Trimble Connect Gives Students Real World Experience

Trimble Connect is an open collaboration tool that connects the right people to the right data at the right time. Find out how a vocational school in the Netherlands is taking advantage of its capabilities to bring construction projects to life for students.

Trimble Connect is finding its way into more and more educational institutions. Trimble designed the application to help construction project teams share information from 3D building information models (BIMs).

Project stakeholders using Trimble Connect can refer to project data using their mobile devices at any time of the day or night from anywhere in the world. At the same time, teachers are finding that Trimble Connect can be an excellent educational tool for students learning the construction trades.

Educators view Trimble Connect as an industry relevant software tool that provides up-to-date hands-on experiences for students. The practical skills they gain can be invaluable for entering the job market or to prepare for more advanced studies.

Presents Course Material in Engaging and Relatable Way

That’s why the teaching program at ROC Friese Poort in Leeuwaren, the Netherlands, has adopted Trimble Connect to help put theory into practice and present course material in an engaging and relatable way for students.

For example, one class recently took a field trip to one of construction company Friso Bouwgroep’s building sites. Carpentry student Jurgen de Boer, said, “I was surprised how easy it is to use Trimble Connect.”

“The great thing is that, when we went back to school, Trimble Connect was used to easily combine the entire 3D BIM story of Friso with the practical assignments,” ROC Friese Poort teacher Theo van der Veen said. “From creating designs in 3D to searching for assignments, it is all very accessible in Trimble Connect.”

Doing assignments using Trimble Connect gives students a new perspective on how companies like Friso manage projects in today’s construction industry. “This way, the students experience a great combination between digital construction, practical learning and also visualizing it,” Van der Veen said. “Placing it in 3D, looking up the assignments, all very accessible.”

As a collaboration application, Trimble Connect also facilitated class participation and student collaboration. “They can view it all, also learn from each other,” Van der Veen explained. Trimble Connect proved to be a highly effective tool for integrating digital building, practical learning and site visualization.

Friso employees enjoy supporting the field trips and partnering with the school. They find it a meaningful way to share how compelling and awe-inspiring real-life construction work can be.

‘How the Process Works on a Construction Site’

“I really like that students come to the construction site, we’ve had them a few times now,” said Foreman Jappe Zweed. “It’s great that we can teach students more about how the process works on a construction site. Also, because we really need people in this sector.”

De Boer was one of the students who visited the Friso construction site. “I got a case from school. In this case, it was very difficult to see how a part was put together in the 2D drawing,” he explained. “That’s why I made a 3D drawing of the 2D drawing, which I sent to the HoloLens.”

“This made it possible to view the assignment in 3D and therefore also how the entire project was put together,” De Boer said. “You can easily place a model via the HoloLens and then you can place it in front of you. Trimble Connect is actually very easy to use that way.”

“What we want to do with ‘digital’ is to make the invisible visible,” Roeland Westra, Project Manager of ROC Friese Poort’s Centre for Sustainability said. “We take our students on sustainable adventures, which means that they can experience, discover and do.”

ROC Friese Poort provides various levels of vocational training, so practical experience is an essential goal for their programs. One key skill the school’s programs work to instill is how to read and apply installation and construction drawings.

“Not every student can read a drawing directly from the first moment they see it,” Westra explained. “That’s why they make drawings visible with an external layout, so they can really imagine how the model would look like.”

“Then you also get a nice collaboration between courses,” Van der Veen added. “We can each take a look behind the scenes, what do these other courses do in practice? And it is also a stepping stone towards BIM.”

“Because basically where construction companies are going is sharing drawings, viewing together, sharing information” Van der Veen said. “And it’s all going through the same platform, so it’s just a win-win situation.”

Van der Veen concluded by explaining how BIM products like Trimble Connect are transforming the construction industry. “Basically, construction companies are using the possibilities to share drawings, look at projects together and share information all through the same platform. By working this way, it’s a win-win situation, for all parties involved.”

BuildingPoint Can Help

Just as Trimble Connect is helping students and teachers interact and collaborate, your company can also take advantage of Trimble’s open collaboration application to streamline construction processes, improve stakeholder communication and deliver more effective overall project management.

Whether your business is an architectural practice, an engineering firm, a pre-fabricator, a general contractor or a sub-contractor, BuildingPoint is committed to a BIM process that all stakeholders can use at any phase of the design, build and operate lifecycle of any structure.

Why not contact BuildingPoint today to discuss how the Trimble Connect solutions we offer can help your business deliver construction projects more accurately, efficiently and profitably?