Minister of Work and Participation, Thierry Aartsen, wants the language requirement for social assistance to apply to people who are able to work but for whom the Dutch language is an obstacle to finding or retaining employment. Eindhovens Dagblad columnist Özcan Akyol wrote a good piece about this entitled "Good plan to have people on social assistance take language lessons".

Municipalities will be given the discretion to assess whether a language test is necessary following a social assistance application. A test will only take place if there is doubt about a person's language level. The minimum language level that a person must master (1F/A2) will be kept. Municipalities will have the option to deviate from this if this level is not necessary to start working, or if it becomes apparent that the person cannot reach this level even with additional language lessons.

A very good initiative by the Minister! STE Languages ​​has already gained considerable experience in vocational training and developing social assistance recipients’ Dutch language skills. For example, together with Motopp, we are training people for paid work in the ICT sector.

Want to know more about what STE Languages ​​can do for you? Call 040 245 28 60 or send an email to info@ste.nl.