency in their technical skills
·
Career Opportunities:
o
Direct entry into employment
o
Access to a University of Applied Science (
credit arrangements are variable and need to be negotiated individually)
o
Occupational title of “Ingenieur” after 3 years
of industry experience. This is a new title and role called an “Ingenieur”
which is different to other Definitions of engineer. The new definition will
fit between university and trade definitions
o
Entitled to be self-employed after 2 years of
industry experience (not sure how this is managed or accredited, will need to
follow-up with more questions)
·
Students typically take on a 5 year course where
the first 2-3 years are spent on core subjects and then completing specialist
subjects in years 4-5
·
The student’s final year is based on a major
project that has to be undertaken in industry. The final project is not
standardised but based on criteria that is fairly general that allows the
teacher to make a judgement.
·
Most students need to work at least 2 mths/year in industry prior to the fifth
year
·
Students
need to manage their own work experience and find their own work placement. The
college helps with a network of employers that they can talk to but it is the
students responsibility to manage this
·
TGM
also operate a Federal Accredited Testing and Inspection Body. They have very
highly specialised equipment and facilities to conduct testing of electronic devices.
This enables there staff to maintain a very high currency in electronics.
o
EN
ISO/IEC 17025
o
EN
ISO/IEC 17020
·
The
facilities are outstanding with numerous electronic and IT labs. Equipment
appears to be very current but they mentioned that it is always challenging to
maintain the currency of equipment with tight budgets
·
All
courses have core units that deal with
o
communication
skills
o
ecological
aspects
o
economy
and law
·
There
are several levels of consultation
o
EU
consultation through Cedefop and collaboration tools
o
Ministry
led consultation on curriculum and communication between schools, industry,
chamber of commerce and trade unions
o
All
levels have a standardised survey model to provide feedback to the next level
up eg. Students>teachers, teachers>dept management….schools and colleges
directly to the Ministry. This ensure that all levels are aware of the views of
other stakeholders. Feedback is recorded in a highly standardised way so it can
be analysed in detail. (It would be good to see this data of the tool but not
sure if this is appropriate to ask for)
o
Final
standardised exams in core generalist subjects must have a educational leader
from another college to administer the exam and ensure its validity. Technical
exams are not standardised because of the differences between technical
subjects
·
Their
doesn't appear to be a complex validation process for writing assessments. “Teachers
are our experts, employers are our experts” they know how to assess. The
teachers are very resistant to any process that distracts them from teaching
and assessment.
·
Cost
of education approx 75 euro per year. They commented on how expensive our (Australian)
education system was. I met 1 teacher who had studied at Monash uni and another
that wanted to study in Australia but found it too expensive
Following
the initial meeting I had an extensive tour of their facilities including:
- ·
Federal
Accredited Testing and Inspection facilities – in the same building complex but
operated independently to the teaching facilities
- ·
Electronics
classes and labs
- ·
IT
classes and labs
High Voltage test lab 100,000 Volts
Networking labs
Test facilities
It lab
