Empowering Skills for the Digital Age: German UDS at TRANSFORM Berlin

The German University for Digital Science (German UDS) was proud to join the TRANSFORM event, which took place in Berlin from 18-19 March 2026, as a sponsor. TRANSFORM is the leading B2B event by Bitkom, Germany’s digital association. Bringing together thought leaders and solution providers tackling today’s most pressing digital challenges, the event offered a unique platform for exchange and inspiration.

German UDS had a booth at the event where we welcomed individuals, businesses and participants of guided tours to speak to them about our university-as-a-service model and our micro degrees, which empower professionals at all stages of their careers to upskill and gain competencies for the digital age.

Digitalisation and Education

In a keynote speech on day one of TRANSFORM, Prof. Dr. Steven Ney explored how human capabilities will enable us to confront challenges of AI and digitalisation. Speaking at the event’s Solution Stage, he outlined the idea of digital preparedness. In a world that holds many uncertainties and is constantly changing, we need to not only adapt to but also to anticipate the impacts of new technologies. But how can we achieve this? One of the possible solutions Prof. Ney offers is using approaches such as Design Thinking to tackle the complex problems that arise in the digital world. He argues that traditional universities will find implementing these agile and flexible innovation approaches more difficult within their conventional ‘one-size-fits-all’ educational model.

At German UDS, on the other hand, our university-as-a-service approach adapts to concrete needs of learners across the globe and at different times in their learning journeys. German UDS educates for a world that is increasingly less predictable by empowering our students to build technical and social systems that are not only resilient but even anti-fragile.

Skills and Careers

German UDS was a key stop on four official guided tours, where visitors engaged with our perspective on future skills, career pathways, and new qualification models. These themes were further explored by Prof. Dr. Maren Borkert in her keynote on day two, “Your Skills. Your Future. Don’t Let AI Write Your Story.”

Her core message: the challenge is not a lack of talent, but a skills translation gap. What people can do and what companies need are often misaligned, leaving critical roles unfilled.

Today’s most in-demand capabilities go beyond technical know-how. They include an entrepreneurial mindset, the ability to navigate regulation and compliance, and the competence to lead and translate AI into real-world impact.

At German UDS, learners develop these skills through short, applied micro-degree programs designed for immediate relevance. Or, as Prof. Borkert put it: “What matters is less the credential, yet whether you can operate in real-world situations.”

Next Steps

During his keynote speech, Prof. Ney said that “People need not only a broad set of skills, but they need the capability to use them strategically.” The TRANSFORM event made a valuable contribution to this aim by bringing together leading voices from digital industries.

The many productive conversations with stakeholders from Germany and beyond showed, that many companies are seeking to establish the tools, steps and experts that will advance digital transformation. The German University of Digital Science is part of the solution by empowering professionals to upskill and to embrace lifelong learning.

In the coming months, we will keep leading conversations about digital education. On the 28th to 29th of May we will host the conference “Digital Science in Education” and we are also among the sponsors for the next Bitkom event “Bildungskonferenz” educational conference which will take place on 15th and 16th of April.