The Pen | Raymonda Verdyck

Building bridges

Education has long been an island. It was the center of knowledge for young people. With the advent of the Internet and social media, young people are now bombarded with information from all sides. The breakneck pace at which technology is evolving means that by the end of their studies, the world of work in which young people find themselves will look very different. This is why we started a new path years ago. One of building bridges, developing skills and fostering talents.

Raymonda Verdyck, Managing Director of GO! Education of the Flemish Community.

Digitization, block chain, Industry 4.0, augmented reality ... it has been raining new technological developments in recent years. Getting students and teachers to grasp the full spectrum is well nigh impossible. Our task as educational institutions is therefore changing. While knowledge transfer will remain a crucial part of our mission, it is primarily the minds of young people that we must reshape. We must prepare them for lifelong learning and help them develop the skills needed to do so. And there certainly are. There is a researcher in every child. It's a matter of offering them the right lab to foster that talent.

Fortunately, industry is not staying on the sidelines. With initiatives such as STEM and dual learning, both the education field and the business world underline the ambition to build bridges to prepare a new generation for industry. As education, we have limited resources at our disposal. The investment that a CNC machine, for example, requires is too large with respect to its use and the technology changes too quickly. In industry, however, these machines are already present. If we can give our students a good foundation, a feel for practice, an inquisitive attitude and problem-solving, there are benefits for both parties. These are traits that are important in any profession. It is nice to see the interest and will around this growing.

If we can build that bridge, then we can strengthen each other as partners and bring our goals closer. Because they run parallel. If we want to be successful as a society, engineering will have to be upgraded, not least in education. Technical subjects are challenging, are not just for boys and do not prepare for a life of, as is often thought, dirty hands. We need to get rid of these prejudices. We must commit to a reappraisal, and there too technological developments can bring relief. Digitization will also make it possible to work virtually with machines. But also in education itself, it opens doors for more collaboration. When our teachers can share lesson preparation and other expertise, we can learn from each other. Because the key is to allow each individual talent to blossom, to simulate the desire for lifelong learning. The seeds for it have already been planted.