Jobless people without a basic qualification

• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• Response of the State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, and the management boards of the Centre for Work and Income and the Employment Insurance Agency

In 2006, the Court of Audit conducted a study of central goverment policy that aims to give jobless people without a basic qualification better prospects of finding a job.

Unemployment among poorly qualified people has been a problem in the Netherlands for some time now. The current economic climate has brought this issue back into the news; there are now even more reasons and opportunities to tackle the problem. Unemployment among poorly qualified people is considerably higher than among people with good qualifications. Due to macro-economic trends and technological innovation, the number of jobs for unskilled workers is growing less quickly than for well-qualified workers. But if the Dutch economy is to continue growing, everyone who is able to work ought to have a job.

In order to get jobless people into work, the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment has devised a policy on reintegration. Central to this policy is the principle that work comes before benefits. What is more, the government's goal within the framework of the Lisbon Agenda is that by 2010 at least 80% of the labour force between the ages of 25 and 65 will have a basic qualification. However, there are signs that in the past few years training has been playing a far less prominent role in efforts to reintegrate jobless people. This information was the reason for our study.

Conclusions

The main conclusion of our study is that the problems relating to training for jobless people aged 23 and over who have no basic qualifications are urgent, and that strategies to tackle them have stalled over the past few years. This main conclusion is based on the following findings:

• Jobless people aged 23 and over without basic qualifications form an extremely vulnerable group, not only because they are low skilled, but also because of other factors, such as ethnicity. That means that this group urgently needs training in order to gain qualifications, and that an extra effort will have to be made to ensure their long-term reintegration.

• The incentives contained in legislation have failed to persuade the agencies responsible to focus sufficiently on the long-term reintegration of jobless people who have no basic qualifications.

• The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment has also failed to specify the outputs that will need to be delivered to achieve the Lisbon objectives for this group.

• Central government neither gives the agencies concerned enough encouragement to launch promising joint initiatives nor facilitates them.

• The facilities currently available to train jobless people for a basic qualification are not organised properly, and are not used to optimum effect by the regional implementing agencies.

• Cooperation between regional organisations operating in the field of training and work is difficult to get off the ground.

However, a number of promising developments are also under way, such as courses combining work and learning.

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Recommendations

Given the poorer prospects of people who do not have a basic qualification, it is important to make an effort to strengthen their position on the employment market in the coming years. Training that combines learning and work should play an important role. To this end, the Ministers of Social Affairs & Employment and Education, Culture & Science should provide regional players, such as the local authorities and the regional training centres (ROCs), with incentives to be more enterprising and to make joint investments in long-term reintegration and training. Use and closer coordination of training facilities for jobless people and support for regional cooperation are the main elements.

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Response of the State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, and the management boards of the Centre for Work and Income and the Employment Insurance Agency

We appreciate the fact that the minister and state secretary endorse almost all the recommendations that we have made in our report. These recommendations are fleshed out in a letter which the minister and state secretary recently sent to the House of Representatives.

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