PLNT Leiden and mboRijnland consider the cooperation of the past two years successful. Therefore, they are extending it for another two years with the intention of a long-term relationship. Students from mboRijnland can take programs at PLNT Leiden that help them start their own business from their craftsmanship.
They attend workshops together with students from the University of Applied Sciences Leiden and Leiden University. This contributes to the development and improvement of the continuous learning lines between mbo, hbo en wo.
Jan van Laake, director Technology & ICT mboRijnland and account holder PLNT: “We are happy that the cooperation with PLNT Leiden is going so well. More than 200 students have already had the opportunity to attend various entrepreneurship workshops and we would like to expand that number. We want to give students from all our programs the opportunity to discover and develop entrepreneurship.”
Bastiaan de Roo, director PLNT and Jan van Laake, director Technique & ICT mboRijnland.
Entrepreneurial talent
For the past two years, mostly students from College Economics, Smart Technology and Health attended the workshops at PLNT Leiden. For example, PLNT BOOST is a program where students learn the basic skills of entrepreneurship during various workshops. Students with ambition to start their own business will be taught such skills as writing a business plan, building a website and sales techniques. At the same time, MBO talents gain access to PLNT’s innovative startup community. Education, innovation and entrepreneurship literally come together here.
Jordy, a student studying Manager Retail, enthuses, “At PLNT, I’m learning to turn my business idea into reality, which is super valuable to me.”
Expanding opportunities for students
The collaboration will be expanded over the next two years with a number of new programs. For example, students can become members of PLNT Students, Leiden’s entrepreneurial student organization, and have the opportunity to intern at one of the startups within PLNT. In addition, they can use the spaces at PLNT to collaborate on their business idea and seek advice from PLNT’s professionals. In addition, Construction, Engineering and Smart Technology students can visit The Field project site next to the station for hands-on sustainability assignments. This is a sustainable venue with a dismountable, circularly built pavilion.
Bastiaan de Roo, director PLNT Leiden: “I think it is great to see how, through this collaboration, we have already been able to reach talents from the mboRijnland and hook them up to the programs and student startup community. I expect that many more ideas will become reality here in the coming years and the talents will work together at an early stage on the challenges of the future.”
