Partners in Education

Summary
Through good cooperation with companies, students receive up-to-date and challenging education and can learn about the latest technologies and working methods at companies. Fontys ICT has more than 100 companies associated with it in the form of Partners in Education, who contribute to the topicality of the education programme in the form of co-creation, professional supervision of student projects and active quality assessment of the curriculum.

For Fontys ICT, the development of the student into a professional for the labour market is central. Fontys ICT would like students to be well prepared after their study programme and be able to apply the theory in practice. Experience shows that no one can help better in this than the business community itself. That's why we let our students get to know the business world intensively during their studies. Fontys ICT has been working successfully with a large number of companies in the region for years. The companies with which there is structural cooperation in academic year 1 and 2 make up Fontys ICT's Partners in Education (PiE). By working together, companies can get to know their future employees and the companies can show the students what is going on in the business world. It is in the interests of the business community that a sufficient number of ICT students graduate and that their study programme is in line with professional practice. Through this good cooperation with companies, students receive up-to-date and challenging education and companies can introduce them to the latest technologies and working methods.

Partners in Education and Fontys ICT both have high expectations when working together, but they also get a lot in return. Companies can give their latest technologies and developments a place in Fontys ICT's education. In co-creation, companies develop lectures together with lecturers for a group of students and get constructively critical questions from students and lecturers. For companies, this can be a great opportunity to take another look at certain processes themselves or to introduce a business case for the benefit of education. In this way, companies have a clear influence on education and are directly engaged in knowledge sharing with their future employees. Students also receive assignments from companies. They work out these assignments and present them to the companies at the end of a unit of study. During the course of the project, the companies can give direct feedback on the students' performance, which also helps the students develop a higher level of commitment and sense of relevance.

By also involving Partners in Education at Fontys open days, prospective students can see what the work field of the study programme is. There is also a FontysICT Career Day every two years, both in Eindhoven and Tilburg, where companies can increase their brand awareness and come into contact with all Fontys ICT students. Companies and students can get to know each other further during this Fontys ICT Career Day to make contacts for internships or graduation positions, for side jobs or a first step of their career after their studies.

Cooperation with Partners in Education can be made concrete through activities as shown in Table 1. The structural cooperation is confirmed with a covenant signed by both the company and Fontys ICT (for a period of 2 years). A new partner always starts with a trial period (usually 1 semester).

Table 1
Expectations and possibilities in the cooperation between Fontys ICT and the Partners in Education, linked to the revenues.

Within Fontys ICT, Manager Implementation is responsible for the partner policy. She is supported in this by partner coordinators. They have divided areas of attention among themselves and can be reached via pie@fontys.nl.

More information about our Partners in Education, in both English and Dutch, can be found on our general website about Partners in Education. You can also read the reviews of our partners.

Especially for internship companies, not only partners, and their company supervisors, the webpage Practical Assignments Fontys ICT has been developed. Here, anyone can enter internship assignments and side jobs.

There is a meaningful relationship between the PiEs and the employees of Fontys ICT within the framework of the HR policy. Fontys ICT encourages its lecturers to be active in the work field to keep the experience in the professional field up to date. Our cooperation with the PiE's strengthens this meaningful relationship with the work field in order to allow lecturers, in addition to the role of lecturer, to provide HBO worthy work outside the context of Fontys ICT.

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