The signing of the covenant with the 100th Partner in Education!
Student development
The focal point for Fontys University of Applied Sciences ICT (FHICT) is the student’s development into a professional for the labour market. Vissers continues: “Apart from offering high quality education, it is of major importance that the student already gets intensively acquainted with the business world during the study.” This is why FHICT has been collaborating with companies from the occupational field of the course for years.
These are long-term relationships where FHICT introduces the companies to their future employees. Companies show the students how things go in the business world. In the meantime, the education and the timetable are organised in such a way that we can fulfil the need for students that they have seen all new technologies in four years. This is not only achieved with our own teachers, who can’t know everything, but mainly also with the actual cases provided by the involved companies. Students learn to be aware of new realities and explore them with research methods.
Connection with the business world
It’s important for the business world that enough ICT students graduate and that their education fits in with professional practice. Due to the good cooperation with companies, students get up-to-date and challenging education and companies can introduce them to the latest technologies. Fontys wants students to start working properly prepared after their education and be capable of applying the theory to practice from the start. Experience has taught that no one can help better with this than the business world itself.
The signing of the covenant confirms the commitment of the Partners in Education to participate in education for a period of at least four years. FHICT often does not exactly know in advance what will be undertaken those four years, but does know that the quality will be guaranteed. Providing permanent up-to-date education is the starting point.
The annual evaluations with Partners in Education give a lot of thought to feedback. The Partners are asked what they do and don’t like about the curriculum and the approach of FHICT. This reinforces the quality realisation and the consideration to keep the education permanently up-to-date. A necessity in the ever-changing ICT world. A practical advantage for the companies is that they have access to the students. The later contact with graduates is regarded as extremely valuable. A win-win situation. The success of this construction reveals itself now that the milestone of the 100th Partner in Education has been reached.
Province of North Brabant 100th Partner in Education
The first contact with the Province of North Brabant originated two years ago during a hackathon. Later the Province was involved as a client in the Applied Data Science minor and, in the meantime, a unique collaboration has been created between education and the government. During the test runs the Province and the teachers and students involved achieved some great results. For example, the case about predicting the dumping of drug waste, which was immediately reported about in the news.
What’s striking: while the Province of North Brabant first thought students wouldn’t find collaborating with them attractive, students now turn out to have a lot of interest in socially responsible projects.
It turned out to be a wonderful golden opportunity to collaborate with young professionals and achieve great results.
More Partners
Other new Partners in Education also celebrated the symbolic signing of the covenant on 3 July: Embedded Fitness, StudyPortals, Fantazm and Blue Giraffe Games. In addition, the FHICT celebrated the re-signing for the third period of at least four years by the ICT Group, Rabobank and Zetes. This cooperation construction will definitely continue to exist. Up to the next milestone!
More info: www.piefontysict.nl