Through inspiring education towards a sustainable world
This sentence expresses exactly what Technotrend Foundation (Stichting Technotrend) stands for. The Technotrend Foundation provides educational material and teacher training to stimulate this goal.
You make the difference!
Climate adaptation and sustainable development place new demands on the way we prepare students for their future. With the sustainable didactics of the Technotrend Foundation, you tell an optimistic story: systemic thinking, room for emotions, future design and challenging challenges provide guidance for learning and dreaming.
A positive view of the future
Limiting global warming and climate adaptation lead to new legislation, innovations, changes in the labor market and shifts in the training offer. However, the future is not yet certain. The teaching packages of the Technotrend Foundation train imagination and fantasy, thinking in scenarios, initiating change processes and philosophizing about new norms and values: tools to shape the future yourself.
Thinking in coherence
To give young people an active role in the changes, it is necessary to include them in the comprehensiveness of it. The challenges of the Technotrend Foundation recognize the complexity of ecosystems and human society, explore interdependencies and work on solutions based on system theory.
Attention to individual talents
Sustainable education emphasizes strongly developing a perspective for action and increasing one's own sphere of influence. This works best if students have a say in the details of research assignments and challenges. The accompanying lesson plans, learning objectives and worksheets of our challenges help facilitate these freedoms and quality assurance during the process. In this way we teach young people how they can make a difference with their own talents and interests.
Surprise yourself and others!
Above all, the Technotrend Foundation wants to inspire. Because looking for a new, sustainable way of life together is reinventing ourselves. The surprises that come from that give a lot of energy!
Working for educational sectors
Technotrend Foundation works for Dutch Primary Education (PO), Secondary Education (VO) and Initial (VMBO) and Secondary Vocational Education (MBO). The Technotrend Foundation works closely toghether with the Dutch Academy for Sustainable Education (NADO) and Teachers for Climate NL since 2022.
In this way we work to reach future proof and sustainable education.
The Technotrend Foundation arose from the conviction that realisation of a sustainable society is inevitable. To reach to this goal, we educate children and young people to the knowledge and skills they need for this and their future life.
Our programs and projects all contribute to one or more of these four key sustainability goals:
Energy transition | Circular Economy (including waste) | Sustainable Development Goals SDGs) | Climate adaptation
"Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world."
Nelson Mandela
Mission statement
In 1987, the United Nations released the Brundlandt Report. It underlines the meaning and necessity of sustainability with the following definition:
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
This is the reason it is necessary to create a sustainable society.
If we want to offer our children and subsequent generations the same as we in the modern era of the 20th and 21st century have experienced, it is necessary that fresh air, clean water, food and energy remain available to everyone. At present, however, society is already experiencing problems, at various levels, due to the depletion of natural resources and the pollution associated with the use of various raw materials. The demand for innovative technological solutions is getting stronger – but the supply is lagging behind.
Technotrend Foundation wants to further develop the inquisitive attitude that children naturally possess by integrating science and technology into education and teaching from curiosity and wonder. Offering new knowledge, with continuous contact with practice, ensures that students learn to think from the perspective of innovation and sustainability and develop their talents.
In addition, the early contact with the broad field of technology and science ensures that the students' interest in vocational and technical education increases and a growing number of them will choose a technical training. Technical insight, a solution-oriented attitude and innovation are encouraged, so that later generations have the means to create an acceptable level of prosperity for themselves and others with minimal use of scarce and harmful raw materials.
Three sub-goals
The mission consists of three subgoals. Each of them has its own importance, but they also interact and reinforce each other in their contribution to a sustainable society.
Stimulating practice-related education.
Various theories show that in order to meet the different individual needs of children, it is important to intertwine the current theory-oriented education with a more practice-oriented approach. Children should be able to play, build, touch and try out. By integrating science and technology into the current curriculum and by establishing connections and relationships with business, a meaningful context is created for the development of language and numeracy skills. Through the supply of new knowledge and the interaction with practice, the scientific and technological skills of the students are strengthened and talent development is stimulated.
The creation of a technological workforce.
In today's Dutch society, companies are facing serious shortages of technical working force; in the future, in which technology will play an increasingly important role, this shortage will only become more acute. By getting children interested in technology and science from an early age and introducing them to them in a playful way, Technotrend aims to achieve a higher intake in science and technology education and professions.
The development of sustainable citizens.
The need for sustainability stems from the scarcity of resources, which jeopardizes the maintenance of current levels of prosperity for future generations. It is therefore essential that children learn from an early age to use resources efficiently and to conserve energy, biodiversity and all that the world has to offer them. By giving children insight into the use and recycling of raw materials and sustainable techniques and solutions, applicable in everyday life as well as in their choice of profession and later field of work, children are given a framework of thought that they will automatically apply later in life.