I wrote the article ‘Ieder seconde telt om een plek te bemachtigen in het gelukkigen team’ for OC‑Q Magazine. In this piece, I describe my personal experience standing in the digital queue for the STAP budget. The STAP program was created to encourage people to pursue subjects they were genuinely interested in and to make education more accessible by offering free participation in approved training programmes. Because the initiative became extremely popular, and because the system struggled with recurring technical problems, the STAP budget was eventually discontinued earlier than intended.
I wrote the articles 'Als ondernemer het Stapbudget inzetten' and ‘De toekomst van het STAP‑budget’ for OC‑Q Magazine at the moment when the STAP program was being adjusted and ultimately discontinued earlier than planned. The program ended both because of its overwhelming success and because of persistent technical issues. The STAP budget was originally designed to encourage people to deepen their knowledge in subjects they were genuinely interested in and to make lifelong learning more accessible.