The story behind TopTaal
Everything we do at TopTaal stems from passion!
Monique Deenik
“I grew up in a large family with an Indonesian father, in a multicultural working-class neighborhood. At our home, the door was truly always open to everyone. People from various cultural and social backgrounds walked in and out all day long.
My motivation to become a teacher stems from my time in high school. Back then, I didn't feel seen and certainly not recognized. To be able to make a difference for the students after me, I decided to pursue teacher training. I am convinced that when people are seen at the right moments, they can make great strides in their development. The recognition of qualities has also become an important core value of TopTaal.
During my internships for the Dutch teacher training program, I came into contact with refugee children and children of migrant workers who still had to get to know the language and culture. That experience left such a great impression on me that, alongside my work as an NT2 teacher, I started the NT2 expert program at Tilburg University.
The pedagogical side of teaching has always greatly appealed to me. And because I can identify well with other cultures due to my upbringing and background, founding TopTaal was a logical next step.”
Passion
Everything we do at TopTaal stems from our passion: we want to ensure that everyone in the Netherlands masters the Dutch culture and language to such an extent that he or she can participate and develop to their full potential. For us, self-development is a basic right and a prerequisite for a pleasant society. This means more enjoyable relationships and more mutual understanding. But a large group of people is still on the sidelines. They want to participate, but cannot. They often still lack sufficient competencies that are important in our society.
Practice-oriented education
Fortunately, this concern is also shared by politicians. In recent years, the focus was first on learning the language and obtaining the civic integration diploma. But with just a civic integration diploma and a basic knowledge of the language, you're not there yet. In the renewed integration system, the student will be guided toward active participation in society through an integrated approach of adult education and integration. This requires practice-oriented courses in collaboration with municipalities, companies, and (volunteer) organizations, tailored to the personal learning path of the students, in which we will also involve their environment. TopTaal offers competency-based education in combination with language lessons. For example, lessons in managing home administration, parenting, education, and work. Programs in the field of Language & Work and Language & Parental Involvement are good examples of how we believe it should be done. Participants improve their mastery of the Dutch language and simultaneously learn how to better participate in our society. Competency-based learning is an important prerequisite for this.
Innovating
Together with our clients and partners, we ensure that participants in our courses feel happier in our country because they participate in society. I am proud that we have so many satisfied students. But also that we can constantly challenge existing and new relationships with innovative, supportive tools. The student tracking system 'Mijn TopTaal' is a very recent example of this. Although we continue to constantly look for ways to improve.