10 EDUCATION

TEACHING TOOLS
Many educational establishments use TOPdesk to make lessons more tangible. This lets students experience how a service management application is used in practice, ensuring they are prepared for the job market.

It is becoming more and more common for IT and facilities courses to ask TOPdesk to contribute to the curriculum. TOPdesk wants to contribute to the quality of education, which is why the software is made available for educative use. TOPdesk also designs lesson modules in collaboration with various college courses. As it currently stands, more than three thousand students come into contact with TOPdesk during their education.

install, manage and set up the software themselves. The facilities courses often opt for a SaaS licence. This means that TOPdesk is responsible for the management, but students can still practice using the software.

and manageable. Eggen continues: In addition to guest lectures, TOPdesk also develops lesson modules and course materials. Students work with TOPdesk for a period of ten weeks. This lets us take a closer look at how processes work in a tool like TOPdesk. An example of this is a case in which we have students translate a request for a company car to a request via a tool. They have to figure out for themselves how the process will proceed, who has to approve it, and what it would look like in the tool.

TOPdesk in the classroom

There is a lot of knowledge about the service management field within TOPdesk. Tooling has become an essential part of the IT and Facilities branches. This is why it is more important than ever that students know how a tool like TOPdesk works, and what its added value is. TOPdesk employs qualified and experienced teachers who contribute to TOPdesk for educative use in addition to their daily tasks; they provide lessons and lectures. Topics discussed during lectures include: what is a CAFM system? How does ITIL actually work in a tool? explains Eggen. The teachers at educational establishments sometimes do not have this knowledge themselves, so it is great that they can involve us. During the lectures, we try to make frameworks like ITIL more comprehensible

Educative licences
Many courses discuss IT and work process automation for their specific sector. Raoul Eggen, Education Coordinator for TOPdesk, has been focusing entirely on TOPdesk for educative use for the past two years. He says: We started by making educative licences available to educational establishments. This makes our tool very accessible for use in their courses. Schools can use an educative licence for a SaaS environment or a local installation on their own server. The latter is particularly interesting for IT courses. This lets students

School buildings in TOPdesk

Educational establishments can collaborate with TOPdesk as closely as they wish. Eggen says, For some establishments we have set up the database in such a way that their buildings are in TOPdesk. This makes it much more engaging for the students. We also train teachers and provide lessons for the students. Sometimes we even hold examinations. Other establishments only have us provide training and do the rest themselves.

Text: Milou Snaterse

EDUCATION 11

SHARING KNOWLEDGE IS A WIN-WIN SITUATION

Raoul Eggen Education Coordinator for TOPdesk

DID YOU KNOW: -3,000 STUDENTS A YEAR COmE INTO CONTACT WITH TOPDESK? -TOPDESK GIVES ABOUT 25 GUEST LECTURES pER YEAR? -TOPDESK ALSO TRAINS TEACHERS? -50 EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHmENTS USE TOPDESK? -TOPDESK WRITES LESSON mODULES IN COLLABORATION WITH EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHmENTS? -TOPDESK COLLABORATES WITH A FOUNDATION AND pUBLISHER IN THE EDUCATION FIELD?

Suppliers at school
Not many suppliers dedicate themselves to sharing knowledge with students. The primary reason we started doing this is that we really enjoy it. But we also want to make a useful contribution, explains Eggen. We want to teach the students something that will really help them later. This is why TOPdesk has students use the most recent version of the software. The IT branch in particular faces rapid changes and students need to stay up to date. Todays students are future service desk employees or IT and facilities managers. Eggen would like to pass the following on to other suppliers: No matter your organization. It is a lot of fun to pass knowledge on to students. It is a win-win situation. Students get to know you and have the most up-to-date information. More suppliers should be sharing knowledge.

Want to know more?

For more information about TOPdesk for educational purposes, contact Raoul Eggen via +31 (0)15 270 09 00 or send an email to info@topdesk.com