❯ Harm van Engelen: “For vocational level vacancies the market is difficult. Finding welltrained hands is a challenge for the future.”
Holes Harm van Engelen, managing director of KVE Composites Group, is proud that his company (25 employees) invented induction welding. “This technique saves a lot of holes and thousands of rivets for each aircraft.” Airbus and Boeing are thankful to him. Van Engelen does not believe in the knowledge economy per se. “You always need the manufacturing industry to see whether what you designed can also actually be manufactured. Without the manufacturing industry, innovation is doomed to fail. We must do it together.” Finding highly skilled staff is not a problem for Van Engelen. “For vocational level vacancies the market is difficult. Finding well-trained hands is a challenge for the future.” Van Engelen feels that the Minister for Economic Affairs, Henk Kamp, is on his side. Technology must be given more attention in education, said Kamp in March during his visit to the lightweight materials trade fair (JEC) in Paris. This is the only way companies can continue innovating in the future, and maintaining their position on the world market. Position Kamp: “An interest in technology can already be raised at primary school. Secondary and higher vocational education institutions must work together with companies. This is the only way our manufacturing industry can continue innovating
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and maintaining a position on the world market.” Kamp thinks highly of this part of the so-called Golden Triangle, in which government, business and knowledge institutions work together. According to Van Engelen, KVE Composites Group is an ‘assertive’ company. “The key is to stay ahead of the market. Will we fly from Amsterdam to London for €1 in ten or twenty years? It could be possible. Of course for the passenger that’s very appealing, but the airline must also make money. So the cost must be lower. We’re making a creative and innovative contribution. The bar is set high in terms of technology. This is why we need to make a cluster within the Dutch aerospace industry. We can’t go it alone anymore.”
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