Five years ago, a colleague left our company to become a teaching assistant in engineering at a secondary school nearby. A pity for us, but a very bold step on her part that I admire enormously. She was really going to do something to solve the shortage of technicians in the Netherlands, at the source: education. And it didn't stop at teaching assistant. Two years later, she started a teacher training programme and then worked as a technology teacher in the classroom.
Just like me, my former colleague wonders why relatively few young people choose a technical course and why they so often pass up technical jobs. To change this, she is now taking a new step in her career. It is with a heavy heart that she says goodbye to her pupils to take up a post at TechCampus Amsterdam. I’d never heard of TechCampus before, but it turns out to be both a partnership and a decentralised, city-wide learning environment where pupils from all Amsterdam’s secondary schools and primary schools are introduced to technology and related careers on several occasions during their school careers. What a brilliant initiative!
I myself am not brave enough to quit my job and focus full-time on promoting engineering among young people, but I do feel partly responsible for the future of the engineering sector. The number of engineering students still seems to be in decline, which is a disaster when you see the challenges we face (energy transition, ageing population, robotisation, digitalisation). So something really needs to be done.
If you work for a technical company, shout from the rooftops about how fun, important and challenging your work is. Invite boys and girls of all ages and tell them that you can earn a very good living as a technician. But more importantly; let them know that in technical industries, nice, kind colleagues often work together for years, making such a company feel almost like family. And if sometimes a 'family member' makes the switch to teaching, we will lovingly let this tech ambassador go.
