Nobody sails (or flies) well without partners. Dutch Drone Academy has been fortunate to be able to enter into some very successful partnerships in recent years, from which a lot of value has been added.
ROC van Amsterdam
ROC Amsterdam, a leading vocational training college, is one of our key partners for developing UAS technology learning materials. In 2017 the Dutch Drone Academy and ROC Amsterdam jointly developed a textbook for this subject. This lead to more extensive cooperation and, in 2019, the conclusion of an exclusive, four-year agreement about developing a full MBO vocational training course for uncrewed aviation in Europe. Without the efforts of ROC Amsterdam, UAS technology would not have gained the prominence in MBO education which it currently has. ROC Amsterdam and the Dutch Drone Academy are planning several large scale events. These include a national MBO Drone Challenge for students, and a Dutch Drone Day for the MBO sector with UAS-related workshops at the college, UAS assignments, and lectures by leaders in the sector.
EFRO
We were recently awarded a European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grant to help us develop MBO teaching/learning materials for the professional and safe deployment of uncrewed aviation. This grant has enabled us to realise our plans more quickly and better and to a better standard, and be fully prepared for the European legislation and regulations introduced in 2020.
ROC Friesepoort
In 2016 Friesepoort was the first MBO college in its region to start working with UAS applications. They worked with the Dutch Drone Academy to realise this. Friesepoort inspired us to start developing MBO UAS textbooks and digital learning environments. The Dutch Drone Academy worked with Friesepoort to develop the DroneBeeld (Drone image) textbook, covering this elective subject of their UAS course. We consider this to be one of our best MBO textbooks, with in-depth coverage of creating and processing images taken with UAS.
In 2020 Friesepoort will probably become the first major user of our MBO DroneBase digital learning environment. This covers all elective subjects relating to UAS, as well as the statutory requirements for uncrewed aviation in Europe, tailored to MBO students. We will continue working with Friesepoort in 2020 to put UAS to work!
