Cranford go Dutch

May 2022 saw Cranford’s long-awaited trip to the Netherlands as part of our Erasmus project sharing best practice with high performing vocational education providers across Europe. Sukhjeet Kudhail (Head of IT and Computing), Mudassir Sarwar (Data Manager) and Rob Ind (Joint Head of School) are leading the project from Cranford to support our delivery of the new T levels and sharing our expertise in assessment practices and integration of migrant students with our European neighbours.

Koning Willem I College is a Vocational school primarily for 16-19 year olds. They welcomed us warmly to their college, which is spread over several campuses in the heart of 's-Hertogenbosch, introducing it as its very own country. And with some reason. The college is host to 18,000 students and boasts a hairdressers, theatre and several different restaurants all staffed and run by the students.

With their cutting-edge facilities, UNESCo school status and recent accolade as the most sustainable education institute in Holland, our Dutch partners were the perfect hosts to us and our Norwegian colleagues. We were able to learn about their teaching methods and impressive relationships with the local labour market, as well as observing a coaching session for training social workers and meeting with the teachers in their ICT academy.

Den Bosch is a beautiful medieval city which is the capital of North Brabant. We were lucky enough to explore the town and its surroundings by car, bike, horse, train, canal boat and even rollercoaster (on a backstage tour of the De Efteling theme park) – quite a journey. We can’t wait to go back for the final leg of our project in September 2022.