For over 15 years, the zdi centre BeST has been inspiring pupils from all secondary schools from year 7 onwards to consider careers and courses of study in the STEM sector (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). In the affiliated student laboratories, such as the "BeLL Bio", "GeoIT" and the "zdi neighbourhood laboratory", participants have the opportunity to carry out exciting experiments with an everyday relevance and get to know modern technologies and methods in a practical way. Under professional supervision, they gain valuable insights into scientific and technical careers and STEM-related degree programmes. The proportion of girls in the voluntary and free BeST courses is consistently between 48 and 52 per cent. A total of over 1,200 pupils take part in the programmes every year.

Centre Coordinator Sarah-Lena Debus is delighted: "The renewed funding means a great deal to us, as it enables us to continue to get pupils in the Bergisch city-triangle interested in STEM subjects. With innovative course topics such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics and virtual reality, we bring them closer to the technologies of tomorrow. We are particularly pleased that we are constantly forging new partnerships and are able to recruit specialists and lecturers for our programme both within the university and externally."

The Bergisches Schultechnikum is part of the "Future through Innovation.NRW" initiative and is organised by the university of Wuppertal. It is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW and the Federal Employment Agency.