Education and Zuidberg

Zuidberg offers a wide variety of possibilities for students to get acquainted with the company and her work activities. Since Zuidberg wants to support the social cohesion of the higher- and lower educated, she is actively involved in teaching students of any level.

Practise classes

In April, students of elementary school ‘The Ark’ came by for practice classes. Zuidberg started with a short introduction and gave them the opportunity practice in activities like measuring and drilling.

The young pupils were impressed by the size of the company. “They didn’t believe their eyes when they saw the continuously working engineering robots. They had never seen anything like that!” Says Ruud Plomp, the attendant of the group. “Here they learn way more than sitting in school for the morning!”

Every Wednesday morning, the class is hosted at a different business. “All companies tell the same: these children might very well be our future workers: people that are going to work manual labour.” Says their teacher, Harry Bouwman.

Harry then proceeds in discussing the situation of education for manual labour these days. “In many schools in the Netherlands, practical work education has been in decline. This, in turn, effects the Dutch labour market.” Harry is referring to the declining amount of educated manual (Dutch national) workers. This makes it hard for companies to come by well-fitting personnel to fill their vacancies.

By putting study to practise, important school subjects are being taught during practice classes, like reading, spelling, measuring and maths. Harry also argues that by putting the children in different environments, their social skills are being challenged. Harry: “This way, kids continuously have successful experiences, which they might not have gotten at school. This gives them a good boost to their confidence!”

Expectations for the future

This class seems to be a major success with the children, as well as the adults involved. This summer, the practice class will be given on fifteen other schools from the Accrete school community. Harry is going to be a full-time practise class teacher. “A great challenge I didn’t expect to get on my sixtieth!” says Harry.

Zuidberg would like to thank all people involved for their support and wants to thank teachers like Harry and Ruud for their contribution to society. Maybe next time, we can welcome the students as our employees!