Slechts kwart Oekraïense vluchtelingen deed werkervaring op: “Ik wil weer lesgeven, maar moet eerst vlot Nederlands spreken”

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  1. >Slechts 23 procent van de 17.000 Oekraïners tussen de 15 en 64 jaar in Vlaanderen deed (voor eind september) vorig jaar al werkervaring op. Dat blijkt uit cijfers van Statbel. Volgens de VDAB zijn taalvereisten de grootste drempel voor Oekraïense vluchtelingen om werk te vinden. Toch doet Nederland het beter, daar heeft al 70 tot 80 procent van de Oekraïners gewerkt.

    Waarom sucken wij zo hard in het tewerkstellen van mensen met een uitdagend profiel? Zoals mensen die geen landstaal beheersen of mensen met een handicap.

  2. There’s thousands of highly qualified people in Belgium that can’t get a job for various reasons. Language is obviously a key point. I think people should at least have a working understanding of Dutch within Flanders for admin purposes (say B1), but having very strict rules on language is actively damaging the economic potential and social mobility of the country. Netherland is definitely more comfortable at working in English particularly for lower/entry level jobs.

    English proficiency is reasonably high in Belgium but people aren’t as confident at speaking it in my experience: people in Antwerp will speak back to me in Dutch and don’t revert to English, whereas they will in the Netherlands. This has been very helpful for me in getting to grips with Dutch but I think demonstrates a difference in confidence and/or aptitude.

    Germany has the same situation as Belgium and there are calls from a governing party to establish English as a second language to help with shortages.

    There are also some super rigid rules, e.g. some Vlaamse overheid jobs specifically require a masters degree from specific Flemish universities, while my Belgian wife obtained her masters from a top university in England but technically she falls outside of the criteria from a ‘tick box’ perspective.

    I’ve also heard there’s discrimination against immigrants that learn Dutch to a very high degree and are still overlooked for jobs, but haven’t experienced this personally.

  5. You can’t blame them for not knowing dutch, an essentially [internationally] irrelevant language.

    It takes a lot of time to learn a language to speak it fluently and it has not been a year and I’m sure a lot are not very motivated to speak a language that is barely relevant.

  6. Voor lesgeven is het nu dan ook wel meer dan normaal dat je vlot nederlands moet kunnen. Nu voor andere jobs waar taal niet zo van belang is moeten we eens stoppen met zo moeilijk te doen

  7. Ik vraag mij af of het echt als “slechts” kan beschreven worden.

    1. Wat zijn de nummers van de andere nationaliteiten? Maar de titel is misschien meer een “aanval” op de verouderde wetgeving dat de Oekrainers.

    2. “tussen 15 en 64” hoeveel van de 17000 zijn procentueel effectief <18? Ik ga niet verwachten dat “kinderen” na te vluchten beginnen te werken imo.

  9. Very confusing to me. I am a Belgian that is abroad everywhere and I have talked to all kinds of nationalities.

    Belgians (well more Flemish people), Dutch and Scandinavian Europeans standout for being able to talk basic English across most age ranges. More so than countries like France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece etc. Most travelers who have traveled around (even Japanese) know that you’ll struggle the least in BE/NL/DK/SE/NO when it comes to communication. Yet here people are talking about language barrier.

    I brought a mexican friend to Belgium and my parents were able to communicate despite being retired already and never having had any English education. And people will say “that isn’t enough”, it really is for a lot of jobs.

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