Visit Graphic Lyceum Utrecht during the Amsterdam-conference

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We were welcomed by Joop Engelander and Bert van Toor from the Graphic Lyceum Utrecht (GLU). Joop gave an introduction on the school system in the Netherlands and the school itself.
After that there was a discussion which involved both students from the GLU and students from the project partners about ‘reducing early school dropout’. This topic is directly related to sustainability. Keeping the students inside the walls of your school makes the school more aimed at sustainable employability of students within the school. An important drop-out explanation given by one of the Dutch students was the decrease of motivation because of ‘bad teachers’, meaning teachers who are not able to make students motivated in their study field or just miscommunication with the teachers. We should not underestimate this. Unfortunately there was not enough time to finish the discussion and draw some general conclusions.

The group was divided in 2 and was taken for a tour around the school, involving students in the tour as well. Some students prepared a presentation on their subject of ‘young entrepreneurship’. In this class a group of maximum 7 students start a real company with real assignments. They divided the roles/functions amongst them, under supervision of a teacher, and they run the company as a real life learning experience.