Afbeelding
The labour market is constantly changing. Companies face complex issues such as staff shortages, rapid technological developments and departing knowledgeable professionals. As a result, the remaining professionals, job seekers and students are increasingly expected to be agile and resilient in their work and careers.
Agile professionals
Agility and resilience in work and careers is worth striving for because agile and resilient professionals, job seekers and students can handle changes in work and careers. Moreover, they can even help to shape improvements in work and careers themselves. Guiding professionals such as teachers and career coaches support them in this and play a central role. What the change or improvement could be is often not entirely predictable, which is why guiding professionals need a sensitivity to recognise room for this and act accordingly. This is, however, challenging for them. They often have to decide in the moment what might be a good next step for the person they are guiding. The research group Vocational Pedagogy and Lifelong Development develops this knowledge by working with guiding professionals to document the sensitivity needed in overviews and narratives of experiences.
Inauguration
In his inaugural address, Mazereeuw discussed the vulnerable relationship in which guiding professionals are engaged together with those they guide and explained how he is working with the guiding professionals to create a vocationally oriented pedagogy for promoting lifelong development. Prior to the inauguration, there was a keynote by Professor Emeritus of Human Resource Development Prof Dr Joseph Kessels, who has been at the forefront of research on professional development of employees and learning organisations in the Netherlands. Additionally, there was an interactive interlude with students and colleagues from Friesland College who invited guests to take part in practising work activities.
Subject Matter and Vocational Pedagogy
Mazereeuw has been associated with the college since 1999 and once started as a lecturer and department chair of teacher training in Natural Sciences & Environment. He then started as a researcher and associate professor and for about two years he has been fulfilling the role of professor at our university of applied sciences. Within the professorship Vocational Pedagogy and Lifelong Development, he works together with fellow professor Siebrich de Vries, who focuses on subject matter pedagogy in secondary education. The research group Subject Matter and Vocational Pedagogy aims to initiate and support a lively and powerful movement in the field of vocational and secondary education as well as lifelong professional development in a northern cooperation between schools for secondary education and vocational education and teacher training institutes.