Kick-off Co/Lab: Tech Talent Unlocked

Some time ago, we published an Open Call looking for designers who want to spark young people’s enthusiasm for technology. The number of young people choosing a technical education is still lagging behind, and Stichting Jeugd & Beroep is keen to change that.

In this lab, we are working with designers Mariska Lamiaud (nojoke studio), Denise Huigen, Tim van der Grinten (Enversed Studio) and Jolie Smets (Enversed Studio). Below is an introduction to who they are, what they stand for and why they are working on this Co/Lab.

Mariska Lamiaud (nojoke studio) and Denise Huigen

Within this Co/Lab, Mariska Lamiaud and Denise Huigen want to bring together their shared drive to make complex themes accessible to young people. Where Mariska develops playful, visual and clearly communicated experiences through Nojoke Studio, Denise finds her strength in working with children and young people in educational environments. “Although we both work more in the creative sector than in technology, we share values around talent development, stimulating intrinsic motivation and making a subject accessible to those for whom it is not self-evident.”

They are both looking forward to this Co/Lab, which they believe does not start with technology itself, but with the motivation, curiosity and lived world of young people. “There are many factors involved in choosing a field of study, and that is exactly what we want to explore during the first phase of this Co/Lab.”

Denise brings years of experience from De Ontdekfabriek, where she developed and delivered countless workshops and helped shape projects such as De Uitvinders en de Quantum Code and Young Creatives. As a social and educational designer, she has developed various workshops and projects for children around themes such as consent and talent development, and has built a network of partner schools in the Eindhoven region. As a dance and drama teacher at De Kempel, she enables future teachers to experience how play and creative methods can create rich learning environments in which children learn through play and exploration, discovering themselves and the world around them.

Through her social design practice Nojoke Studio, Mariska works on projects for a wide range of audiences, including children. One example is Rule&Play, a game that allows children to experience and understand the basic mechanisms of politics and encourages them to exchange ideas and opinions. The aim of every project is to make participants feel genuinely heard and to help them realise that their voice and perspective matter. Alongside her work at Nojoke Studio, she teaches at the Design Academy Eindhoven and is a co-founder of Waste Welcome, where she initiates workshops for children and teenagers around plastic recycling.

Within this Co/Lab, they are keen to give young people a voice themselves: what really sparks their interest, and why do some disengage from everything labelled as ‘technology’? They want to use new forms of co-creation and participatory research to gather these insights. Their ambition is to develop a playful, educational and sustainably deployable concept that invites young people to discover their talents, build self-confidence and feel seen, even when they choose paths outside the beaten track.

Design power plays a central role in this. It is the ability to question systems, collect stories and open up new perspectives. For Mariska and Denise, design is a way to create space where stuck narratives can shift. Sometimes planting a single new seed is enough to make a difference.

Tim van der Grinten and Jolie Smets (Enversed Studio)

For Tim van der Grinten and Jolie Smets, this Co/Lab closely aligns with what drives Enversed Studio: working on societal challenges at the intersection of education, technology and experience. From the immersive experience centre on Strijp-S, the team sees every day how people of all generations discover the possibilities of innovative technology. “That gives us a strong affinity with the target group of this Co/Lab and with human interaction.” This experience fuels Enversed Studio’s connection to both the audience and the questions central to this Co/Lab.

At Enversed Studio, Tim and Jolie develop interactive solutions for science centres, educational environments and training programmes, ranging from VR applications and serious games to web apps and physical tools. Young audiences often play a key role in this work. It is precisely the combination of playfulness, learning and imagination that makes this trajectory resonate with them. As Jolie explains, “Interactivity, playfulness and education are central to my work. The combination of creativity, social impact and substantive depth really appeals to me.”

Their shared interest lies in understanding motivation and choice. Drawing on his experience with interactive concepts, Tim looks at how young people can be engaged and activated in a playful way, while Jolie focuses specifically on behavioural change through games. They want to explore not only what young people choose, but especially why they make certain choices and which factors influence them. The local context adds an extra layer of meaning: working on a challenge connected to High Tech Helmond feels personal to Jolie, as she grew up there.

Tim and Jolie are looking forward to exploring new forms of research and design together with young people, particularly at the intersection of the social and digital domains. Through co-creation, they want to use playful techniques that help young people shape their own paths beyond standard options. Tim brings the ambition to develop a scalable concept, analysing the ‘customer journey’ of young people to identify where the greatest impact can be made. Data, AI and gamification are seen as possible building blocks to strengthen existing initiatives and create new forms of engagement.

For both of them, the power of design lies in curiosity, connecting perspectives and working closely with the target group. Design can create space to ask questions, make new routes visible and build support, even before a clearly defined solution exists. Jolie emphasises the importance of trust: “I find it important to contribute specifically to strengthening girls’ self-confidence in relation to technology, so they feel supported in choosing paths that are less obvious or less frequently taken.”