In recent years, the cabinet has not succeeded in encouraging more working Dutch people to undergo retraining or additional training. With the ‘Leven Long Development’ project, the government stimulated career development with measures, experiments and regulations. However, the percentage of working Dutch people who participate in educational activities has fallen in recent years.
This is apparent from research by the Competence Factory training institute, which, based on figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), mapped the extent to which working Dutch people between the ages of 25 and 65 have undergone training in the past five years.
The survey results show that 19.9 percent of the working population participated in educational activities in 2020, compared to 20.6 percent in 2016.
Impact pandemic
The corona crisis appears to have played a significant role in the decline in the number of people participating in educational activities during their careers. For example, the percentage participating in educational activities decreased in 2020 for the first time in the past five years across all age groups.
But even without the possible impact of corona in 2020, the cabinet does not seem to have succeeded in making progress in the field of career development. After some minor fluctuations, the percentage of the working population participating in educational activities was only 0.2 percent higher in 2019 than in 2016. In the five years before that, this percentage had risen by 2.1 percent from 18.7 percent in 2011. to 20.8 percent in 2015.
Skill could be better
Competence Factory founder René Steuer is positive about the future and the many good initiatives by the government, but sees the disappointing figures as a possible result of a lack of decisiveness. “Export is just slow and that is a shame. An example is the STAP budget, where working and non-working people can receive a personal development budget. Minister Koolmees already presented a decision on 11 November 2019, but the scheme will only take effect according to the current schedule. from January 1, 2022. The lack of decisiveness is reflected in the figures for recent years. It is partly the reason that we will conduct this survey every year and keep a finger on the pulse”.