Teacher Hanny Venner on the Field Trip Day
“It’s great when a new colleague gets off to a good start by opening the doors on National Workplace Visit Day”
Hanny Venner, a teacher from Eindhoven, was asked by her sister Ingrid—who worked as an event manager at JobOn—if she’d like to participate in the Career Exploration Day and talk about working in education. She wasn’t exactly eager to do it, but it turned out to be an unexpected success and an unforgettable experience. And on November 16, the National Career Exploration Day will be held again…
The ladies said, “Can we still come by?”
“What I found a bit of a shame was that the networking sessions during the Work Visit Day all had to be held online. It was right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I thought that was a real bummer. But I had said ‘yes’ to my sister—who organized all sorts of things at JobOn with great enthusiasm—so I had to keep my promise. I’d been matched with three women through the website, and they weren’t from the area: one from The Hague, one from Oosterwijk, and one from Amsterdam—I live and work in Eindhoven myself. During our conversations, they’d become so interested in my work as an elementary school teacher that they asked, “When the world opens up again, can we still come visit?” Two of them ended up doing just that.
She quit her job and is now self-employed
They were very interested in my story. I worked in psychiatric nursing until I was forty, and I retrained because I wanted to see some more positive things in life. I was able to explain that retraining was a challenge for me, and that resonated with them because they, too, wanted to make a career move. They were also able to ask questions about what you encounter when you switch to a different field—how do you manage that in your current situation, with money and everything? It was very inspiring for them, and I became more and more enthusiastic as well. Now I also have a therapy dog in my classroom—a project that’s really popular these days. A dog helps the children stay calmer because they don’t want to overstimulate the dog, and there are children who share their secrets and little sorrows with the dog or want him to listen while they practice a presentation. One of the women was really drawn to that project; the other wanted to go into teaching, but specifically at the high school level. “Because, you know, third-graders demand attention all day long, right?” she asked cautiously. I can certainly agree with that. She’s now working toward becoming a certified VMBO teacher. The other one was particularly drawn to coaching—including the work I do with the dog both inside and outside the school—so she quit her job and has now started a coaching program as a freelancer, with the goal of working with dogs, among other things.”
The enthusiastic women made me happy
I took part in the Career Exploration Day because I enjoy talking about my job—I really love what I do. And I was delighted by the enthusiastic women, especially the request from two of them to shadow me for a day. That’s exactly what I did twenty years ago, when I asked my kids’ teacher if I could do an internship a few days a week for a couple of months—just for fun. I knew what it was like from the outside but wanted to be right in the middle of it. I’m still grateful to her for giving me that opportunity because I still enjoy standing in front of the class every day.
Meeting new people is so important
Everyone knows there’s a glaring shortage of teachers. Recruiting new people for this job is so important. People leave, aren’t replaced, and so we often find ourselves filling all kinds of gaps just to keep things running day to day. We should be bringing in new people in a much more systematic way. How? By letting people know that, aside from everything you hear in the news, the profession has a lot of great aspects. And it would be fantastic if, as a result of the Open House, a new colleague were to join the field—not necessarily at my school, but just somewhere in the Netherlands. And it doesn’t matter to me if she ends up teaching at a VMBO school.
Let people really take a look inside your kitchen
I’d recommend that anyone with an interesting job participate in the Workplace Visit Day. I’d also encourage people who work in industries facing a labor shortage to open their doors. Because I think the only way to get people excited about your profession or organization is to really let them see behind the scenes. That way, they’ll see your enthusiasm firsthand, and it gives them a much more realistic picture. You might think, “It sounds really fun to go into healthcare.” But then you go check it out somewhere and think, “Oh no, I don’t like what they’re doing at all.” Well, at least then you can cross it off your list and focus on what you actually do enjoy. And for people looking for work, it’s definitely a good experience—it gives them a chance to see what working life is really like. I truly believe this is beneficial—staying connected to that part of society when you’re job hunting yourself.”