Diploma demands needlessly sideline tens of thousands of unemployed: trade union

Employers and the government’s rigid demands for diplomas are sidelining tens of thousands of unemployed people, according to trade union CNV. They don’t qualify for jobs because they don't have the required education level, but they often have more than enough experience to do the job, the trade union said. The situation is incredibly senseless, given the widespread staff shortages increasingly bringing the country to a standstill.

“Staff shortages are often found in sectors with strict diploma requirements. Think of IT, technology, childcare, and healthcare,” CNV chairman Piet Fortuin said. “As a result, there are dire shortages, and fewer services can be provided. The Netherlands is increasingly in danger of getting stuck.”

Fortuin acknowledged that you can’t ditch diploma requirements for doctors and teachers, but experience can be enough for many other jobs. “We need to start looking at labor in a new way,” he said. A CNV study showed that 66 percent of people over 55 struggle to find work. “That is, of course, bizarre. They are bursting with experience and acquired competencies.”

Employers can also look at employing people with lower education levels in assistant positions, Fortuin said. He used childcare, with 30,000 open vacancies, as an example. “Everyone in childcare requires MBO4 level. As a result, childcare is at a standstill, meaning that many people cannot work because they have no childcare. A lateral entry student with an MBO2 level could provide excellent support in the care of children under the supervision of an MBO4 employee.”

“It is a matter of thinking smarter, thinking outside of the box, and selecting based on competencies and potential instead of blindly focusing on diplomas,” the CNV leader said.

The widespread staff shortages in the Netherlands are also an important topic in the campaigns for the parliamentary elections next week. The issue came up in an election debate in Eindhoven on Thursday, mainly in relation to migration.

Jan Joosten (CDA) proposed “smart immigration” to solve the labor shortage - attract more knowledge migrants and migrant workers to the Netherlands to fill gaps in the labor market, potentially supplemented by automation in some sectors. He called these migrants crucial. “Without them, the entire Dutch economy will collapse.”

Judith Tielen (VVD) suggested increasing work hours in sectors like healthcare and education to solve labor shortages rather than relying on migrant labor, which she viewed as a short-term fix.