Wittenborg MBA in Clean Technology: Many Job Opportunities for Young Talent in Smart Industry & CleanTech, says Rabobank's Innovation Manager

When you do an MBA in Energy and Clean Technology at WUAS there are ample opportunities in the Netherlands for employment in the sector.

This was illustrated by the innovation manager at Rabobank Noord- en Oost-Achterhoek, David van Lynden, who recently said in an interview with Wittenborg News that the Achterhoek region – which is close to Apeldoorn, the city where Wittenborg is located – holds great promise in the field of clean technology and smart industry.

“I visited various higher education institutes along with Wittenborg's business development advisor Ben Prins to learn more about connecting our regional companies with promising, young talent, and also to attract entrepreneurs and start-ups in either smart industry-related business or clean technology that can be aided or supported by existing successful enterprises and networks.

“There is a strong backbone of SMEs in this part of the country, often family-run businesses, which have developed into keen, specialised niche players that are frequently (worldwide) marketing semi-manufactured goods.

“Though highly innovative, lean in management and famous in their sectors, they are often unknown to the general public. In other words, ‘hidden champions’. This results in a poor connection with young talent in higher education – talent these companies desperately need for future development and growth in the transition to smart industry. More and more, these companies work together in Smarthub.

“My goal is to uncover these hidden champions and put them in the spotlight in order for them to be able to contact those promising students with new, innovative ideas and knowledge.”

Wittenborg’s MBA in Energy and Clean Technology sprang from its involvement in the EU-funded GREAT project – Growing Renewable Energy Applications and Technology – in 2014. The project sought to encourage SMEs and collectives of SMEs to develop and apply sustainable energy solutions related to renewable energy, smart grid and distributive generation.

Wittenborg’s degree programme is a combination of technology-based modules covering issues such as sustainability and renewable energy, embedded within a core of traditional management-related MBA modules.

WUP 22/11/2017

by Anesca Smith
©WUAS Press