Strong partners of the FHV: Shaping the future together

Klaus Wendel, member of the Blum management team and Head of IT, welcomed around 40 network partners to Höchst. They took the opportunity to meet in person and exchange experiences. Wendel explained the importance of the more than ten years of cooperation with the Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences: "Our cooperation with the university is a partnership with vision. It promotes practical knowledge transfer and accelerates innovation through joint research projects. Students benefit from real-life use cases and opportunities to enter the professional world, while we gain access to fresh expertise and talent."

In 2022, the fittings specialist has also established an endowed professorship at the FHV: "Vorarlberg needs both: applied research in close cooperation with local industry and forward-looking training that prepares specialists specifically for the digital challenges of today and tomorrow. This is why we have created the Blum Endowed Professorship together with the FHV," explains Wendel. "Our aim is to sustainably strengthen education and research in the areas of digital innovation and transformation." The Blum Endowed Professorship is firmly anchored in the Computer Science - Digital Innovation bachelor's degree programme and the Business Informatics - Digital Transformation master's degree programme.

Practical training

While 41 Blum employees are currently studying part-time at the FHV, several others are working as external lecturers at the FHV. "Studying at the FHV stands for practical training in close cooperation with regional companies. Our primary goal is to train technical specialists in and for the region. Together with our eleven strong partners, we achieve exactly that. We bring best practice to the degree programmes, promote STEM projects with a future and use professional synergies," said Joachim Vedder, Head of Department Engineering and Technology at the FHV. In his presentation, he looked at the study landscape of tomorrow and addressed future challenges.

Bringing Engineering and Technology to life

Claudia Franceschini, Cooperation Management FHV, presented a review of the long-standing partnership: "Our vision was and is to strengthen the region as an inspiring location for Business and Management. Making Engineering and Technology tangible for young people, opening up opportunities and allowing them to try things out: Starting with the Children's and Youth University, workshops for and with schools through to MINT collaborations and Engineering and Technology initiatives. In this way, we strengthen the professions of the future right from the start and create a win-win situation."

Opportunities through the right to award doctorates 

In order to strengthen the technology, innovation and business location in the long term, an excellently qualified workforce is required. This is why Austria's universities of applied sciences (UAS) have long been insisting on the right to award doctorates: "While twelve out of 16 federal states in Germany have now enshrined the right to award doctorates for UAS in law and have had the best experiences with this, our best minds in Austria have been denied this opportunity since our foundation 30 years ago," says FHV Managing Director Stefan Fitz-Rankl. The Austrian Association of Universities of Applied Sciences is calling for an amendment to the law so that research-strong UASs such as the FHV can submit doctoral degree programmes for accreditation in the future. Klaus Wendel from Blum also agrees with this: "We support the universities' demand for the right to award doctorates in order to counteract the exodus of highly qualified workers."

Digital transformation

Sabrina Schneider, Head of the FHV Digital Business Transformation research group and Blum Endowed Professor, spoke on the topic of research for Vorarlberg's digital transformation. "In our research, we are working together with companies from the region to design the future with artificial intelligence and are looking forward to talking to stakeholders from Business and Management." The successful event concluded with a panel discussion and a tour of the Blum showroom.



About strong partners
The cooperation between the FHV and regional Business and Management was launched in 2014. The network now has eleven members, all of whom are well-known internationally active Vorarlberg companies: Alpla Group, Bachmann Electronics, Julius Blum GmbH, Doppelmayr, Hirschmann Automotive, Hilti, illwerke vkw, Liebherr, Meusburger, ThyssenKrupp Presta and Zumtobel Group. Together, the aim is to promote interest in Engineering and Technology and technical study opportunities - from the children's and youth university, workshops with schools to networking meetings with FHV graduates. Both Blum and illwerke vkw have an endowed professorship at the FHV.

You can find out more about the Strong Partners ▷ here