The bond between business and education must be strengthened together

Close cooperation between industry and technical vocational education is crucial to meet the demand for technicians. During a meeting at FHI in Leusden, ideas were presented to improve and strengthen this cooperation in the long term. But a number of projects with positive results were also discussed in which the connection between industry and education is fully utilized.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

The session on Wednesday, June 28, started with a presentation by William Baars of test and measurement equipment supplier CN Rood. He explained how there were already shortages of students in electrical engineering in the nineties. CN Rood gives educational institutions, from vmbo schools to universities, access to the latest measurement equipment. The company also provides explanations at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences about new standards or trains teachers at the ROC Arnhem about oscilloscopes for the automotive industry.

The Engineering program involves working in communities, as Martin Stolk said of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. This educational innovation should make students more flexible by offering them their own learning path. The university works closely with partners in practice. Various lab environments, such as a maintenance lab, a robot lab and a mobility lab, help students on their way.

John van Leeuwen, chairman of the PI-Nederland association, spoke about the collaboration with Avans University of Applied Sciences. For example, they organize the annual Workshop I/O-Link together and during the Profidag demos are built together with students. Van Leeuwen said that in the future they want to move even more towards a hands-on approach, together with other educational institutions.

After the break it was time for discussion. The question was what possibilities there are to achieve integrated cooperation between education and business in the long term. Many participants in the session indicated that the number of students choosing technology is still decreasing in a majority of studies and that recruitment campaigns in the past have not been very successful. However, there were also cautiously positive sounds: for example, at the havo level, just as many girls as boys now choose technology.

The theme morning ended with consensus that there is still a need for movement from both education and business. An integrated approach must continue to be advocated with the government and sessions like this prove to be very useful. Yet it is and remains a process that proceeds step by step.