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May 13, 2022

How SURF is empowering the Dutch education sector to upskill

As the organization responsible for representing most Dutch higher education institutions, SURF is committed to promoting technology and innovation across its members. With cloud usage on the rise in the education sector, demand for relevant skills has been growing alongside it. To help its members upskill their workforce and ensure this demand is met, SURF has partnered with Microsoft to roll out training sessions aimed at teaching institutions’ IT staff anything from cloud fundamentals to data and AI. The initiative has since blossomed into a wider, greater series of trainings taking place all around the country.

SURF

“This project is clear proof that organizations have a social responsibility to train their staff and help them acquire the skills they need. Lifelong learning truly is a critical part of our sector.” 

Michel Wets, Head of Cloud at SURF, is describing the importance of cloud technology in education and the initiative that’s helping institutions have the right skills for it. 

As a cooperative association representing over 100 educational and research organizations in the Netherlands, SURF strives to encourage the proficient use of technology among its members. It is particularly vocal on the growing importance of cloud computing.  

“I believe that education and research organizations can no longer do without the functionalities that cloud services offer,” he explains. “At the same time, it’s clear that the world moves too fast to allow you to constantly hire new personnel, and many institutions have only just started to warm up to it.” 

To help them meet these demands and prepare for an ever-growing surge in the use of cloud technology in education, SURF has adopted Microsoft’s Enterprise Skills Initiative training program, with the aim to upskill its members on digital solutions. 

The initiative is currently enjoying widespread success across the Netherlands – playing a crucial role in setting the industry up for whatever is next.  

“Institutions across the world are under lots of pressure when it comes to technology,” he adds. “From compliance to security and hybrid learning, cloud computing is becoming fundamental for their operations.

“Making sure that they’re ready for it is key to their present and future prospects.”

A deeply rooted organization dedicated to innovating education

Founded in 1987, SURF works with more than 100 Dutch institutions from five different education areas – ranging from universities to colleges of higher education, research institutions and medical schools – to implement and develop ICT innovations. 

For Michel Wets and his colleague Wim van Vliet, this doesn’t just mean promoting the latest digital solutions, but rather strengthening local institutions’ tech posture and enabling meaningful change. 

“The beauty of the community we’ve built with SURF is that it’s the perfect breeding ground for collaboration,” says van Vliet, who is Azure Specialist and Training Lead] at SURF. “We play a tremendously important role when it comes to bringing new software skills to our members, facilitating innovation and knowledge-sharing in matters of technology, software and more.”

It was while pursuing this very goal that, in 2017, SURF identified a growing skills gap among their members related to the use of cloud technology – including Microsoft Azure. 

“One of my key roles at SURF is to look 18 months ahead to discover what potential barriers could stand in the way of institutions, preventing them from continuing their digital transformation,” says Wets. “And something we noticed quite early on in 2017 was that many of our members were unsure on the value of the cloud, and did not know how to make the best of it.”

This was something that van Vliet had also noticed during his field trips to different institutions, which entailed speaking to architects, technical consultants, functional consultants and system administrators. 

“Whenever I’d go on my rounds, I could see many technicians being proficient using on-prem solutions like Windows server, SQL server and more,” he says. “But when it came to Azure, everyone was still a bit hesitant.

“It was clear that they needed training on it, so we reached out to Microsoft and started planning some courses.”

From selective classes to nation-wide success

Microsoft’s training sessions dedicated to SURF members first started in 2018. They initially involved just a small, selected number of people and focused on Azure fundamentals. 

“The first sessions included people from just five or six of our member universities, who would rotate to host,” says Wim van Vliet. “We were all a bit anxious about it at the beginning, as we didn’t know how they were going to be received.”

Soon enough, however, demand started to pick up. What was initially just a limited set of courses quickly blossomed into a range of various training initiatives that was extended to SURF members, schools in higher education, universities of applied sciences and much more.

“It was like a domino effect,” he continues. “We started out with just a handful of tech experts and never imagined that we would get more than 100 people on board in about a year.”

Reaching for the stars with the ESI program

The popularity of the courses has grown further over the past couple of years, with the arrival of Microsoft’s Enterprise Skills Initiative (ESI). 

“For the first two years, our sessions were typically free and limited to a selected amount of people,” says Wim van Vliet. “But as we kept on growing, there came a moment where we just didn’t have enough physical space to host all our attendees and wanted something more scalable, that could reach even more employees.

“The ESI was the perfect answer to that: a great engine of online training that allowed us to expand, as well as reach new depths with certification.”

When the initiative was first advertised, in September 2020, 50-60 trainees showed interest. Once again, demand has largely exploded since then – reaching approximately 700 people trained. 

Since the start of 2022 alone, the SURF consortium has reached more than 250 employees, recording 12.5 certifications a month and a pass rate of 67%. 

According to van Vliet, the vast selection of courses that the ESI portal offers has played a key role in both attracting new attendees and diversifying demand. “Azure Fundamentals remains the most coveted learning course,” he says. “But it’s also clear that the maturity of cloud usage creates a need for more in-depth trainings. 

“That’s why we’re increasingly moving away from the more foundational skills to more role-based training for architects, or system administrators, such as Microsoft Azure administrator.”

Topics such as data and AI fundamentals and security are becoming more and more in demand. 

“Data has become such a crucial part of institutions that many of our learners are now training in using the Power Platform and Power BI, but also Microsoft’s security and privacy solutions,” he continues. 

“At the same time, we’re receiving increasing interest from workers outside the IT sphere, from teachers and professors to researchers who want to learn more about Microsoft products.” 

Building a community of knowledge sharing

It’s been more than five years since SURF launched its first Microsoft trainings, and the community that has come out of it grows stronger by the day. 

“What worked really well for us was to discuss with Microsoft where the needs of the institutions are at each time,” says Michel Wets. “For example, initially using the cloud was scary and new, but lots of our members found comfort sharing their experiences with each other.  

“They’ve really formed a community that gives them extra support in building their own skillsets and preparing the sector for even more cloud adoption.” 

This, he concludes, is something that will only continue to grow. “I think that the cloud is here to stay,” he says. “Of course, this brings lots of benefits but also some challenges, and it’s up to the institutions to make sure that their workforce is well prepared for both of them. 

“At SURF, we have a role in helping them do it. And I think that the work we’re doing with Microsoft has been exemplary.”

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