The government wants every child and young person to have the opportunity to master technological skills. Whether it is dealing with computers, programming or making prosthetics: mastering technological skills is essential in the world of today and tomorrow. The government is therefore giving a strong impetus to technology education. Today the subsidy scheme Techkwadraat opens: regional collaborations of primary and secondary schools (havo, vwo and vmbo-t), companies and extracurricular organizations such as museums can jointly submit an application. These are plans to build future-proof, comprehensive and high-quality technology education. For this first phase, € 129 million is available from the National Growth Fund.
Techkwadraat's ambition is for all children and young people in the Netherlands to be exposed to technology at school and in their immediate environment. This will give them a better understanding of technology, enable them to become enthusiastic about it and develop in it. This regardless of socio-economic status, gender or origin.
The impetus from the program strengthens and multiplies existing national and regional initiatives for technology education, of which there are already many. The goal of Techkwadraat is for schools, businesses and extracurricular organizations such as museums, libraries, tech labs and science centers to work together to establish regional "learning ecosystems. These are environments where education and practice come together, both inside and outside school hours. This could be anything: labs at museums, schools or companies, a technology course for teachers or the creation of a technology-related curriculum.
In addition to the regional plans, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Platform Talent for Technology program office ensure national coherence. They do this by developing and sharing knowledge about technology education, tools and working examples, among other things. This ensures the sustainable anchoring of technology education.
The grant scheme is part of the broader Techkwadraat program. This is 1 of the actions from the Central Government's Green and Digital Jobs Action Plan. By strengthening the commitment to technology education in primary education, havo, vwo, vmbo-tl and specialized education, Techkwadraat ensures a broad orientation to technology and a good connection to (technical) education. This increases the impact on other programs such as Strong Technology Education (vmbo), Katapult (mbo/hbo) and other initiatives in (continued) education.
Techkwadraat has a term of 8 years. For a total of 8 years, the Cabinet is investing €351.6 million in Techkwadraat, funded from the National Growth Fund. The funds from this first phase of this grant scheme will allow regional partners to jointly implement and scale up activities for the next 3 school years (2025/2026, 2026/2027 and 2027/2028). In 2027, based on an evaluation, the availability of conditional funds will also be considered, for the continuation of the program and grant scheme until 2031.
