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“The Education test” is a research-based test that aims to inform young people or pupils about educations and professions within STEM.  The test was created by psychologist Helge Brovold (NTNU) and takes 10-15 minutes to complete. Based on four different factors – personality, preferred learning method, personal and professional interests, the test presents occupations within STEM that might be suitable. The test result provides the pupil with information about his or her personality traits, how he or she learns best, and suggest some STEM occupations that fits their personality. After taking the test, the pupils may discuss the result with their parents or friends, and further evaluate different studies, careers and job opportunities. The main target group are pupils in junior high school and students in high school, but the test is also used in some universities to examine the students preferred learning methods and further to adjust the teaching methods.

NCSR (the Norwegian national STEM platform) has done focus groups to learn more about how young people make their choice of education. Its findings show that most youths have little knowledge about careers within STEM and what kind of occupations are eligible after studying STEM.
The education test aims to address this by providing the pupils with new ideas about what one can study and work with within STEM. In tandem to the test, the NCSR runs campaigns in social media throughout the year to inform the target audience about the test and the importance of educational choices.

The main goal of the programme is to make the pupils reflect on their interest, personality and their learning preferences in relation to STEM. Furthermore, the goal is to make the target audience aware of the different educations and jobs within STEM. The programme aims to:

• Inspire youths to choose STEM subjects and careers
• Provide the student with ideas about education choices and occupations within STEM
• Expand their horizon when it comes to their choice of education

These objectives are aligned with the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training’s STEM strategy – “Close to STEM” (see background documents).

ESTCube is a student satellite project and the first satellite in the world that attempted to use an electric solar wind sail (e-sail). The project aims to give students an opportunity to give their theoretical knowledge a practical output by building real-life satellites.

For every project, a team of engineers, mechanics, programmes and students is put together. With the team, a detailed plan and goals are set. For the ESTCube-1, the goal of the project was to successfully launch a student satellite. During the time in orbit, the satellite was actively used for taking images and downloading data, while students rapidly continued improving software for all subsystems. With this, the satellite was launched in 2013 and by 2014, the attitude determination and control system software reached its full functionality. In 2015, the batteries of the satellite got empty and the connection with the satellite ended.

Based on the good results from ESTCube-1, the activities continued with a new ESTCube-2 project in 2017. ESTCube-2 is a technology demonstration mission for deorbiting technology plasma break, the interplanetary propulsion system electric solar wind sail and advanced satellite subsystem solutions.

The ESTCube team is also participating in several bigger events and seminars. In addition to that, they also organize events that introduce the space technology and opportunities in the project. Every summer, the ESTCube Team is accepting summer traineeship members.

The main objective of the project is to promote space technology as a career path, by giving students an opportunity to gain practical knowledge about space technology and launch satellites that are made in Estonia. One of the goals is also to develop innovation in the field and put more emphasis in the field of research.

At the national level, the objective is to develop a research-based economy and use smart specialisation and launch more technology-based companies. Estonia faces a problem with the lack of engineers and technology developers in the near future. Therefore, it is important to bring more students to this career path.

Solaride is a project for students who want to contribute hands-on to solving our dependence on fossil fuels. To do so, the students are building a working solar car and taking it to the ultimate test run in Australia in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The ultimate objective of Solaride is to promote engineering and its career options in Estonia.

The project gathers ambitious students from different fields, such as engineers, electronics, mechanics, software etc. from all over Estonia. The project has grown continuously into the size of an average company. Currently there are almost 70 team members. The team also has various prominent mentors from universities and companies to share their know-how with the students. Besides that, Solaride has strong support from cooperation with several Estonian universities and gives participating students the opportunity to gain practical knowledge and compete in an international competition. With this, the project promotes engineering and technology among the pupils and students.

The ultimate objective of Solaride is to promote engineering and its career options in Estonia. As a country Estonia faces a serious shortage of engineers and specialists, now and in the future. The overall aim of the project is to promote STEM career paths through hands-on experiences early on. The promotion of technology and engineering is therefore important to bring people to engineering and have the necessary workforce in the future. The programme also contributes to the development of innovation and science-based economy in Estonia. According to the analysis on the workforce needed in Estonia, in 10 to 15 years, 60% of the occupations are the kind of which we do not have today. Therefore, adapting with new and novel technology is critical.

‘Technology Understanding’ (Teknologiforstaelse) a.k.a. Informatics is a three-year pilot programme focused on introducing Informatics as a new subject in primary and lower secondary education (age: 6-16). The goal of this new subject is to develop the critical ability of students to (responsibly) use and shape technology, rather than just consuming it. In the pilot-phase the subject is tested both as an independent subject and as a ‘professionalism’ (integrated in multiple existing subjects including social studies, language and visual arts).

The pilot programme and its implementation is coordinated by the Danish ministry for Children and Education. The content of the subject has been prepared by an advisory expert group of around 20 scholars from universities, University Colleges, and ministry learning consultants as well as school teachers. 

The ojectives of the subject itself are to develop the students ability to (responsibly) use and shape technology. To achieve this the work done by students in the context of the subject focuses on four interrelated areas of competence:

• Digital empowerment: the ability to critically examine how technology is imbued with values and intentions, and how it shapes our lives as individuals, groups and as a society.
• Digital design and design processes: the ability to incrementally design digital artefacts with respect to the context of future use
• Computational thinking: the ability to analyse, model and structure data and data processes
• Technological competences: knowledge about principled function of computer systems, networks, security, privacy and programming skills

A short video explaining each of the competence areas and related activities can be found via the link above.

The objective of the three year pilot-phase is to test the new Informatics subject in two configurations (as a stand-alone subject and through integration in other subjects).

Research has shown the importance of continuous investment in skills (lifelong learning). Small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) in the Netherlands tend to invest relatively little in lifelong learning. Research by the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs (EZK) has shown that the main obstacle to increased (structural) investment in the continuous development of employees is not a financial but practical. For example, smaller companies find it more difficult to free up personnel to participate in lifelong learning activities, but also find it more difficult to identify learning opportunities suitable to their specific company / sector.

The Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs responded to this challenge with the MKB!dee: A programme that supports SME’s in the development of lifelong learning activities that fit the needs of their specific company type, size and sector. The programme is funded by the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs and part of the broader MKB Actieplan ('SME Action Plan'). It is implemented by the Dutch national STEM platform supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) which monitors and evaluates the programme. Participating SME’s can apply for a total grant of max. 125.000 euro (individual SME’s) or 200.000 euro (multiple SME’s) for the development of new / experimental lifelong learning activities relevant for their company / sector. The main objective of the MKB!dee programme is twofold:

1. To provide practical and financial support to SME’s in the Netherlands in the development of (experimental) lifelong learning activities that suit the needs of their company
2. To identify and upscale successful lifelong learning approaches developed in the context of the programme.

In addition to general quality criteria, project proposals submitted by SME’s are evaluated on the extent to which they contribute to pre-defined policy objectives of the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs. These include:

• Climate and energy transition
• Increasing the number and quality of STEM and ICT professionals
• Digitalisation of SME’s
• Lifelong learning in small SME's (< 50 employees)

Jet-Net & TechNet (JNTN), or "Youth Technology Network Netherlands" is a flagship programme of the Dutch National STEM platform (PTvT). It's main objective is to increase STEM uptake in secondary education by providing context to the curriculum. This is achieved through one-on-one partnerships between leading tech companies and secondary schools. 

The programme was founded by five Dutch technology companies (Shell, Philips, DSM, AkzoNobel and Unilever) in 2002 and currently involves more than 90 technology companies and 180 pre-university secondary schools (aprox. 40% of total). In close collaboration with secondary schools, 'Jet-Net companies' develop an educational environment with practical content for the science curriculum and provide students with experiences that show that technology is challenging, meaningful and socially relevant.

Each of the school-company partnerships is supported by the national bureau and its regional coordinators in the development of an activity programme. These activities are supplemented by larger-scale regional and national events (e.g. Innovation Challenges, Career Days, debating competitions, etc.) as well as activities focused on specific target groups (e.g. female role models, activities focused on parents, etc.). An overview of the most commonly used JNTN activities can be found in the 'background documents' tab at the top of this page. 

JNTN activities are based on the 'BètaTechMentality-model' (see 'publications' section for English-language version) which provides a comprehensive framework for targeting students based on their intrinsic motivation ('drijfveren') to study STEM subjects. More information about the BètaTechMentality-model (including English version) and underlying research can be found on the publication page (accessible via the 'publications' tab above). 

In 2012 a version of the Jet-Net programme was launched in Denmark by the Danish House of Natural Sciences (Naturvidenskabernes Hus) under the label 'Jet-Net.dk' (rebranded in 2018 as the 'TekTanken'-programme). In 2020 the Basque Innovation Agency (InnoBasque) in Spain launched a pilot Jet-Net programme inspired by the Dutch Jet-Net model for school-company collaboration. More information about this initiative can be found in the taskforce dossier.