Konica Minolta and Tokyo College of Welfare teamed up to establish the Konica ICT Caregiving Robot Practical Training Room at the college in April of this year. Tokyo College of Welfare (TCW) is a certified care worker training school located in Tokyo, Edogawa Ward.

 

Konica Minolta develops services to watch over elderly people using ICT and IoT-based technologies while TCW trains the next generation of certified care workers who will be ready to work with ICT caregiving technologies. The two organizations entered into a cooperative education with industry partnership agreement and installed the Care Support Solution system developed by the company that employs the latest sensor and image recognition technology in caregiving practical training rooms at the school.

 

The Care Support Solution system links sensors and smartphones together and stores accumulated data on a server. The system is a tool that analyses the movements of care facility residents for the purpose of providing caregiving that will deliver more independence support more efficiently.

 

The students will now be able to learn through first-hand experience how the provision of care will change using tools such as ICT as well as how this will lead to independence support while imagining the day-to-day lives of residents.

 

Looking down the Road: One, Two, Five Years

 

In 2025, the oldest members of the baby boom generation will be more than 75 years old while the youngest members will reach 65 years of age in 2035. The already aging society is expected to become even grayer still, with shortages of workers and resources anticipated as well. In 2035, today’s students will have 10-15 years of workplace experience and will be core members of the workforce. TCW aims to train caregiving professionals who can manage a diverse array of professionals and use ICT as a tool while considering the future outlook of the industry.

 

Konika Minolta is attempting to produce a category of worker from these professionals who will be central to the caregiving workflow revolution as care directors. Konika Minolta and TCW agree in their desire to cultivate the professionals who will revolutionize the industry and have established the practical training rooms and entered into an educational partnership.

 

The chairperson of a social welfare corporation and the heads of various social welfare facilities were surprised by the practical training room when they visited the school recently as members of a school-related assessment committee. The members of the group praised the practical training rooms saying, “School education is more advanced than the workplace.”

 

Relationship begins with Jikei Group Graduate

 

The group’s relationship with Konica Minolta began when Jikei Group-graduate Takashi Miyamoto of Social Welfare Corporation Zenkoukai took to the podium at a Jikei Group of Colleges management training seminar last year.

 

The practical training room will be used for classes on a trial basis this year. However use of the room will be incorporated into the curriculum for the Caregiving ICT Major in the Care Worker Department beginning in the 2020 academic year.

 

The school is working toward developing more appealing and exciting lessons for students and producing more high quality certified care workers.