Uitgeversgroep

Streamlining content creation workflows for vocational teachers

Uitgeversgroep is a vocational education publisher delivering study materials for pre-vocational (VMBO), vocational education (MBO) and practical education (PRO).

It was founded in 1991 as de Toerist by Jeroen van Esch – an economics teacher and entrepreneur – to fill a gap in the market for industry-specific teaching resources on tourism. Developing learning content with the support and expertise of a group of teachers, Jeroen created the business philosophy of ‘for and by teachers’.

Renamed ‘Uitgeversgroep’ (The Publishing Group) in 2015, the company later acquired its own printing house and established a production company for producing media content in 2019. Today it works with around 200 teachers to develop learning content. In a move to streamline its publishing workflows and develop a new portal for teachers to share and upload content, Uitgeversgroep teamed up with PublishOne.

“We’re experts in creating content, but not experts in software and digital tools. PublishOne has really taken us by the hand.”

Unlocking learning content for multiple channels

Uitgeversgroep’s core educational content is produced by practicing teachers. It covers a wide range of subjects including mathematics, languages, cooking, retail, care studies and hospitality for learners aged 12 and up. Teachers know the curriculum and their learners better than anyone else, so they’re well-placed to develop the right content for driving and supporting learning.

This business model – practicing teachers creating learning content – sets Uitgeversgroep apart from other publishing houses. It works with a high volume of content creators who are not authors in the traditional sense. The company depends on a network of teachers who mostly produce content in the evenings or at the weekends. For that reason, it had a need for publishing technology which is easy to pick up and use quickly.

At the same, Uitgeversgroep’s publishing model is very traditional. Teachers create learning content in Microsoft Word, which is sent to a designer to put together in Adobe InDesign. The output is a PDF that is published via two channels: in print and online. The idea is to create consistency by ensuring the print and digital versions are the same.

Teachers with a free account get access to digital content and pay a subsidized fee for print versions. Teachers select the course content, then students purchase the content needed for a specific course, which comes in both print and digital formats.

To evolve its output by delivering content in more formats and through more channels, Uitgeversgroep saw the opportunity for a flexible and streamlined solution for handling multichannel distribution. Fortunately, Uitgeversgroep is always on the lookout for technology and innovative ways of working to enhance its publishing workflows. It was a serendipitous meeting at the Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2023, that led them to fellow Netherlanders PublishOne.

“The great thing about PublishOne is that you can create one platform in which all your authors can work… It’s a new platform for authors – but they just plug in Microsoft Word.”

Innovating a new platform for learning content

Teachers are busy people, time is limited, and there’s not much room for learning new digital tools to get the job done.

With PublishOne there’s little to no learning curve. Teachers carry on using Microsoft Word – or their preferred writing tool – from either inside PublishOne itself or in the Microsoft environment itself, which is connected via a seamless add-on with PublishOne.

“PublishOne really thinks along with us, and that’s exactly what we need. There are some smart people behind the scenes! It will make everything easier.”

After a succesful pilot and great collaboration, Uitgeversgroep’s focus is on using PublishOne to enhance the existing publishing workflow for teachers – from creation to publication.

The future vision is for a frontend system – powered by PublishOne – which enables any teacher to create and access content whenever, and wherever they like. From an extra lesson to some additional learning resources – anything necessary for professional teaching practice that’s published within a digital platform.

To discover more about Uitgeversgroep, visit their website: https://www.uitgeversgroep.nl/