Column on Techniekpact by Hanneke Ackermann, programme manager education and labour at FME
Hybrid teachers, or rather hybrid technology trainers. It seems to be the solution to a lot of challenges we are currently facing. It helps reduce the shortage of engineering teachers, from primary education (po) to higher vocational education (hbo). It offers great career prospects to engineering employees who want more variety and challenge in their jobs. It also leads to a better learning culture in companies: after all, as a company you get employees with didactic skills that are close to education. And most importantly, I think: it creates a much better connection between education and the labour market, because it is people who make these connections every day.
We linger on regional pilots in small-scale settings
We know that many people in our companies would like to be in the classroom, but do not want to switch completely to a full-time teaching job. And we know that pupils and students find lessons from people "from the field" immensely fascinating.
And yet we keep getting stuck in the small-scale atmosphere of regional pilots when it comes to hybrid technology trainers. These pilots are very valuable and we have learnt a lot from them. But we now have to start scaling up, and that just doesn't seem to work. We are facing a stalemate that has been going on for several years. So how do we do that?
