More and more students in pre-vocational secondary education are opting for a technical education. As in the previous year, the number of pre-vocational secondary education students with the Production, Installation and Energy (PIE) profile grew. There are now 4,971 students in the third year of study, an increase of 8 percent compared to last year.
Girls are also increasingly opting for a technical VMBO track. According to chairman Doekle Terpstra of entrepreneurs organization Techniek Nederland, there is an important turnaround. “This is of course positive news. This is the first sign that young people understand that technology has the future.”
In the 2021/2022 school year, the number of pupils with a PIE profile also increased by 2 percent compared to the previous year. “The VMBO figures are encouraging, but one swallow does not make a summer,” says Terpstra.
The chairman of Techniek Nederland points out that the trend in pre-vocational secondary education is an exception. “At havo and vwo we still see that interest in technical profiles is declining.”
Technology faces a major shortage of personnel
The technology has been struggling with a major shortage of personnel for years. In the coming years, twenty thousand electrical engineers, heating engineers, refrigeration engineers, plumbers and other technical personnel will be needed to speed up the process of making our country more sustainable. In addition, the sector is faced with a huge outflow due to the aging population.
“We have to tackle these problems systematically. People who come in are given a job guarantee and a training course. And to retain employees, we have to offer more perspective, such as a better balance between work and private life. These were things that were not on the table before” , says Terpstra.
In order to reduce the shortages, Techniek Nederland, together with a number of other branches, such as the metal sector, has drawn up the Aanvalsplan Techniek. The aim is to structurally fill a total of 60,000 vacancies.
