State Secretary Mariëlle Paul (Fundamental Education and Emancipation):

For children and young people it is important that they get to know technology. This way you discover the world behind it as a student. Think of the possibilities of AI. With technological tools you can also learn to read and write better. And of course you also become digitally skilled as a student.

Minister Dirk Beljaarts (Economic Affairs):

No one knows exactly what our economy will look like in 15 to 20 years. What challenges and opportunities technology will offer our society. That is precisely why it is so important that children are well prepared. We do this by introducing children to technology education at an early age. In this way, we build a digitally resilient and resistant generation that can determine for itself what the highly technological economy of the day after tomorrow will look like.

Getting in touch with technology

Techkwadraat's ambition is for all children and young people in the Netherlands to come into contact with technology at school and in their immediate environment. This will give them a better picture of technology, they can become enthusiastic about it and also develop themselves in it. This regardless of socio-economic status, gender or origin.

The impetus from the programme strengthens and multiplies existing national and regional initiatives for technology education, of which there are already many. The aim of Techkwadraat is for schools, companies and extracurricular organisations such as museums, libraries, tech labs and science centres to jointly set up regional 'learning ecosystems'. These are environments where education and practice come together, both during and outside school hours. This can be anything: practicals at museums, schools or companies, a technology course for teachers or the creation of a teaching package in the field of technology.

In addition to the regional plans, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the programme office Platform Talent for Technology guarantee national coherence. They do this by, among other things, developing and sharing knowledge about technology education, tools and working examples. This ensures the sustainable anchoring of technology education.

Broader focus on technology education

The subsidy scheme is part of the broader Techkwadraat programme. This is one of the actions from the Green and Digital Jobs Action Plan of the Central Government. By strengthening the focus on technology education in primary education, at havo, vwo, vmbo-tl and specialised education, Techkwadraat ensures a broad orientation on technology and a good connection to (technical) courses. This increases the impact on other programmes such as Sterk Techniekonderwijs (vmbo), Katapult (mbo/hbo) and other initiatives in (follow-up) education.

Techkwadraat has a term of 8 years. In total, the government will invest € 351.6 million in Techkwadraat over 8 years, funded from the National Growth Fund. With the resources from this first phase of this subsidy scheme, regional partners can jointly carry out and scale up activities in the coming 3 school years (2025/2026, 2026/2027 and 2027/2028). In 2027, an evaluation will be conducted to determine whether the conditional resources will also become available for the continuation of the programme and the subsidy scheme until 2031.

Organisations can submit a joint application via this site from 4 December 2024 to 13 January 2025.