ackground and aim – Driven by new technologies and societal challenges, futureproof facility managers must enable sustainable housing by combining bricks and bytes into future-proof business support and workplace concepts. The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) acknowledges the urgency of educating students about this new reality. As part of a large-scale two-year study into sustainable business operations, a living lab has been created as a creative space on the campus of THUAS where (novel) business activities and future-proof workplace concepts are tested. The aim is to gain a better understanding amongst students, lecturers, and the university housing department of bricks, bytes, behavior, and business support. Results – Based on different focal points the outcomes of this research present guidelines for facility managers how data-driven facility management creates value and a better understanding of sustainable business operations. In addition, this practice based research presents how higher education in terms of taking the next step in creating digitized skilled facility professionals can add value to their curriculum. Practical or social implications – The facility management profession has an important role to play in the mitigation of sustainable and digitized business operations. However, implementing high-end technology within the workplace can help to create a sustainable work environment and better use of the workplace. These developments will result in a better understanding of sustainable business operations and future-proof capabilities. A living lab is the opportunity to teach students to work with big data and provides a playground for them to test their circular workplace, business support designs, and smart building technologies.
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Due to fast and unpredictable developments, professional education is challenged with being responsive, which demands a rethinking of conventional curriculum development approaches. Yet, literature on curriculum development falls short in terms of recognising how to react rapidly and adequately to these new developments. This study focuses on curriculum development initiatives at the school level in a Dutch university of applied sciences. Open interviews were held with 29 curriculum developers to explore how they define and give substance to developing curricula for new, changing or unpredictable professions. These 29 participants were involved in seven curriculum development trajectories. Four themes were detected: (1) curriculum developers are in favour of open, flexible and authentic curricula; (2) the context in which the curriculum development takes place and the different roles and responsibilities of curriculum developers are challenging; (3) curriculum developers feel insufficiently equipped to carry out their tasks; and (4) involving stakeholders is necessary but results in a “viscous” social–political process. Responsive curriculum development requires a great deal of flexibility and adaptability from curriculum developers. Yet, in our study, “institutional concrete” is found to severely hinder responsive curriculum development processes. To be responsive, such processes need to be supported and institutional barriers need to be removed.
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During the past two decades the implementation and adoption of information technology has rapidly increased. As a consequence the way businesses operate has changed dramatically. For example, the amount of data has grown exponentially. Companies are looking for ways to use this data to add value to their business. This has implications for the manner in which (financial) governance needs to be organized. The main purpose of this study is to obtain insight in the changing role of controllers in order to add value to the business by means of data analytics. To answer the research question a literature study was performed to establish a theoretical foundation concerning data analytics and its potential use. Second, nineteen interviews were conducted with controllers, data scientists and academics in the financial domain. Thirdly, a focus group with experts was organized in which additional data were gathered. Based on the literature study and the participants responses it is clear that the challenge of the data explosion consist of converting data into information, knowledge and meaningful insights to support decision-making processes. Performing data analyses enables the controller to support rational decision making to complement the intuitive decision making by (senior) management. In this way, the controller has the opportunity to be in the lead of the information provision within an organization. However, controllers need to have more advanced data science and statistic competences to be able to provide management with effective analysis. Specifically, we found that an important skill regarding statistics is the visualization and communication of statistical analysis. This is needed for controllers in order to grow in their role as business partner..
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