Collaboration Between Neighbours: High Tech Campus And Helicon School Of Eindhoven

Walking from one to another will take about a minute. High Tech Campus and Helicon School of Eindhoven are only a stone’s throw away from each other. In 2014 that led to a first collaboration between the two. “Now, we would like to pursue an even more stable and durable way of working together.”It started with a fairly simple project in 2014. Students at Helicon lend a hand to Campus gardeners to keep up on the groundwork needed. This way, the students could learn by doing and Campus Sitemanagement found a solution to a volunteering-problem.

We would like to take the next step in a durable collaboration that’s been build up so far.

Soon, one collaboration led to another, with a benefit for both parties. Per example: Helicon could use the Frits Philips sportbos for free, saving them up to 2000 euro per year in renting a sports facillity. In return, the option of the canpus using Helicons gym free of charge, for their karate-lessons  is now being discussed.

Mountainbikechallenge
Kay Weijtens is a Outdoor & Adventure teacher at Helicon and has been involved in the collaboration since its beginning.  According to Weijtens, working with Campus Site Management is surprisingly efficient. “There are over 140 companies and institutes on campus terrain, but we deal with a small group of people. If there’s an idea, most of the time, there’s a way.”

Weijtens says one of the best examples of a project between the two is the  Mountainbikechallenge. “Our involvement started out small”, Weijtens says. “Our students helped out with creating the course and were guiding the participants throughout the race.” This was two years ago.

“By now, we have taken part of the responsibility in marketing the challenge, making sure there are enough participants and have been talking to sponsors. We now help in the complete process, from setting a route to cleaning up afterwards.”

Next step
Now the school is looking for a more durable way of working together. Which will allow Helicon to spend more time on campus. More on this will be made public later. “We would like to take a step towards an even more durable collaboration between us and our friendly neighbours.”