Leiden, islands want to strengthen job placement

The Dutch Municipality Leiden and the public entities Bonaire and Saba have established a cooperation to strengthen job placement on the islands. The intention is to add St. Eustatius to the project.

The islands have the ambition to take job placement to a higher level, and want to make use of the know-how that Leiden has in this area. Based on the philosophy that work is the best way to eradicate poverty, the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour and the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations are making the means available to realise a twinning project.

Leiden Alderman Marleen Damen of Labour and Income, Neighbourhoods and Finance recently received Bonaire Commissioner Nina den Heyer of Social Affairs and Director of Community and Care Silvana Janga-Serfilia to discuss the setting up of the twinning project.

Objective of this project is to lower the number of employment permits in the Caribbean Netherlands in a structural manner in order to create more jobs for local people so they can financially sustain themselves.

Leiden has a lot of expertise and experience in job placement programmes. The city has successfully applied several methods to actively assist job seekers to find employment through a broad, integral approach.

The Leiden methods are not limited to only matching, but also places emphasis on the start-up phase to give job seekers the tools to a more favourable position, for example through personal guidance, coaching and education.

Director Janga-Serfilia stayed in Leiden for a few days to see how best to implement the project in Bonaire. “Leiden has a lot of know-how and experience that we can make good use of,” she stated in a press release of the Municipality Leiden.

The municipality has made expert Mischa Prinsenberg and an advisor available to Bonaire. They will work in Bonaire, and possibly Saba, for a longer period. It was agreed that the staff of the Directorate Community and Care in Bonaire can do internships in Leiden.

Commissioner Den Heyer saw more opportunities of cooperation. “We specifically discussed job placement, but naturally there are more areas of possible cooperation which we will be discussing in the near future,” she said.

Alderman Damen was also enthusiastic about the cooperation. “We are achieving good results to get job seekers back on the labour market. I am really happy that we can share this know-how with Bonaire and the other islands St. Eustatius and Saba,” she said.

The Daily Herald.