Uncovering the future needs for subsurface infrastructure education: designing a roadmap and GPR training

Trends and developments inevitably force industry and business to change. This PDEng focused on the subsurface utility sector, which will have to comply with the revised law on information exchange for aboveground and subsurface infrastructure (WIBON). To comply with the changing law, the precise positioning of both main and house service utility lines must be digitally registered. This has caused operators to initiate activities to map and register the subsurface infrastructure. When speaking to contractors, developers, scientists and governmental parties, it becomes clear that further changes, besides the WIBON law, are expected. Other trends mentioned that are influencing the utility sector include the improved practicality of ground-penetrating radar, the use of Building Information Modelling and the energy transition. Companies are directly influenced by these developments and have to develop strategies to adjust to them. This includes changes in the competences that their employees require. As a result, vocational education needs to also incorporate these technical and societal developments to be able to teach the necessary competences to their students. In order for the ROC van Twente to be able to include the upcoming changes into their educational programs, this PDEng developed a roadmap in which the main developments and their accompanying competencies are described. For the ground-penetrating radar, a development that will be integrated relatively fast, we developed the GPR-training, teaching how to use the GPR to detect underground utilities. With the GPR training and the roadmap the ROC van Twente has the tools in hand to anticipate the education towards the future.