Quest for innovation: VanDerEng BV lets schoolchildren experience technology during Tech Your Talent On Tour

"If the students leave happy and talking about the products, I am already very satisfied," says Ernst de Haas of VanDerEng BV. For as long as he can remember, his company has been participating in Tech Your Talent On Tour. This is part of Techport Technology Week, where 2nd grade secondary school students (ages 13/14) visit and are shown around more than 25 Techport companies.

Getting young people excited about engineering
VanDerEng BV is with producing over 75 million industrial labels annually, 5 million wristbands for the leisure sector, 50 million breaking and consumption tokens, and countless components for board games, large in some niche markets. During the komende Techport Technology Week recipientst the company on October 9, two classes of a total of about sixty high school students at their factory in Heemskerk. Ernst: "We do this on the one hand from a social point of view, because we the important find to as a bedrive be a good reflection of society. Dat means that we need to attract enough young people. And you can't enthuse young people early enough. In addition, I see that our own metheworkers also become enthusiastic about this. They like it to show the students around and try to demonstrate their passion for engineering convey. With the students, you notice a certain curiosity and open-mindedness. And every time we are surprised by seemingly simple questions that then do make us think! So it brings a lot of positive energy." 

Scavenger hunt through the factory
Ernst continues: "Every year we try to do it just a little bit different and better than the year before. And that's challenging, because the span of this target group is not very big. This year we have a scavenger hunt for them in petto. They get a short video introduction with images from previous editions of Techport Technology Week, combined with images of our company and the machines. These are very short clips of one or two seconds that alternate quickly. The students should pay close attention, because then they go in groups of four in the factory to look for the machines that were in the video. When they have found a machine, they have to ask the operator what exactly that machine does. Once they have found and mapped all the machines, they have to answer one last question: which machines do you need to make a certain product? And of course we have a nice prize for the winning group. Afterwards, they get a soft drink, some goodies and a wristband with their name on it to take home. The whole tour takes 1 to 1.5 hours. We lead one class in the morning and one class in the afternoon." 

Participating with your company? Sign up
During Techport Technology Week (this year from October 7 to 11), schools and companies will show more than 5,000 students that the world of technology is broad, challenging and future-proof. We do this with workshops around the 7 Worlds of Technology, a hackathon and company visits. This year we have twice as many applications from students, so we are still looking for companies that want to open their doors on October 9 and make students enthusiastic about technique. Get the young generation involved in your company and field and sign up! Would you like to participate, but doubt whether your company is suitable? Then contact Danielle van der Mark(danielle.vandermark@techport.nl). She will be happy to tell you more about what the company visits entail and to think along with you about how you can shape the tour! You can find more information and/or register here.