Half a billion for digitization of MBO and HBO
Through the National Growth Fund, the government is investing a maximum of 6,3 billion euros in projects that contribute to the future 'earning capacity' of the Netherlands. More than half a billion goes to the digitization of higher education and secondary vocational education.
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The previous cabinet created the National Growth Fund. It was allowed to spend 20 billion euros in five years on innovative plans that could give a boost to the Dutch economy. A committee headed by former Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem is assessing the plans.
For this second funding round 28 of the 35 submitted projects were awarded funding, ranging from training for the low-skilled and making inland shipping more sustainable to improving cancer research. Many of these projects involve universities and colleges.
The most imaginative is Einstein Telescope, a plan for an underground observatory to measure gravitational waves from the universe. With 912 million euros from the Growth Fund, the Netherlands hopes to be able to realize the EU project in the South Limburg border region, together with Germany and Belgium.
digitization
The digitization of higher education and MBO will receive a major boost from the growth fund with 560 million euros. The labor market increasingly demands people with digital skills, University of Applied Sciences leader Maurice Limmen responds† According to him, education can now make an extra contribution to this.
The institutions will jointly invest in a digital infrastructure. In the coming eight years, all 113 institutions in MBO and HBO will also set up their own center for teaching and learning in. Teachers can go there for advice and training about reforming their education. Just like students, teachers will soon have to be able to use digital facilities and learning environments without worrying about their privacy.
Refresher courses
The government also considers it important that publicly funded institutions in higher education and MBO respond better to the educational needs of workers. They will receive 167 million euros from the Growth Fund – and conditionally another 225 million – to give an impulse to “lifelong development”.
In the next five years, the institutions want to focus first on training staff involved in the energy transition. “Thanks to the allocation from the Growth Fund, we can train large groups of professionals who all contribute to the social challenges we face”, says Pieter Duisenberg of UNL University Association† “There is no better investment in a healthy knowledge economy.”
