Further education in the tool and die industry

In the competition for attractive orders, the tool and die industry in high wage countries has to create a knowledge advantage to preserve international competitiveness. Modern tool technologies and know-how intensive processes are the basis for a successful positioning of tool and die companies in the global competition of tool making. Only by regularly qualifying and educating their employees in the fields of technology, organizational principles and self-development a long term advantage can be achieved. About 80% of the German tool and die makers have less than 20 employees. It is therefore difficult to offer their employees further education using existing education methods and programs. Due to restricted resources the absence of high skilled workers over a full period of two or three years is almost impossible. A solely theoretical education has moreover proven to have little return for the mostly practically oriented tooling experts. The tool and die industry needs further education which is independent from a fixed time frame and especially tailored to the needs and learning habits of high skilled workers. To address this need the RWTH Aachen University has created a flexible and modular structured Master´s program in tool and die engineering. The program is exclusively part time and contains twelve modules including the Master´s thesis. Since each semester contains two modules the program can be passed in three years. This program entirely focuses on the needs of the tool and die industry and is unique throughout the world.