To use the potentials of the digital transformation for a personality-promoting and value-added working environment in the sense of the employees is a challenge that will be scientifically addressed in the iAtA project from a socio-technical perspective by the disciplines of industrial and organizational psychology, educational psychology and systems engineering. For this purpose, an extended reality (XR) assistance system with intelligent adaptive integration of didactic measures in the field of technical education is to be realized. The participating research partners from Bielefeld University and the development partner Fraunhofer IOSB-INA are working closely with the participating practical partners Miele, Böllhoff and Phoenix Contact to this end and are constantly evaluating the approach with regard to the benefits for employees and companies as well as the introduction of the system into an operational concept. These include, for example, the cost- and time-efficient transfer of knowledge by individualizing the provision of learning content, relieving the burden on trainers, and introducing trainees to digital technologies.

Against the backdrop of these far-reaching changes in the competencies critical to success that affect the entire workforce, the aspect of training was highlighted early on as a central and decisive field of action in the implementation of Industrie 4.0 in German companies. The transition to Industry 4.0 requires not only the appropriate training of new employees, but also the ongoing adaptation and qualification of the existing workforce in order to ensure their ability to work in times of rapid technological development. Trainers and apprentices must be prepared for the use of new technologies and trained in how to deal with them. This is because these technologies offer companies the potential to increase employees' ability to act in the workplace through efficient knowledge transfer, work organization that is conducive to learning, and situational and individualized learning directly at the workplace, thus contributing to economic competitiveness.

The technical realization of the platform-based XR assistance system is the basis of the project. For this purpose, the learning content to be imparted must be prepared multimodally and modeled appropriately for the assistance system platform. Functions for the data-driven evaluation and preparation of the learning status (learning analytics) for trainees and instructors are to be developed with the goal of individualized learning control. The development process is to be accompanied by the collaboration of the respective stakeholders (e.g., training managers, IT departments, works council), which will define the requirements, structures, and processes for effective, secure, and reliable operation of the assistance platform. From an educational psychology perspective, the instructional design presented by the assistance system will be adapted according to didactic findings and reviewed for its added value for building knowledge in the area of technical training. The effects of the use of technology on the employees are accompanied by change management measures from the perspective of work and organizational psychology. The measures aim to implement a motivating and personality-enhancing way of designing work and to establish a culture of acceptance for technical solutions among employees. The participating companies benefit from the measures in particular through high-quality, constant and structured knowledge transfer through the XR assistance system as well as an increase in the flexible work deployment of trainees through the teaching of learning content in the actual work environment.

The results and values of the project will be published via publications (see below).