a quest for innovation
“If students leave happy and talking enthusiastically about what they have seen, I am already very satisfied,” says Ernst de Haas of VanDerEng BV. For years, he has opened his company to students to introduce them to the practical side of a technical company.
Getting young people excited about engineering
Producing over 75 million industrial labels annually, 5 million wristbands for the leisure sector, 50 million breaking and consumption coins, and countless components for board games, VanDerEng BV is big in a few niche markets. For Techport events, Ernst is happy to open the doors of their factory in Heemskerk to introduce students to engineering and manufacturing in this region.
Ernst: “We do this on the one hand from a social point of view, because we think it is important as a company to be a good reflection of society. That means we need to attract enough young people. And you can't enthuse young people early enough. In addition, I see that our own employees also get excited about this. They enjoy showing the students around and try to convey their passion for technology. You notice a certain curiosity and open-mindedness among the students. And every time, we are surprised by seemingly simple questions that then make us think! So it brings a lot of positive energy.”
search through the factory
Ernst continues: “Every tour we try to do it slightly differently and better than the time before. And that is challenging, because this target group's attention span is not very long. Once, for instance, we set out an entire treasure hunt with a short video introduction, combined with images of our company and the machines. These were very short fragments of one or two seconds that alternated quickly. The students had to pay close attention, because after that they went in groups of four around the factory to find the machines that were in the video.”
“Once found, they had to ask the operator what exactly that machine does. After finding all the machines, they had to answer one last question: which machines do you need to make a certain product? Of course, we had a nice prize for the winning group and a wristband with their name on it for everyone to take home.
We do this partly from a social point of view, because we think it is important as a company to be a good reflection of society, and partly because it also excites our own employees.
Ernst de Haan - VanDerEng BV
Participate with your company too?
Would you also like to open up your company to students during the next Techport event? And thereby enthuse the next generation to also choose a job in engineering and manufacturing?
If so, please contact Danielle van der Mark (danielle.vandermark@oud.techport.nl). She will be happy to tell you more about what the company visits entail and also think with you about how to shape the tour!