The outgoing Flemish Minister of Education, Ben Weyts (N-VA), announced an increase in the budget for the ‘Excellence Fund’ from €1.5 million to €2.2 million.
Established last year, The Excellence Fund encourages ambition in students, particularly those in technical and vocational schools, through school competitions.
While Olympiads and school competitions have existed for a long time, they tend to be fragmented and primarily focus on students from general secondary education. Minister Ben Weyts created the Excellence Fund to organise competitions specifically for technical and vocational students to address this.
Last year, 15 projects were selected, receiving a total of €1.5 million. This year, an independent jury comprising education and labour market specialists chose 19 projects, increasing the budget to €2.2 million, Weyts announced on Wednesday.
Some initiatives that received support last year are poised to become established fixtures. These include ‘Eersteklas’, which aims to interest students in hospitality careers and wood-making skills, a series of challenges for woodworking students.
New programmes include the ‘iCare’ Olympiad, which presents current issues in the healthcare sector to young people, and the ‘Lego League Challenge’, where STEM students can design and programme Lego robots.
