All-New Bentley Education Program Aims to Empower Students, Bolster Infrastructure Industry

Education has always been a big part of Bentley Systems. Through the Bentley Institute Academic Program and the STUDENTserver, Bentley has provided resources for academia, including software licenses to students and educators from schools subscribed to Bentley Institute’s Academic Program. Now, the company has made it even easier for students and educators with the all-new Bentley Education Program, accessible through a new portal at education.bentley.com.

Not only does the program offer students and academia access to Bentley software and learning licenses at no cost with the simple click of a download, but the new portal is also full of helpful resources such as career tips, quizzes to test users’ knowledge about infrastructure, news on emerging trends to help users stay up to date and much more. Plus, students can partake in Bentley’s new Future Infrastructure Star Challenge 2021, where the winner will be announced at Bentley’s annual Year in Infrastructure Conference.

The Bentley Education program is open to students and educators at community colleges, universities, technical institutes, polytechnics and secondary schools, as well as homeschooled students. The program aims to build a talent pool of qualified professionals and encourage careers in infrastructure, and to equip those who are currently pursuing engineering, architecture, and construction (AEC) fields with the resources they need to succeed.

Before we get into the specifics of the new Bentley Education Program, let’s see what Bentley had to say. We spoke to Katriona Lord-Levins, chief success officer at Bentley Systems, and Vinayak Trivedi, vice president of Bentley Education at Bentley Systems, to learn more about the program.

When asked what led to the new program, Lord-Levins said, “Education has always existed at Bentley. It's been an important part of the [Bentley] brothers’ thinking around learning and training, and what we’ve done is redoubled our focus this past year. A lot of it is to address the industry-wide problem of an increasing skills gap and the widening disconnect between industry and academia.”

“We’re trying to accelerate that change and extend our commitment, removing barriers for technology adoption and introducing the complimentary software for students in education and institutes,” she added. “We’re hoping that this will help our students to develop the critical digital skills to support that talent pipeline and somehow bolster the infrastructure growth worldwide.”

Trivedi agreed that education is nothing new at Bentley. “We have always had education at Bentley. We work with 3,000 schools and the single biggest request we get is ‘remove the barrier of adopting technology.”

And Bentley has done just that, removing the barriers to accessing its software. While you don’t have to register to access the portal, you must do so to access the software, which you can then download with the click of a button.

Trivedi said that previously, in order to access Bentley software, people had to be part of the Bentley Academic Select Program. Now with the Bentley Education Program, it’s much simpler to access the software through the new portal.

Through the new program, Bentley is currently offering full access to learning licenses for 40 of its most widely used industry solutions—all for free. Available software solutions include ContextCapture, MicroStation, OpenRoads Designer, STAAD.Pro and SYNCHRO. Other solutions may be added later if there is a demand for more, said Trivedi.

In addition to getting their hands on best-in-class software solutions, those registering can reap all the benefits on the portal. A few things we noticed after creating our own login was that your personal profile/dashboard is listed on the left side where you can add your picture, and it lists the certificates you’ve completed. In addition, it tracks your bookmarks and “Likes.”

Bentley designed the portal with students in mind and wanted to make it fun and frictionless—and, you know, easy!

Trivedi, who’s been with Bentley since 1996, said that based on his experience, students want several things. They want to learn, and they want “just-in-time learning,” when they need it, and the portal does just that with on-demand access available 24/7.

Not only do students want to learn; they also want to share, noted Trivedi. For instance, while they’re learning, they are also building their resumes, multi-tasking and doing several things. “One, I want to share because I learned something and maybe grabbed a badge of recognition or certificate and I want to share that with my peers. The second is they want to connect with their peers. And the third is what is the outcome—is this something I can also share or [that might] benefit me with my potential employer?”

The portal does all the above and has several features to keep students engaged and build their skills. It engages students by offering career tips like the dos and don’ts when applying for a job. You can even interview an infrastructure expert through the portal.

It also features an informative thread on the latest news and trends, such as artificial intelligence, digital twins and more, so that visitors to the site can stay up to date on what’s happening in the industry. For instance, some of the trending news reads, “These top 21 projects are making headlines in 2021.” The site also has videos on how Bentley software is being used in real-life projects and examples of student-designed projects, such as “How students from Liverpool are designing future homes.”

Learning options are in abundance on the portal. There are self-learning courses that you can sort by field of study, software and career type, in addition to tutorials on how to use Bentley software. You can scroll down to find leaning options or click the Get Training tab on the top menu bar.

Visitors to the site will also notice the Quizzes section featuring “fun” quizzes where participants can test their knowledge on architects and famous structures. I was skeptical when Trivedi mentioned fun quizzes, but he was right! I took the “How well do you know famous structures” quiz and it was fun—until I got my score, that is. Oh, well. It only made me want to learn more and I’ve found myself wanting to take the quiz daily.

As far as connecting to others, there are many opportunities for participants—both educators and students—to connect with peers by just clicking the Get Connected tab. The Best Bentley Students Community is packed with fun activities, such as making a video to introduce yourself, making a song about infrastructure like Bentley’s chief communications officer Chris Barron or even participating in a dance challenge and learning dance choreography (my personal favorite).

“All of these things will attract them to the portal, keep them engaged and possibly keep them coming,” commented Trivedi. “That’s how we want to empower them, among many other things.”

Not only is Bentley introducing the new program, but the company is also offering students an opportunity to explore their creativity and win up to $5,000 through its Future Infrastructure Star Challenge 2021.

The Future Infrastructure Star Challenge 2021 will consist of two stages, a conceptual stage and a design and visualization stage. Students can submit their ideas for the next big infrastructure project during the conceptualization phase in the following categories: building and facilities, road and rail, water and wastewater, cities and mapping, and power generation. The idea must demonstrate how to solve an environmental challenge that hinders infrastructure development, as well as consider how to use the Internet of Things and contribute to the world’s health and welfare.