There is little doubt that there is a need for it: Three-quarters of the respondents from companies surveyed for the study , which was published, said they consider digitization relevant to their business. Not only professional qualifications in technical occupational fields are affected by the change. According to the researchers, the requirements for process and project management, interdisciplinarity, teamwork and communication are also increasing. By contrast, low-skilled workers will have even more difficulties in the labor market in the future.

The project team asked companies what qualifications they wanted from their employees. These results were compared with the training offered at Austrian universities, colleges, and non-university institutions . This showed that more than half of the study programs relevant to Industry 4.0 are offered at universities in Vienna and Graz. The universities of applied sciences were more practically oriented and there were a particularly large number of programs in Upper Austria.

The researchers recommend that educational institutions promote lifelong learning, interdisciplinary knowledge transfer, and intercultural competences. Better networking of all relevant players will be of benefit in order not to be left behind in international competition. Platforms have been established for this purpose both in Austria and in Germany. While Industry 4.0 Austria acts as an association, the German Industry 4.0 platform is managed by the Federal Ministry of Economics.