City of Amsterdam

The City of Amsterdam makes an annual budget available for non-native speakers who do not have to integrate, but for whom it is important that they learn the customs and the language to participate more effectively in society. The courses are not only aimed at improving language proficiency but also at participating in society. Language & Work, Language & Personal Financial Administration, Language for Beginners, and Language for Advanced Students, which are given in this context, last six months.

During that time, the level of the participants is visibly increased. With over thirty free courses running in parallel, Freek Rurup, language controller for the City of Amsterdam, is busy. Coordinator Ard Elzenga from TopTaal, together with four project leaders and four project staff members, also ensures that the organization runs smoothly.

Ard says: 'We are responsible for the entire process for the City of Amsterdam. We handle the intakes and schedule the groups. We create the materials ourselves, handle the administration, and ensure a good relationship with the teachers and the students. Those who need more attention receive it from us. And we take the different language levels into account. The more homogeneous the groups, the higher the learning yield. You can imagine that this takes quite a lot of time when we are training 1,000 to 1,500 students at the same time!'

Successful integration

Language coordinator Freek Rurup is outspoken about the ambitions of the City of Amsterdam. 'We strive to get students active in Dutch society. This can be done in many ways, but we are critical. When a Chinese student goes to work in a Chinese restaurant in Amsterdam, we do not necessarily consider that an example of successful integration. It is best if participants are active in a Dutch environment alongside their Dutch lessons. This can be done, for example, through volunteer work, by joining a Dutch club, or by doing paid work in a Dutch environment. As long as Dutch is also spoken outside of the lessons. It is about the combination of language lessons and activities outside of the lessons where Dutch is spoken.' Just like Ard, Freek spends a lot of time managing the municipal language courses. Not only benefit recipients, who mostly know the courses through their case manager at the municipality, but also people without benefits who find the courses themselves, fall under his responsibility.

I find them to be a pleasant partner to work with

Freek's primary task is monitoring the contracts with providers, including the one with TopTaal. 'The contracts with suppliers describe which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) must be met. There are twenty-five KPIs, such as: do the lessons start on time? Are the teachers qualified? And do the students create portfolios? These are things I have been looking at in this role for ten years.' When Freek started as a language controller, he managed forty language providers. Now there are only five. 'We have sifted through them considerably over the past few years.'

Major player

Freek has seen TopTaal grow from a small club to a major player in recent years. 'It is very nice to see how TopTaal has truly become a large, professional organization. And I must say that I find them to be a pleasant partner to work with. They always do what they say. You would expect that as a commercial organization, they would primarily want to make a profit. There is nothing wrong with that in itself. But I notice that they really want to do a good job. TopTaal looks for solutions themselves when difficulties arise. I find it really very difficult to indicate what they could do better.'

What surprises Freek the most is the fact that a for-profit company so clearly puts the interests of students first in its approach. 'Making a profit and being correct can therefore go together,' Freek concludes. 'It is nice to see that students are so keen to end up at TopTaal. They actually ask for it. I think TopTaal is a very good language provider.'

More stories

← All stories