I have taken several courses at VU University in the past including Economics, the postgraduate Controllers course and Accountancy. I also worked a lot in IT or in financial positions. Because I have recently been moving more and more towards the technological side, I started looking for an education to gain more (scientific) knowledge. Because of my previous education, I already had a lot of business knowledge so that was not what I was looking for. I wanted to specifically increase my theoretical knowledge in the field of technology.

Digital Innovation & Transformation

I found the programme that suited me at the VU, Digital Innovation & Transformation offers knowledge derived from scientific theory and practice-based research around digital transformation and innovation processes. There is a wide variety of topics in the field of IT that are covered, the programme takes you from strategy to implementation of digital innovation. All the material was based on scientific articles that were very often fascinating and sometimes could have been a bit more topical, but either way, the subject came to life in every lecture day.

I experienced the study period as very pleasant, partly because of the many different speakers who were all very good, especially Marijn Plomp. He made everything so light and fun and his guidance was particularly good. Apart from the teaching material and the lecturers, having a group of fellow students was also very nice. Doing the course gives you the opportunity to build a network also with professionals outside your own sector. It is very interesting to learn from people with a different background who look at IT from a different angle.

Practical applicability

Much of what we learned can be easily applied in practice. For example, the programme inspired me to develop a new way of project selection that we will also apply in the care institution where I work. What made the assignment extra fun was that I worked together with someone from another field, an HR professional. Together, we developed a new framework that contributes more to the goals of clients and employees than the old system. I would also definitely recommend future students to do the final assignment with someone from a completely different field. It's challenging at first, but afterwards you actually learn more by sharing knowledge and experiences with each other.

Especially for CIOs or other related positions, Digital Innovation & Transformation is a good choice. The programme ensured that I am up-to-date again in terms of knowledge in the field of technology & digital innovation. In 1 year, I was back on level, both strategically and on the implementation of technological innovations. In short, anyone who wants to be up-to-date again in the digital world with scientific foundation should go for this programme.