Kim Putters is the director of the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau). He is one of the most prominent thought leaders in the Netherlands. In a recent contribution (together with Lisette Kuyper) to Het Financieele Dagblad (6 June 2020), he underlines the importance to combine policies to cope with the present crisis with the large scale reforms necessary for the future.
The economic effects of the Corona crisis lead to a dramatic increase in unemployment, especially for groups with an already weak position in the labour market. After years of just talking about the necessity of lifelong learning, the need for a massive re-schooling and training programme is now obvious. Educational institutions and companies should use this momentum and develop suitable training programmes and create work-learning places, because a lot can also be learned on the job instead of in schools.
If you ask any of the about 15.000 training institutions in the Netherlands, they would say that such programmes do already exist. A big problem for those in need is that it is difficult to find the right programme, suitable for the individual applicant, which would increase the chances to find a decent new job nearby.
There are many regional initiatives to facilitate such matches. One of them is Brabantleert.nl. The website is sponsored by the regional government, two universities, and a number of companies that offer training programmes. It lists the different courses on offer. This shows that it is not the lack of opportunities that is a problem. It is on the contrary the flood of possible courses which forms a barrier. It needs a specialist in this highly intransparent market to identify a suitable programme that would really advance an individual’s career. Much more should be invested in intelligent match-making, rather than in the development of additional courses.
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