1-on-1 with the Education Rebels, part III: Michel Visser of Konnektid and Ruben Timmerman from Springest
At Professional Rebel we believe that education can change and empower people and organizations, but only if you’re willing to think outside of the box. In collaboration with the Amsterdam Economic Board we talked to rebels in education about their thoughts on the future in this three-piece series.
Springest and Konnektid are two companies that both provide a platform for teaching and learning, from people next door to professionals in the classroom. We caught up with Michel Visser and Ruben Timmerman to find out how they help people get the skills and tools they need.
Michel Visser, Founder, Konnektid
What does Konnektid do?
“Konnektid is a website which enables you to transform your neighborhood into a university, by allowing you to tap into all the knowledge of neighbors, professional teachers and institutions around you. We believe everyone has a skill worth sharing. Everyone that subscribes to the platform is both a student and a teacher.”
Why was Konnektid created?
Four years ago when Michel was a professional actor he overheard a conversation between two friends on a tram that inspired him to start Konnektid: “I found out they just had a job interview and were both rejected due to a bad presentation they did.’
“I thought, ‘Why didn’t these guys come to me and ask, ‘Michel, can you teach us something about presenting, about storytelling’. I found it crazy that these people live in the same neighborhood as me, but are unable to access all the social capital around them.”
How do you envision the future of education?
“In 10 years time I don’t believe people will follow four to eight year-long bachelor or masters programs. We’re going to move towards a system where you build your own education that doesn’t stop after you finish university.’
Michel adds that the traditional school system has to change: “Research shows that 80 per cent of the skills you use in your career you didn’t learn in school. So why do we send our kids to school until 25 for most of their waking lives?”
In which areas do you think we’ll see the biggest changes?
“The skills people need are going to change. That’s why I am a big fan of putting a subject in school called failure. Teaching people to learn how to fail is really valuable. It teaches you to experiment, develop and to quickly adjust.’
“There’s a school called Tim Draper University, where they score based on ultimate failure or ultimate success. If you’re really successful then you probably failed a lot and did something well and if you fail really hard then you also get a good score because you experiment.”
If you were in charge of education what is one change that you would make?
“I would kill off the Dutch system where we are put into classes of havo, mavo or vwo. I would also like to give the students more ownership of their curriculum. With our current system we’ve shaped people and their mentality.’
“Why do we put people of the same age in the same classroom for example? We place 30 people of 18 to 19 in one class and we give them the same subjects and assume that these people develop in the same way. That’s not how it works.”
In what way would you say your education prepared you?
“Going to drama school really prepared me to be an entrepreneur. Rehearsing a theatre play is a lot like building a startup. You sit with talented people in a room and say, ‘ok I want to build this performance’ and are excited about this good idea. Then you do sprints where you rehearse one week and invite a few people to look at it. They might say, ‘Oh, we don’t like it’, similar to an iteration. Finally, you have the premier, which is the first launch of the product.’
“I’m actually preparing a keynote called the Dramaturgy of the Startup where I explain how startups work using Hamlet.”
Ruben Timmerman, 36, Founder, Springest
What does Springest do?
“We’re an online marketplace for education and learning. Anything you can learn from as a professional you can find on Springest, from full time MBAs, bachelors and masters to e-learning and e-books to trainers, coaches and events.”
Why was Springest created?
“Seven years ago I was looking for training, because I wanted to be a better coach. I was frustrated, because there was no one place to find them all. If you searched for a hotel you would find eight comparison sites and two hotels. If you looked for airline tickets you would find six comparison sites and four airlines. In learning there were 10 providers of learning but no comparison site.”
How do you envision the future of education?
“Let’s say learning. Education to me is a very old term that’s connected with universities. That’s not the future for me. The future is a future where everybody learns all the time. It will be much more fluid and connected to what you do. That’s why we focus on what happens when you start work.’
“I didn’t finish my studies and there are many working people that didn’t. I have no doubt that they’re better at their job and more agile than most of the people that enter the workplace from university after being skilled in some archaic skill. It’s not useful anymore to go to a place for four years, to be in the same place all the time.”
In which areas do you think we’ll see the biggest changes?
“The big shift right now is the move from top-down, centralized and managed learning to the employee being in control of his own career and education budget. Companies are slowly realizing that, but learning is still very much a managed thing.”
If you were in charge of education what is one change that you would make?
“Regulators, companies and schools need to let go of the fear that people don’t want to learn. A system is good and structure is good, but they have to let go of the irrational fear of people screwing with the system. People want to develop themselves. They want to be useful to society, to the company or whatever community they’re in. They all want to learn.’
“Even if they are cynical, that’s not who they were before you screwed them up. That’s basically what I always say to organizations. If they are this cynical it’s because you screwed them up, and not because they were cynical in the first place.”
What are your favorite memories of your education?
“My favorite memory is always the last one that had an impact and what pops in my head is how I learn from the way new colleagues develop at Springest. They tend to have a lot of impact right away and they have to be able to deal with that. When you give people some space and you really push them, you say ‘I trust you just do it’ and really show it, then you suddenly see them take off.”
In what way would you say your education prepared you?
“I studied information science for seven years, but I rarely went to the exams because I was busy building another company. I realized that I can learn, and also use and apply stuff without doing the tests. When I stopped studying there was this huge revelation for me, like ‘Wow the company is growing so much faster, I’m learning so much faster’.”
Roald Tjon is our chief reporter. He speaks to professional rebels and shares their stories.
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