“I think it is important to communicate to our students from day 1 that their career will also involve continuous learning. Once they graduate and start working, they will identify additional skills they might need.”
We met with Maaike van Buul, Manager of Business Development at TU Delft Extension School for Continuing Education, from Pledger Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), and reflected about the Initiative, the role universities play in fostering mindset of continuous learning among students, and how universities can help bridge the gap between academic knowledge and practical tech skills.
Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)
Maaike explained that TU Delft is a university that performs research and provides education across all fields of science, engineering, and design, with several strategic themes including energy transition, health, sustainable cities, the digital society, and climate action.
Early on, the university recognised the importance of contributing not only to their current students but professionals worldwide looking to improve their knowledge to create more innovative and better societies, and has been creating online courses for professionals since 2013. In 2023, this was formalised through the Lifelong Learning strategy, and implemented as a key task across the university. Maaike explained that for the TU Delft Extension School for Continuing Education this strategy helps them take a step forward in taking lifelong learning to the next level.
“What we want to do is make sure all professionals and adult learners who want to create change, can be equipped with cutting-edge technology knowledge and expertise, so they can address the societal challenges we face and try to make the world a bit better.”
Maaike highlighted that TU Delft felt it was important to join the Pledge for the many opportunities the Initiative offers. “While we can present TU Delft’s lifelong learning strategy to the community, we’re not just here to promote ourselves. We see this Initiative as a valuable ecosystem,” she continued: “because we are aware that technologies and knowledge from a research university alone does not make change happen. We really need to work in collaboration with industry, governments, professionals in the field, and the innovators to make sure we’re all connected, and doing the necessary work to counteract climate change, to ensure the energy transition is enabled with renewable energy in place and become more sustainable.”
What role do universities play in fostering mindset of continuous learning among students
Maaike explained that defining the lifelong learning strategy as a key task for the university was the first step, with the next important step being to align with all faculties to ensure that they create courses that are in demand within industry.
She went on to explain that helping students create a mindset of lifelong learning should start from day 1; by communicating to new students that lifelong learning is part of their life as a professional and that after graduation, when they evolve their careers, get promoted or need new skills, university will still be there to help them get new skills or stay up to date with advancing of technology.
She believes that universities have a really important role to play in fostering a mindset of continuous learning because they are the ones who produce knowledge: “Why would you produce knowledge if you don’t disseminate it? Industry, professionals and governments need it, so it’s important.”
How can universities help bridge the gap between academic knowledge and practical skills?
Maaike described that bridging the gap between academic and practical skills is sometimes difficult, because academics sometimes feel that people ‘in the field’ also need to have all the academic knowledge, whereas they only need the knowledge to apply the new technology, or specific training field they are in.
She said: “I think that to bridge that gap, it’s important that academics are also supported by people who know about pedagogy for professionals; how to do it, how to make it practical, to ensure you have all the needed professionals in place to provide practical training and give the professionals the skills they need.”
She stressed the importance of developing training around what people need to know and considering what kind of learning outcomes are important.
Maaike went on to highlight how TU Delft does co-creation with industry, which involves a group of academics and people in the field working together, which naturally helps to bridge the gap between the academic knowledge and the skills needed in the field.
“We always try to design our courses for practical application. So, all the knowledge and assignments we give to lifelong learners, they can go straight to their workplace after the course and apply it.”
Making tech education accessible to a diverse student body
Maaike explained that having education that is affordable, accessible and open for all is important, and that TU Delft has done a lot of work in the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) space. MOOC courses are open to anybody, for people all around the world can gather knowledge. She went on to explain the importance of having financial aid programmes for those who don’t have sufficient resources to pay for education.
When it comes to diversity and inclusion, “We make sure the people who teach the courses are also representative of the world outside. We also try to balance gender and, as much as possible, try to make our courses accessible for people who may be impaired, have short attention spans, etc. We attempt to ensure people easily can follow a course.”
Maaike highlighted that one of the accessibility features TU Delft is working on is making all their online courses mobile-friendly, because in some countries some people only have access to a mobile phone, which creates a different learning experience. While creating mobile-friendly courses takes effort, TU Delft are determined to do so and have developed guidelines so that all the new courses they design comply, as far as possible, with those.
Maaike went on to explain that TU Delft does collaborate with industry to co-design some courses to provide students with access to the latest tech and tools enabling them to build tech skills that will have social impact. These courses they try to make accessible to many students.
“Looking at the challenges we are facing, it’s important to realise that they cannot be solved individually; no one has enough knowledge to do so. We will only get the answers by learning and working together; different disciplines, types of people, organisations, civilians, institutions to see whether we can make a change.”
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