ASCENT – Competence centres for automotive engineering and sales management

Definition of Automotive Engineering for ASCENT

Automotive Engineering highlights issues related to automobile manufacturing - including vehicle parts and accessories - and the environmental impact and safety of automotive products, production facilities and manufacturing processes. The development of automotive engineering is fast and checkless meaning that companies always need to be up-to-date in order to be able to operate in a competitive way. Therefore, knowledge and the right infrastructure are of high importance to be competitive. (EY Global Automotive and Transportation, 2015)

Introduction/Overview

The automotive industry is a growth industry, especially in Argentina and Mexico seeking for new innovations to reach further growth. In Brazil the automotive industry is currently stagnating due their capabilities to react on new market demands such as new technological developments.

Therefore, all partners are highly dependent on the automotive industry in terms of economic stability. Still, all partners from Argentina, Brazil and Mexico are facing one big issue which can prevent them from further growing in the automotive industry which is the lack of highly educated engineers focusing on automotive development.

Currently, all three participating countries are highly important for the production of automobiles worldwide but very little is done in the area of development and advancement of technological research which is essential for further economic growth related to the automotive industry. (World Economic Forum, 2015)

The ASCENT project aims to improve the current situation at the participating higher education institutions and the regional industries that are connected.

Through expert training, academic staff, students and companies will receive upgraded knowledge on automotive engineering and sales management for engineers to reach the following aims:

• to spread knowledge of automotive engineering and sales management for engineers during the planned counselling sessions within the competence centres,
• to increase the number of projects on automotive engineering and,
• to enlarge university-business cooperation and an increased employability of automotive/mechanical engineering graduates
• To expand the generated knowledge in the project, a network for automotive engineering and sales management for engineers will be established. Furthermore, through the intensive cooperation with companies, associations and governmental bodies throughout the ASCENT project, the university-business cooperation will be improved.

Main Objectives of the ASCENT Project

• Capacity building of experts on automotive engineering, sales management strategies and soft skills for engineers at HEIs in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico
• Implementation of six competence centres at partner HEIs to increase awareness and expertise of automotive engineering, sales management strategies and soft skills for engineers
• Foster university-business cooperation through the ASCENT competence centres and network
• Increase of employability of students due to upgraded knowledge on automotive engineering and sales competences
• Current status analysis of the industry and identification of efforts in automotive engineering in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and the European partner countries and the identification of gaps/necessities in each participating region
• Creation of a nationwide and international network with target groups from the automotive industry and from sales management to increase the economic impact on the regional development in this industry

Main Target Groups of the ASCENT Project

The main target groups within the ASCENT project are as following:

• HEIs leaders and managers of the areas of automotive engineering and sales management for engineers
• Academic staff focusing automotive engineering and sales management for engineers
• Students and student associations studying automotive or mechanical degree programmes who aiming to improve the automotive industry in the participating countries
• Companies operating in the automotive industry
• Automotive associations and political partners

Main Outputs of the ASCENT Project

ASCENT capacity building trainings: Building up know-how within the six HEIs in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico on automotive engineering, sales management strategies and soft skills for engineers during 4 trainings in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to improve capacities for more initiatives on the topics.

ASCENT network and knowledge transfer platform: Establishing a network which aims for international exchange on the topics of automotive engineering, sales management strategies and soft skills for engineers among all target groups of the project. Attached to the network also a knowledge transfer platform will be established aiming at sharing knowledge among the members of the network on the project´s core topics and to spread the existence of the competence centres as expertise hubs.

Partner Institutions

• FH JOANNEUM Gesellschaft mbH (Austria) – coordinator
• Hochschule Düsseldorf (Germany)
• Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain)
• Universidad Nacional del Sur (Argentina)
• Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina)
• Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)
• Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
• Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico)
• Universidad Iberoamericana Mexico City (Mexico)
• AVL List GmbH (Austria)