Standards in education – new opportunities from apprenticeships to university studies
Online solution for standards also available to educational institutions.
"meinNormenPaket" (my standards package) provides easy and inexpensive online access to current ÖNORM standards. To allow apprentices to benefit from standards, Austrian Standards makes available the meinNormenPaket package to vocational schools.
Through meinNormenPaket, small and medium-sized enterprises are offered an extremely attractive solution for accessing the ÖNORM standards they need online. The relevant statutory professional organization assesses the needs of its members, negotiates the details with Austrian Standards, informs the member companies about the project and invites them to use this offering. Austrian Standards takes a solution-oriented approach and is open to discussions in all respects.
This online access option is also available to vocational schools and training institutions and ensures that tuition always keeps abreast of the state of the art and vocational students get the best training possible.
"In the classroom we actually work with standards all the time. And the meinNormenPaket solution offered through the trade association is optimal for us. Students and teachers can quickly access soft copies of the documents and we can also be sure that we always use the latest versions of the standards," says Heinz Pachernegg, headmaster of the vocational school in Murau .
Standards for universities
For the library of the University of Leoben, Austrian Standards developed an innovative solution for integrating a great number and variety of standards into university operations.
Owing to new developments in media and information technologies, libraries have become customer-oriented service centres whose core task is to organize and provide access to knowledge. The library of Montanuniversität Leoben located in Leoben in Styria is such a modern institution.
"Being knowledge managers, the librarians of my team are responsible for administration and for ensuring quick, user-friendly access to the library's content," explains Dr. Christian Hasenhüttl, the head of the library.
Around 3,500 students are enrolled in ten fields of study such as mechanical engineering, energy technology and industrial environmental protection.
The technical focus of numerous degree programmes also necessitates that students are familiar with current standards and regulations. To allow them to study them, the Lesesaal (reading room), an online library for standards, was set up. It gives everyone working or studying at the University access to the national, European and international standards they need. The software allows for a new way of searching and viewing the documents. In addition, the management tool effects 2.0 keeps the standards up to date and helps users find standards in a cost-efficient way by means of extensive search and filter options as well as a bookmark functionality. Austrian Standards defined the link between Lesesaal and effects 2.0 together with the customer and subsequently developed it.
"On the one hand, we have the Lesesaal ensuring fast and broad online access for students and, on the other hand, we can offer the university's teachers and researchers further options through effects 2.0," Christian Slamenik, who works at the library, expresses his satisfaction. "This offering is highly appreciated, which is evidenced by the high number of people using our tailor-made standards service every day. Again and again, the users tell us how great it is to access standards in such an easy and uncomplicated way and to know that everything is perfectly legal."
Montanuniversität Leoben is a successful example illustrating how Austrian Standards finds an optimum solution together with its customers.
Standards4Pros: App for construction standards
The app Standards4Pros:Bau gives construction apprentices access to the most important standards.
From planning to implementation, diverse apps and tools are used at Austrian construction sites. Thus, it is important to prepare future construction workers for modern methods and interdisciplinary approaches. Therefore, the Austrian Building Trades Association and the Austrian Construction Industry Association provide all construction apprentices who are in the second year of their apprenticeship with tablets with relevant pre-installed apps. In addition to an e-learning platform, the Standards4Pros:Bau app is also included.
By means of this app, construction apprentices can access the current version of 20 important standards specifically selected for construction training. They define requirements, for example, for designing and constructing energy-efficient buildings. This basic selection of ÖNORM standards promotes a fundamental understanding on how standards provide helpful support at work.
Irene Glaninger of the construction office of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber explains: "Construction apprentices are the qualified workers of the future. Therefore, it is valuable that they already focus on standards and regulations during their training. With easy and fast access to relevant ÖNORM standards and, hence, to up-to-date knowledge from industry experts, they are well prepared for their careers."