Major-Minor
Education is precision work. Therefore, in our study programme, you can progressively make your own choices, as it has been set up to cater for flexibility. In addition to a main subject, the Major, you can work on at least one elective subject, the Minor, towards the final examination. Minor will allow you to add particular aspects of interest to your study programme and will add depth to your personal profile. You can choose a Minor that will be complementary to the branch in which you intend to work, or a Minor that will allow you to accentuate particular skills. By selecting your Minor wisely, you can also help to distinguish yourself from other individuals. In terms of future employment, this may also help you to illustrate to an employer why you would be the best choice for the position in question. In this way, during the course of your studies, you can give yourself a head start in terms of succeeding in your chosen future profession. At Fontys, you can make your selection from a range of approximately fifty Minors.
For current information regarding the range of Minors at the Fontys University of Applied Sciences, please visit the following website: www.fontys.nl/minors.
Competencies: knowledge – skills – attitude
At Fontys, you will be able to develop your profession-orientated competencies. Competencies are a mix of knowledge, skills and attitude that you will need to have in order to be able to successfully operate in your chosen future profession, which is exactly what it is all about. A good example would be to compare your studies to getting a Driver’s Licence. Getting a Driver’s Licence also means acquiring knowledge (the road rules), learning skills (driving a car) and the development of an appropriate attitude (the manner in which you participate in traffic). Only this combination of knowledge, skills and attitude will adequately prepare you for working in the real world.
Practical management – consistent measurement
For each vocational course, Fontys maintains a competency profile. Such a profile includes a collection of competencies that each student must have mastered by the end of his/her study programme. Each profile is established in cooperation with business professionals and is tested on the basis of the standards required in the professional world. After all, such professionals know better than anyone else what it is that you will need to be equipped with in terms of knowledge, skills and attitude. A performance indicator is associated with each separate competency, which will allow you to regularly check (and test) how much progress you have made in acquiring the competencies required to successfully operate in your chosen future profession.
Portfolio – showing what you are worth
During the course of your studies, there will be many different ways in which you will be able to prove that you are gaining the required competencies, such as via examinations, project assignments, your internship and through extracurricular activities that you undertake, that are of relevance to your chosen future profession. You will be required to document a record of all such activities in a digital portfolio. This portfolio will provide you with a means of showing what you are worth and also, of illustrating the specific qualities that you will have gradually attained. Your portfolio will also form the basis of a convincing CV with which you will be able to display to future employers that you are ready for professional practice.
Focussed individual guidance
During the course of your studies, you will have a personal guide, your Study Career Advisor, or SCA (studieloopbaanbegeleider, or SLB). He or she will be aware of your strengths and weaknesses, will give you focussed personal attention and will actively monitor you and your study progress. You could not wish for a better guide! On four occasions during the first year of your studies, together with your SCA, you will be required to determine your working schedule for the ensuing period. This will be the ideal way for you to direct the evolution of your studies at Fontys.
Study progress – knowing how you are progressing
Of course, certainly at the beginning of your studies, you will want to know if you are on the right course. Therefore, Fontys has established a clear progress system. On four occasions during the first year of your studies, you will receive an advisory report to inform you if you are ‘progressing satisfactorily’, ‘beginning to fall behind in your studies’, ‘considerably behind in your studies’ (reason for concern), or ‘seriously behind in your studies’ (extremely concerning). Such clear advice will provide you with vital information so that you can determine the precise areas on which you will need to focus during your first year.
Assessment – putting it to the test
Later in your studies, you will also have the opportunity to test your personal development when you take an examination, armed with your well-filled portfolio. Each examination will be an assessment in which you will be able to simultaneously show your knowledge, skills and attitude. The purpose will be to objectively and consistently test the effects of the learning process. During each assessment, you will be able to show that you are ready to take the next step and you will be awarded with the credits that you have thus far attained. For the total study programme of one Major and two Minors, it is possible to attain a Bachelor’s degree comprising a maximum of 240 credits.