Project manager and civil engineer Emil Pettersson’s working day is spent planning for the future of energy supply, specifically the manufacture of low and high voltage cables. Cables such as those required for the new offshore wind farms. In his work, Emil encounters many of the challenges posed by the great journey of transformation in industry. Emil recently completed the distance learning course Technologies in Industry 4.0 at the University of Skövde to help make him more proactive and thus efficient.
“I can highly recommend this course. It has given me a very good basic understanding of the Industry 4.0 technologies and thereby strengthened my role in my workplace. Above all, it has built up my ability to argue in favour of specific investment cases, for example. Being able to demonstrate long-term benefits and increased competitiveness for the company in the future by means of an investment,” says Emil.
Courses that fit in with a busy calendar
Emil says that he has always had a strong talent for technical matters, and that is why he chose to return to the manufacturing industry when his company, Drömuppdraget, was more established. He still runs this company, which helps university students and companies to find one another, and it has not been easy to run a company, work as a consultant and study at the same time.
“I would not have been able to do this course had it not been flexible. I was able to listen to pre-recorded lectures, and that allowed me to study at times to suit me. I also appreciated the clarity from Magnus Holm, the course coordinator, who told me what I needed to do at particular times, and what could wait. The University of Skövde really creates opportunities for us in this regard, with a fully booked calendar that allows us to set aside time for our studies,” says Emil.
Gained a different perspective on Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 is not just about machines and implementing technology, but also about people. This is something that the course places great emphasis on communicating, and in this regard Emil says that the course has given him a new perspective, shifting his focus from the technology to considering how operators can interact with the technology. Another important element is that participants get to know their own workplace and recognise their maturity in certain technologies.
“My view is that my workplace is very much at the forefront when it comes to the automation element of production. But I also identified a couple of areas where there is progress to be made. This type of analysis makes this course very valuable for people working in industry, and companies of course,” says Emil.
Good dialogue with course coordinator
Once Emil had decided to study an Industry 4.0 course, he had to search for quite some time before he found a course that could be combined with his work. And he is amazed at how ineffective higher education institutions are at dealing with the professional target group.
“It was important for me to be able to work at the same time, and so I contacted several different universities that offered courses in the field I wanted to study, just to check their flexibility. Many universities had a completely different view. In other words, they thought people should devote themselves to their studies. That surprised me, actually. That is why after chatting with Magnus Holm, choosing his course Technologies in Industry 4.0 at the University of Skövde seemed like the right thing to do,” Emil concludes.
WISER courses for professionals
The course that Emil studied, Technologies in Industry 4.0, was developed as part of the WISER skills development project and, in its form and scope, is intended to be combined with work. WISER develops custom courses for digital transformation in areas such as future technologies, organisational development or leadership. All courses have the same flexible structure and are developed in close cooperation with the 20 or so companies involved in the project.