EU STEM Coalition: Taskforce Meeting - School-company cooperation in Bretagne (meeting #2)
EU STEM Coalition: Taskforce Meeting - School-company cooperation in Bretagne (meeting #2)
Date:
27 August 2020 to 28 August 2020
Country:
France
City & meeting location:
Fréhel, France
Short summary:
On August 27-28, a second Taskforce Meeting was organised in Fréhel, Bretagne (France). This second meeting was focused at establishing the framework for a coordinating programme for school-company cooperation inspired by the Jet-Net model (Denmark, Netherlands, Spain) and based on initiatives in the field of STEM and entrepreneurship education that are already present in the region of Bretagne. In a two-day programme consisting of a series of presentations and work sessions a framework was established for a potential cooperation between the organisations / initiatives involved. Due to COVID-19 restrictions the meeting took place in 'hybrid' format, with around 25 participants 'on-site' and various participants / presenters via web-link.
Objective of the meeting:
The primary objective of the meeting was to establish a framework for cooperation (action plan) supported by all organisations in the working group (each focused on STEM and entrepreneurship education) in order to reduce the fragmentation of initiatives (through better coordination), increase their impact (through the development of new activities based on international best-practices) and reach.
Description:
After a brief introduction by the organisers (a steering group of organisations) an general introduction of the role and activities of the EU STEM Coalition was given by Geert Asselbergs (coordinator).
The overview presentation was followed by a (video) presentation by the Conseil Régional (regional government) of Bretagne, highlighting the importance of regional initiatives aimed at increasing competitiveness.
After a short break the meeting continued with three presentations of existing national and regional programmes based on the Jet-Net model for school-company cooperation (all presentation slides can be found in the meeting documents).
The first presentation focused on the Jet-Net model for school-company cooperation as it was originally developed in the Netherlands (presented by Geert Asselbergs, standing in for Ms. Beatrice Boots who fell ill right before the meeting).
The second presentation by Ms. Maiken Lykke Lolck, (director of the Danish House of Natural Sciences) provided an overview of the Danish Jet-Net programme (that was later rebranded as 'Tektanken') launched in Denmark in 2012 directly inspired by the Dutch programme.
The third presentation was given by Ms. Alaitz Landaluze, director of InnoBasque (the Basque Innovation Agency) in the Basque Country (Spain). This presentation specifically focused on the experience of developing a new Jet-Net style initiatives, and five topics related to how the model was adjusted to respond to the context in the Basque country.
After the presentations a series of working groups took place in which the participating organisations discussed various aspects of a possible Jet-Net-inspired initiative in the Basque country. After some concluding remarks by the organisers the meeting was closed. Participants were invited to a networking dinner concluding day 1 of the programme.
The programme continued on day 2, which focused specifically on the governance, funding model and the development of the action plan. Once again the meeting started with two overview presentations by partner organisations of the EU STEM coalition.
Mr. Frederik Slebo Freund, manager STEM & Technology Pact of the Danish region of Midtjylland presented the role of the region vis-a-vis the Danish Jet-Net programme as well as its relation to the broader regional STEM strategy (Danish Technology Pact).
This presentation was followed by a presentation of the activities of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) which implements several entrepreneurship education activities in so-called RIS countries based on existing best practices (the 'mini-company' model). These activities were presented by Mr. Wesley Crock of EIT Raw Materials.
After a short break the working groups were continued. During the session the outline of an action plan for the Bretagne-region was developed and presented in several roundtables. The meeting concluded with a networking lunch for all participants.