Experience Geert Crijns as a hybrid teacher

No one could have imagined that teaching would take a completely different turn at the beginning of this year.
Nor could Geert Crijns. Geert Crijns has been working in the automotive industry since 1983. He started with testing engines in test stands and cars up to Senior Project Engineer, now at Altran, part of Capgemini. Geert Crijns started in March 2020 as a hybrid teacher. He teaches second and third year students at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences as well as students at Fontys Eindhoven.

"I have been working in the automotive industry for quite some time now. The lessons with subjects such as 'FMEA' and 'Drawing up requirements', are actually a common thread throughout the entire development process of the car, but also within my own career". Within Altran, Geert has given these trainings to colleagues before. These trainings were much appreciated by his colleagues. It was therefore not surprising that his boss asked him how he would feel about giving these trainings to second and third year hbo automotive students. "Immediately I thought it would be a lot of fun to do. I think it's important that the right knowledge will be transferred to a new generation and the fact that i could contribute to that felt like a great honor to me".

Teaching in a digital jacket
"Teaching was different than expected because it suddenly had to be digitalized due to Corona. So I had to change several things in my teaching material including several exercises that I added but also attributes to make the lesson a little more fun. It was important for me to keep the attention of the students. I knew in advance that digitally would be more difficult than physically in a classroom where the interaction was quickly made. In the end, we succeeded digitally as well".
Geert Crijns hopes that other companies will feel inspired to try out the hybrid teaching profession. "If  they would ask me again in the future and it fits within the project plan, i would certainly answer 'yes' again. Hopefully it will be possible to do it physically in a classroom again, which is just a bit more dynamic than via a screen".

If you are interested in hybrid teaching or if you would like to have more information, please contact Saskia Lavoo (s.lavoo@acemobility.nl).