“Our policies worked because the schools could connect to other organisations within the region”, says Sonja Bekker
Tackling the NEET issue: here's some insights from the Dutch approach
The United Kingdom is sounding the alarm: nearly one in ten young people in the UK are no longer in education, nor are they in employment. In the Netherlands, the figure is around one in twenty. The BBC asked Sonja Bekker, professor of European social policy, why the Netherlands is currently performing relatively well. One of the key factors is timely intervention, within the schools themselves. “We made a policy to monitor young people better and made sure that schools were open to do this.” In other respects, we are also performing well. But it is important to stay on our toes, Bekker emphasises.
A much discussed report recently appeared in the UK on the reasons why an increasing number of young people aged between 16 and 24 are not in education, employment or training; the so-called NEETs (“Not in Education, Employment, or Training”).
It is of interest to the UK to know what insights the Netherlands, as ‘top of its class’, has to offer. The Netherlands owes this status to a ranking by the OECD, the organisation of prosperous democratic countries, in which we have the lowest number of NEETs. A disclaimer is in order, however, as such lists are always snapshots in time and offer no guarantee for the future. Sonja Bekker discussed the subject at the BBC, appearing both on the radio (on the BBC 4 programme World at One) and on TV (The World Today). A few excerpts from the interviews are included in the expandable paragraph below.
About a decade ago, we had a very high dropout rate, so the problem was trying to keep young people in education or trying to get them back into schools. We made a policy to monitor young people better and made sure that schools were more open to take this up.
According to Bekker, key factors for success in getting young people back into education or employment are:
- Early intervention and proactively reaching out to young people who drop out of school and/or are unable to find work
- Helping young people get started with suitable opportunities that fit their needs and capabilities
- Structural cooperation in the region between schools, local authorities, unemployment benefits providers, employers and trade unions
- Guaranteeing income security and job security
“A lot is going well in the Netherlands at the moment. But we also need to continually learn from these lessons ourselves. Particularly on the last point, because for young people in the Netherlands, the labour market is often turbulent,” says Bekker. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports that by 2025, 46.5 per cent of 15-25 year-olds will be in flexible employment. For ‘older young people’ (aged 25-45), this figure remains at over a third. This creates uncertainty regarding work and income, and this is not always mitigated by access to unemployment benefits or training.
About Sonja Bekker
Sonja Bekker is Professor of European Social Policy at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance (School of Law, Department of International and European Law). She also leads the interdisciplinary Sector Plan Welfare, Participation and Citizenship in a Digital World at Utrecht University.
Bekker's research interests are employment and social policies, within a European context, focusing on the labour market position of 'atypical' groups such as people with fixed-term or part-time jobs, young workers and people experiencing in-work-poverty. The European dimension of her research includes EU governance of social policies. She is also a board member of the Netherlands Empirical Legal Studies Academy.