We’re so happy to welcome Ulrich Petré as UQ Masterclass Partner! He’s a thought leader, learning expert and keynote speaker on digital awareness, digital inclusion, digital skills, cybersecurity and so much more. As the founder of PUVA coaching & consultancy, he wrote 2 Dutch ebooks about ‘Cybersafe in 30 days’ and ‘The superpowers of learning appetite’. With over 20 years of experience in digitalisation and training, Ulrich has always been passionate about people: how people can use technology to their advantage, how they can safely be a part of the digitising society and how digitalisation helps them to build a sustainable career. It’s his mission to make digital technologies understandable for everyone.
What can you expect from Ulrich?
Ulrich doesn’t only approach digitalisation from a technological perspective. According to him, the combination of a robust toolset, strong skill set and a learn-it-all mindset is the key to a successful career, a valuable life and an agile organisation.
He will provide inspirational sessions about how you, as a person or organisation, can choose between either responding ad hoc to events and allowing others to lead your life or business, or you can take ownership of your life and business and prepare it for the near future.
A handful of unique, practical content will soon be available in our UQ coach and Teach on Mars apps! Furthermore, you can expect blended training programmes tailor-made to your organisation. This way, you can benefit even more from what he has to offer!
What is the importance of digitalisation?
Our current society is changing rapidly. Many societal challenges are facing us at the same time. Just think of climate change, the war on talent, the many migration flows (due to war, climate or economy), the economic recession, and many others. Digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, digital twins, internet of things and 3D printing play a key role in solving these challenges. Digitalization also brings new challenges: privacy, cybercrime, FOMO, etc…
How we tackle these societal and digital challenges will determine what our future and that of our (grand)children will look like. One thing is already certain: we are evolving towards a new (digital) society. This new digital society requires a fundamental shift in our approach, in our tools, skills and way of thinking.
What is ‘Leergoesting’(Learning appetite) to you?
Learning appetite is much more than the sense or desire to learn. It’s about using your brain effectively and efficiently to grow and adapt your skills to remain employable throughout your career in this changing (digital) society. This goes beyond (re)reading, highlighting, underlining and remembering a text. Learning appetite leads the following effects:
- You have more ownership of your own career and life
- You have more(mental) resilience
- It ensures less stress and more self-confidence
- It’s agility that allows you to look beyond your comfort zone
- You have more in-depth expertise or serial mastery in various domains.
What made you decide to go into your field of expertise?
Throughout my career I have seen the positive and negative impact of digital technologies on people and organisations. I’ve also learned valuable lessons from the many good and bad examples that’ve crossed my path. A bad approach to digitalisation always has negative consequences for employees, customers, users and citizens. But, by not only looking at the tools, and also adjusting your way of thinking and acting, you can ensure that you minimise these negative consequences. And so you can unleash the full power of digitalisation and enrich your life or business.
Do you want to know more about him?
Ulrich lives and breaths digitalisation, but in his free time, you can always find him being creative. He’s an amazing artist, who draws a lot of his own visuals, makes visual representations of training courses he takes and visualises his monthly goals beautifully. Furthermore, he loves to play theatre and goes to the gym at least twice a week. And of course, he loves to spend time with his family.
Some fun facts about Ulrich
- Mentally, I’m 6 years old. The older you get, the more your curiosity is unlearned. And I don’t want that. Give me the curiosity of a six-year-old who is fully engaged in discovering the world.
- My hero is Tony Stark (aka Iron Man). He has a genius level intellect which can outsmart anyone in the Marvel universe. But most of all, he changes the world because he learns and becomes exceptional in things that he loves. And he loves technology and science just like me.
- When I grew up, I wanted to be a cartoonist. When I was a kid I read loads of comic books (Suske & Wiske, De Blauwbloezen, Nero, Tintin, etc…). In my weekends and holidays, I was constantly busy drawing my own comic books. My own comic book heroes Rik & co experienced the wildest adventures: from a treasure hunt with the Romans to winning the Champions League in football.
- If I had an hour extra per day, I would do 2 things: read even more books and spend even more time with my family.
