Rhein-Koester sets model for industry-education integration

By Yuan Shenggao| (China Daily)| Updated : 2023-06-21

Print Print

Rhein-Koester, an industrial pioneer in the research and development, promotion and implementation of applied talent development, has taken the lead in boosting the innovation of industry-empowered education.

The company is working closely with the Zibo high-tech zone in Shandong province to explore the integrated model of "government-enterprise-school-market".

Currently, Rhein-Koester's model has been widely used in more than 10 industry-education integration training bases throughout the country.

Rhein-Koester aims to develop new innovative training and industrial systems to achieve sustainable hydrogen production and related energy management, contributing to combating climate change by cultivating talents and professionals in cooperation with various universities in Germany.

Through the establishment of Sino-German junior colleges, the company also empowers the high-quality employment and the development of average graduates.

Rhein-Koester is advancing the pace of internationalization and promoting its educational philosophy to the world.

Platforms empower education

The Sino-German Intelligent Manufacturing Industry-Education Integration Demonstration Base, jointly built by the Zibo High-tech Zone Administrative Committee and Rhein-Koester, covers 10 functional areas and 21 tech training centers, achieving efficient convergence of industrial development, technological innovation and talent cultivation.

The base can carry out targeted R&D and trial production of more than 100 intelligent manufacturing systems and equipment for enterprises and universities, and has been rated as a national public service demonstration platform for small and medium-sized enterprises and a national pilot demonstration base for the integration of the new-generation information technology and manufacturing.

The company is revving up efforts to accelerate the R&D and manufacturing sectors of industrial internet of things and smart robots to benchmark the German Industry 4.0 standard.

Rhein-Koester has set up R&D and manufacturing centers in Munich and North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany and cooperated with world-leading intelligent manufacturing companies such as Germany's SAP, Siemens, and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft applied scientific research institution.

To date, Rhein-Koester has developed and produced more than 3,000 sets of equipment and intelligent production lines.

Cultivating talents

To cultivate more highly skilled technical talent for industrial development, Rhein-Koester enhances convergence of development in four aspects: the integration of major and industry, the integration of teachers and engineers, the integration of courses and positions, and the integration of classrooms and workshops, making full use of its advantages as an integrated industry-education enterprise that combines research, production, sales, service and training.

Its talent base has provided training for 22,360 technical workers and veterans, nurtured 13,000 students and trained 4,100 teachers.

The company promotes the integration of major and industry and cooperates with local vocational colleges and universities to jointly build industry or secondary colleges.

The curriculum is precisely set with job positions, breaking the traditional curriculum system based on subjects and integrating "work" variables related to job competency requirements, process standards, and craftsmanship spirit.

Rhein-Koester has established a Chinese-German talent exchange and mutual training mechanism to form a training team of 126 trainers.

It also transforms simulated training into real production and turns classrooms into workshops.

Cooperation to fuel industries

Rhein-Koester focuses on the key links of the intelligent manufacturing, strengthens the "government-industry-enterprise-school" cooperative mode and enhances core competitiveness.

In 2018, Rhein-Koester became the first innovative enterprise that had gained the New and Old Kinetic Energy Conversion Fund of Shandong. In 2022, the company obtained a 100 million yuan fund to construct the second phase of its base.

Rhein-Koester assists the demand-side enterprises and schools in achieving rapid talent adaptation through 10 offline and online education platforms.

Currently, the platforms have registered more than 2,000 students and dispatched 1,295 skilled specialists.

The company strengthens in-depth cooperation with colleges and universities such as Deggendorf Institute of Technology, Jena University of Applied Sciences, Dalian Polytechnic University and Shandong University of Technology, to carry out R&D of intelligent manufacturing systems and equipment, forming the chain of "basic research, application R&D and achievement transformation".