Peter: "My goal is to get people excited about engineering"

Peter Dekens is a practice supervisor within our company school: Alfen Academy. Through his many years of experience in engineering, Peter knows exactly what happens in practice. His job is to convey his enthusiasm for engineering to the students. His goal is to help students take a step forward in their careers and go on a journey of discovery together. 

What makes your profession so special?

‘What makes my profession so special is that every day I get to enthuse young people about the profession I love so much. You put yourself in the shoes of a pupil and learn to understand how they learn things and think about things. It is a voyage of discovery that you embark on with a whole group. I always keep challenging the pupils and hope they develop. Every pupil goes through a different process and I have to deal with that in a creative way. If I get stuck for a moment, we still try to work it out together.’

How do you proceed at the Alfen Academy?
 

‘Apprentices come to us to study electrical engineering at MBO level 2, 3 or 4 on site. An interview takes place to see where the apprentice's enthusiasm lies. It is important to always investigate where someone comes from and what they like. Based on that, we can provide the personalised guidance. It is about making it your own in practice. Every question is a serious question. After all, we have students coming to us from different backgrounds and they also need a different kind of guidance.’

‘Even though Alfen has changed and grown tremendously, I still enjoy my work every day and learn new things. It's still a big journey of discovery,’ Peter indicates. ‘The great thing about being a practice supervisor is that you get to experience the whole trajectory of a student and you see the students dev

What is your role in all this?

‘My role within the Alfen Academy is mainly coaching. As a social person, I find cooperation and an open attitude very important. Everyone should feel welcome to be part of the Alfen Academy. Of course, I sometimes have to be critical, but the student is always number one with me. This not only involves passing on subject-specific knowledge, but also personal development and working within an organisation. All BBL apprentices already know what they want and you are the coaching factor within that’.

Career path before Alfen

Before Peter started as a practice supervisor at Alfen, he worked at IW and Shell in management roles and as a practice instructor, among others. There, he was also already transferring knowledge and assessing and managing people. In 2019, Peter decided to make the move to Alfen to be able to use his passion to inspire students there.

Interested in the BBL track at Alfen?

Would you like to get your mbo diploma at our Alfen Academy? You can! At Alfen's expense. You will work 4.5 days a week and attend school one day a week. In other words, you follow a so-called BBL route. So are you more of a doer? Do you learn best in practice? Then this is your chance!  Contact Ilse Rood, our campus recruiter. You can call, e-mail or WhatsApp her.