Bringing University Pedagogical Approach into Companies

This paper describes and discusses how the university pedagogical approach used in engineering education can be applied in a corporate setting. Problem Based and Project Organised Learning (PBL) pedagogical approach has been used in engineering education at Aalborg University for 30 years and this PBL structure was implemented in a Danish company which wanted to establish a learning environment, so that their employees would share their knowledge and understanding of the work processes across different departments. The pedagogical approach is described and two workshops are used as examples of the learning processes. Through facilitated workshops focusing on problem analysis and the development of solutions, the participants gained a greater understanding of the need for learning, as well as increased motivation for sharing experiences across organisational boundaries. All participants made a project and found solutions for for problems related to their work. Several of the problem solutions were implemented. The participants evaluated the process and the outcome of the workshops very as very good. Furthermore the results show that the pedagogical method which has been used within engineering education functioned very well in a practical setting.