‘Human beings are naturally curious’

About ten years ago, Utrecht University decided to place equal emphasis on continuing education as on Bachelor's and Master's students. People who are already working should also be able to come to UU to brush up on their knowledge or learn something else, whether for professional or personal reasons.

In recent years, a wide range of extension courses has become available. To Professor Marian Thunnissen, UU is making great strides. ‘Especially when you consider that this is a relatively new activity for a university. It's not going smoothly everywhere, but you learn as you go along.’

Lecturer and professor
Thunnissen is a Professor by Special Appointment of Lifelong Development since January 2024. At the time, she was already a lecturer at the Fontys University of Applied Sciences, at the Knowledge Centre for Lifelong Development. The university of applied sciences established the chair in collaboration with Utrecht University. According to Thunnissen, this is a good example of how universities of applied sciences and universities can cooperate.

Her research consists of two questions. The first is how universities of applied sciences and universities fulfil their role as knowledge institutions in continued education, and what the potential areas for improvement are. The second is how educational institutions can support the development of their own staff as employers. What do they offer their employees in this area?

This is a subject close to Thunnissen's heart. After studying Social and Organisational Psychology at Utrecht University, she focused primarily on the employability of people within an organisation. Her 2015 thesis was on talent management at Dutch universities. Thunnissen emphasises that “development” does not consist solely of taking courses or training programmes, but can also be learned in many other ways.

New field 
Although private education providers such as LOI, De Baak and NCOI have years of experience in providing education to working people, this is a relatively new field of activity for universities and universities of applied sciences. ‘These institutions face challenges. They are used to providing education for students and conducting research. Teaching people who are already working requires different teaching skills from lecturers. You need to know what professionals want to learn and how they want to do so. And the courses on offer must also be well-suited to the working environment.’

She points out that there are different types of learning: non-formal, informal and formal. Formal learning is taking a course or programme that leads to a certificate or diploma upon completion. A course that does not lead to a certificate or diploma is called non-formal learning, and informal learning is learning from others in a work situation, for example.

‘People have preferences about how they want to learn. Most workers prefer to learn something at work so that they can apply it immediately. That's why I'm interested in the partnerships between educational institutions and companies to provide further training for workers.’

As an example, she mentions the consortium in which Utrecht University is involved. In this consortium, she works with the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, ROC Midden Nederland and various companies and platforms in the region to train their employees.

Learning opportunities for the university
Thunnissen believes that focusing on companies and organisations to collaborate with will provide the university with learning opportunities. ‘I think that acquiring and sharing knowledge together, for example, by conducting joint research into certain social issues, provides great opportunities for informal learning. Both for the employees of the companies, whose research skills are strengthened, and for the colleagues at the university, who gain a better understanding of the practical side of things.’

But she also sees a much greater benefit for the entire scientific community. ‘At a time when scientific research is dismissed as fiction by certain people, collaboration can have a positive effect. If workers see how science works up close, they will hopefully gain more confidence in it.’

As an example of how this could work alongside teaching, she says that a company with which the university collaborates could ask one of its employees to do a PhD. That employee would then tell his colleagues how research works, which, according to Thunnissen, makes scientific work more transparent. ‘Moreover, the PhD candidate's research will focus on a social element of their daily work.’ There is no doubt that scientific independence must be guaranteed in such a construction.

However, Thunnissen believes the university must also examine where its activities can generate added value. ‘This may vary from one field to another, but by providing education for working people, you gain a better understanding of the issues at stake, you can acquire knowledge about those issues and build a network. You can then use this for your own research or as inspiration for new research.’

The university as an employer
The other task Thunnissen is working on is to examine how universities and universities of applied sciences support their own employees' development. Researchers and lecturers often have an instructive role in this regard. 'They are constantly learning simply because research constantly brings new information. ‘Although bureaucratic rules can hinder them in this.’

For those who support the scientists, it's a bit different. ‘To keep developing yourself, it's important that you can keep challenging yourself by taking on new projects, for example. And you can take courses, of course. It's up to the employer to give you the space to do that. They can do this by not letting the workload pile up, for example.’

In an organisation such as a university, managers play an important role. ‘They need to ask employees what challenges they see. It is unfortunate that development and training are often only discussed when something is not going well. That is a pity. People are more motivated to start something new when it is requested in a positive setting.’

Another point the university needs to address is ensuring everyone has equal opportunities for development. ‘Research shows that young people, highly educated people and men pursue more training than other categories of employees. Older employees often receive less attention and are expected to do less in terms of development and advancement. But that does not mean that they do not want to develop further. It is important to challenge them as well.’

Many ways to learn
Thunnissen encourages people who would like to take a course but don't have the money or time because of informal care or family life. ‘People are naturally curious, and that's where the desire to learn comes from. There are many ways to learn. When you search for information on the internet, watch a documentary, or go to a museum or lecture, you are also learning.’

And that's important to know, she stresses. ‘When it comes to lifelong learning, you often hear that you have to do it, because otherwise you won't be able to keep up in the job market. It's true that you have to keep up, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to take a course or training programme, as is often thought.’

Thunnissen has been working on this for a year and a half, and she still has 3.5 years to go as a professor by special appointment. But that doesn't mean her research results will take that long to come out. ‘The idea is that I will gradually come up with recommendations when I see that improvements are needed.’

In collaboration with Utrecht University's Continuing Education programme, DUB has produced a magazine titled 'Lang zullen we leren!' (We will learn for a long time!), which can be found in various university buildings. The magazine will also be included with Illuster, the alumni magazine, in November. All the articles from the magazine are also available online, and over the next two months, we will highlight several of them on our website. Over the next few weeks, a few additional articles about this topic will be published exclusively online. You can read all the articles related to the magazine here.