Digitalization in Germany – A Tiresome Story

In many areas of digitization, our authorities are lagging behind. As early as 2016, Handelsblatt compared the submission of our tax return in Germany with that in Estonia - there, it only takes a few clicks and a minimum of time. Even 6 years (!) later, not much has changed in Germany. And that despite the pandemic and the realization that digitization must be the future. We are taking it a lot slower in Germany.

Shortage of skilled workers: It won't work (yet) without people

Today, digitization is much more than making forms available online. Rather, we should be looking at how we as a country want to be digitally positioned in the future in order to overcome a prevailing problem in the economy and also society: we are suffering from a severe shortage of skilled workers. How do we get the best and most talented employees for our companies and also our government? According to politicians, through qualified immigration. However, it’s not just a question of what, but also of how. The way we teach also needs to change. The new generation of skilled workers is intrinsically digital and tech-savvy, so why shouldn't training also be completely digital? Immersive technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality are ideal for this.

Mixed Reality Software: It Does Work without People

A little thought experiment: What if we not only supported training virtually, but virtualized the process completely, all the way to the actual qualification? Training content is not only taught in a virtual reality environment; but the app includes the entire curriculum plus the degree. Trainees can take exams in virtual reality and graduate with the help of intelligent software - without any human intervention. The software evaluates user behavior and optimizes the training process individually to improve learning success for trainees. Sounds far-fetched? This has already been successfully implemented by Lufthansa.

The Future of Education Is Virtual

If Germany wants to remain competitive in the future, there is no way around revolutionizing education and training. Otherwise, we will lose too many valuable employees. We are pleased that Lufthansa and the Federal Aviation Office share our vision of new training formats and are going down this path with us. With virtual reality training, the time and place of the training and the origin of the trainees no longer play a role, undoubtedly an advantage. Integrated virtual assistants help trainees complete tasks in different languages and accompany them through each training scenario.

Artificial Intelligence, the Perfect Match for Mixed Reality

The increasingly pronounced integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the future will also be reflected in the quality of so-called virtual assistants, which will play an important role in digital education delivery in support of real educational content. Human teachers will not become obsolete; the human touch is and will remain pedagogically valuable.

If we manage to merge digital and analog, we can expect the best results for trainees and students. The high learning curve in mixed reality applications, coupled with content delivered by competent teachers improves the level of learning quite significantly. Especially in the Corona pandemic, the fatal effect of negligence in the digitalization of German schools has been clearly demonstrated. Today, we already have the chance to learn from yesterday's mistakes. Let's not waste it!