Impact-oriented practical education excites business

The construction and infrastructure sector has a distressing shortage of personnel. And that will only get worse with the increasing aging population and the huge construction and renovation task ahead. The staffing challenge also plays out at Nebest. However, the independent engineering and consulting firm has found an interesting way to engage the younger generation in particular. Or at least entice them for a job in the construction and infrastructure sector. 

Once born out of the privatization of the maintenance and inspection department of the Department of Public Works, Nebest today has been standing on its own feet for over 35 years. The independent engineering and consultancy firm now has 250 employees and is diligently looking for new talent to enable further growth. According to Wouter van den Berg, new business manager, Nebest is seen as the contractor among engineering firms. "We are not averse to fieldwork inspections and further investigations and for more depth we can fall back on our own laboratory."

SUS Ateliers 

"Just like any other company, getting staff is also a challenge for us, especially in the sectors in which we operate," Van den Berg acknowledges. "So the main question is: how do you entice the young generation to choose our field of work or, rather, a job at Nebest?" An answer to that has since been found. Van den Berg drew inspiration from his experiences while studying sustainable construction engineering at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and later as a teacher at the same faculty. "From the perspective of education, cooperation was deliberately sought with the business community to work in so-called 'sustainable studios' on issues of sustainable building technology. And that not infrequently resulted in tangible results, such as a sustainable model home on the RDM site in Rotterdam that students also lived in themselves to test and experience the sustainable measures. That way of working, with impact- and practice-oriented education has always stayed with me."

Launching customer

The service for recruiting new staff at Nebest is more or less inspired by the sustainable studios, according to Van den Berg. "What we do is that we offer students, graduates and interns at Nebest a place in a special team that works on development issues in the field of circularity and sustainability. Over the past four years, we have supervised approximately 40 projects in this way. Each of these innovative projects is made concrete by linking them to a launching customer. Sometimes there already is one, sometimes not. Then we use our Nebest Studio so that students can make a call to the market. For example, one student developed a method for performing structural inspections on CC2 buildings. This is mandatory for CC3 buildings, not (yet) for CC2 buildings, but more topical than ever with the collapse of part of the parking garage in Nieuwegein. After a video call via our Nebest Studio (well before that incident, by the way), two housing associations came forward to start working with this method. The method has since been validated and incorporated into the policies of these corporations. A great example of practical and impact-oriented education."

Reuse

Thijs Noordhoek is one of the students who caused a furor at Nebest more than two years ago with his research on the high-value reuse of materials in the construction sector. "For reuse in the infrastructure sector, we had already developed a reusability scan at Nebest that mapped the reuse potential of structures, which is now being applied on a large scale in the A9," Van den Berg says. "His dream was to translate that concept to buildings. During his graduation, he developed a similar tool to assess whether the reuse of monolithic and ductile slabs is possible, what the environmental benefits are and what costs are involved. Even after his graduation, he continued to develop and even co-wrote the CROW guideline for the reuse of structural concrete elements, which was festively launched last June 11." For her part, Aniek van Gorkom is working at Nebest on a graduation research project in the field of masonry reuse. "In Zaandam, an architect had thought of using the masonry of four existing buildings to erect a new facade. Not brick by brick, but by taking out complete elements. The practical tests turned out to be extremely successful. On this basis, a guideline was drawn up to stimulate the reuse of masonry. The guideline is now being validated on yet another project. The next step is for CROW to write a specific guideline for this."

With this kind of innovative research you increase the impact of education, Van den Berg believes. "At nine out of ten institutions, research ends up on the shelf, while as an industry we are all struggling with a capacity issue. Therefore, let's better connect business and education by making research central. That leads to more synergy, tangible results and knowledge development. In this way we have already added many new, enthusiastic and valuable colleagues and knowledge to our organization."