Tienen (The Brussels Morning Newspaper): Campus manager Elfriede Kempeneers celebrates 40 years in adult education, unveiling a transformed tax office into an interactive learning space designed for modern teaching methods.
Campus manager Elfriede Kempeneers is proud of her 40-year career in adult education and is excited about their new teaching location, which used to be a tax office but has been transformed into a dedicated educational space. The building has been rented and completely renovated to meet the needs of modern adult education, with a layout designed to support interactive and flexible teaching methods. Walls were moved and spaces were reimagined to encourage group work, digital learning, and various teaching styles, ensuring that every area contributes to a positive learning environment.
How is Tienen transforming adult education for the future?
It has been said that modern adult education is very different from traditional methods, which usually focused on strict lectures. To adapt to this change, the renovations included features that support more active and student-focused learning. Classrooms now have advanced technology, flexible furniture and areas designed to encourage teamwork and interaction among students. The changes show that education is changing. Learning isn’t just about sitting in rows of desks anymore. The new design makes the space friendly and flexible for different kinds of adult learners. Now the building is not just for learning it’s also a community center that helps people keep learning throughout their lives. Kempeneers thinks this change is not just about making the space better, but also about how adult education has improved over the years and that makes it special.
Kempeneers mentioned that adult education is getting popular and we offer many different courses like technical training, language classes, and Dutch for non-native speakers. We also help people get their secondary education diploma, including a new course for bicycle technicians, which is a needed job. We work with the city of Tienen and train over 1,000 students each year, with some courses having waiting lists. Even though there are not enough teachers, we usually find the 400 teachers we need. The new building is great for everyone, located just a 10-minute walk from Tienen station, and there’s free parking for 4 hours right outside.
