Are you ready to make a difference in the youth care sector? Come and join the Digital Technology and Education research group at the Freudenthal Institute. We are offering a 3-year Postdoc position in technology-enhanced workplace learning in youth care. This position is part of the NWA project "Doing what works for children – New approaches for (future) professionals in Dutch youth care", and aims to improve the quality of youth care.

Your job
The emergence of technology-enhanced (online) learning is significantly expanding the possibilities for workplace learning. Technology-enhanced (online) learning offers a wide range of flexible and personalised opportunities for employees to learn online, on the job, in their own time, at their own pace, and according to their own needs. Furthermore, online technology is creating increasing opportunities to reinforce workplace learning. For example, it allows information in the workplace to be readily available at the right time, facilitates feedback during the work process, encourages exchanges with colleagues, and offers real-life simulations of work situations for practice. These modes of online learning have the potential to enhance professionals’ learning in Dutch youth care.

The role of Utrecht University within the NWA project is to adapt existing technical applications for technology-enhanced learning in youth care and to develop new methods of technology-enhanced learning for situations where no solutions are currently available. For this, we will collaborate with researchers from various project partners. The Postdoc will contribute to:

• Creating an overview and studying the technology-enhanced ways of learning already used by youth care workers from different organisations;
• Identifying or integrating components, and designing, coordinating, and supervising the development of new components;
• Evaluating the new solutions;
• Coordinating the collaboration between the other work packages from the NWA project that are working on learning interventions and practical implementations.

You have:

• a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Data Science, Information Science, or a related area (or are near completion). Candidates with a background in educational sciences and a strong technical profile are also encouraged to apply;
• a strong interest in conducting research in the area of technology-enhanced workplace learning for youth care;
• experience with state-of-the-art technologies for technology-enhanced learning;
• experience in interacting with stakeholders and end-users to understand their requirements;
• good communication skills in English, and preferably also in Dutch.

We offer:

• a one year position (0.8 FTE) with - upon positive evaluation - a two-year extension (three years in total);
• a gross monthly salary, depending on experience, between €3.345 and €5.278 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale 10 under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.

In addition to the terms of employment laid down in the CAO NU, Utrecht University has a number of schemes and facilities of its own for employees. This includes schemes facilitating professional development, leave schemes and schemes for sports and cultural activities, as well as discounts on software and other IT products. We also offer access to additional employee benefits through our Terms of Employment Options Model. In this way, we encourage our employees to continue to invest in their growth. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

Universiteit Utrecht

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Working at the Faculty of Science means bringing together inspiring people across disciplines and with a variety of perspectives and backgrounds. The Faculty has six departments: Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Information & Computing Sciences, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Together, we work on excellent research and inspiring education. We do so, driven by curiosity and supported by outstanding infrastructure. Visit us on LinkedIn and discover how you can become part of our community.

You will be part of the Digital Technology and Education group of the Freudenthal Institute of Utrecht University. The position is funded by the NWA project `Doing what works for children - New approaches for (future) professionals in Dutch youth care’. You will closely collaborate with the other project team members from the Freudenthal Institute: Prof. dr. Johan Jeuring and dr. Laura van der Lubbe.

The ‘Doing what works for children` - programme is aimed at realizing workplace learning for professionals in the youth care sector. The goal is to improve the quality of the provided care. The program consists of six parts (work packages) with their own project leaders and implementers. A broad consortium of researchers, developers and experts from five universities of applied sciences, four universities and various youth care and patients organizations are involved in the programme.