Departing program director Henno van Horssen: "Energy transitions only succeed through cooperation"
After five and a half years as a program director Henno van Horssen is leaving Techport. How does he look back on his work in the IJmond region?
What did you expect when you started this job?
"Until then, I had always worked for the government, as a driver of cooperation between education and business. Now I had to work in such a partnership myself. I was very curious to see what that would be like, was also looking forward to it."
And, did you like it?
"I really enjoyed working at Techport. I especially liked it because Techport has always had big ambitions. At the time, the gap between those ambitions and reality was quite substantial. Nowadays we are still ambitious, but I think we did put up a very strong program, with many partners, great projects, results and visibility."
Give some examples.
"The Techport Technology Week. Five thousand young people, parents and teachers attend that, for workshops, company visits and inspiration meetings. We facilitate that, but the interpretation comes from the companies and schools."
"Or take our program for hybrid teachers: people from companies working part-time in the classroom. Or the Fieldlab projects, in which large and small companies, knowledge institutions and schools work together on technological innovation. These innovations are applied in companies, but also become immediately available for education. People can just graduate on them and then go to work at those companies."
You have made IJmond a learning region!
"I had a part in that, within our program."
What was the hardest part?
"Techport was initially primarily an initiative of a few large parties. Those were the founding fathers. They are still involved and we are proud of that. But to make Techport a success you need a much broader base of support. The whole region has to participate: elementary school, secondary schools, startups, SMEs, other large companies."
"It took us a few years, but now Techport has grown into a partnership of over a hundred schools, companies and organizations. Who not only think along, but actively seek each other out."
How did this work out?
"Well ... Mainly by clearly laying out our role. If there are no more technology classrooms or teachers, then a new organization is often created to teach technology classes. But that doesn't solve the problem: you take over the problem. Schools need to train people and companies need to help them do that. We make sure they start doing that. That's our part."
What else can other regions learn from Techport?
"We focused on technological innovation, because that's where entrepreneurs get positive energy! And then you naturally come to the question of how to get employees who can implement these innovations."
"Furthermore, it is an advantage that we are a foundation. That gives us more independence. In the first years, we were very dependent financially on the supporting partners. Nowadays, we supplement their contributions with subsidies. In addition, we have now set up a partnership model that is open to all companies. And we are working on a Techport Innovation Centre, where companies will soon be able to establish themselves. In this way, we are also increasing our support base financially."
What can the Techport-approach mean for the greening of Dutch industry?
"Energy transitions only succeed through collaboration. Because the technology is there, but to make it usable, all kinds of partners must coordinate their processes. So a new ecosystem has to grow. For that, you also need enough well-trained people."
"Everyone sees that and everyone wants that. But companies and schools are still mostly set up to do their own thing. That's when you need a party like Techport."
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Text: Aad van de Wijngaart