Sustainable investment in status holders

Says Juul den Edel, inclusivity project leader at Stedin. Stedin is a grid operator in the Randstad. They attach great value to sustainable business operations, including in the social field. Project leader Juul explains: ”We have an active inclusivity policy, in which we help people with a distance to the labor market, including status holders, into sustainable employment at Stedin wherever possible.”

“We have been training people to become mechanics ourselves for years through our company school. Before you can start at Stedin, the prospective mechanic must meet quite a few requirements in terms of education level and safety certificates. For status holders, the language component is also added.”

Language proficiency at MBO level

To reach and train the target group of status holders, Stedin entered into a partnership with the UAF and Techniek College Rotterdam (TCR). “We came into contact with very motivated status holders, but saw that language proficiency was often still insufficient to start the MBO course. Together with TopTaal, we designed a preparatory track, a combination of language lessons, preparation for the VCA exams and the meter replacement training, Dutch work culture, and employee skills. The preparatory track is followed by a two to three-year MBO training to become a mechanic at Stedin's company school. Content advisor and teacher Jeannette Serra: “The method TopTaal uses prepares students well for the Dutch subject at MBO. The students practice a lot with reading and listening comprehension, vocabulary expansion, and speaking in work situations. Reading comprehension in particular is difficult for most, but with a lot of effort, I see them progressing step by step. Moreover, they are very motivated because they all want to work as mechanics at Stedin.”

One of the participants is Fitsum, 28 years old from Eritrea. He came to the Netherlands in 2015 and started the training program at Stedin in 2018. In his home country, he followed a short electricity course, but that was nothing compared to the training at Stedin. Fitsum still has to take a few tests, but is already working independently. “I have a Stedin van with tools and now visit customers myself. I am very happy.”

Language buddy as added value

To practice Dutch even more outside of class, Stedin has deployed colleagues as language buddies. A language buddy (colleague) offers language support to the status holder. For Fitsum, a language buddy is an added value: “It's good to have someone you can speak Dutch with, who corrects and improves you.” The enthusiasm for language buddies is high. Everyone sees the importance of speaking the Dutch language well on the shop floor and during training.

Corona crisis

The preparatory track had just been successfully completed when the Corona crisis hit. Stedin followed the government's advice to curb the spread. This meant little to no activity at Stedin, including the temporary suspension of the training programs. Stedin realized fairly quickly that something had to be done with the training program, because the Dutch language must be practiced continuously. The status holders were all at home by then and had little contact with the Dutch language. Juul: “When Stedin invests in people, we want to get the maximum out of it, and that means we shouldn't stand still.”

Juul immediately contacted Simone van de Pol, training advisor at TopTaal, and together they came up with the solution to offer online lessons during the Corona crisis.

Online lessons

Like all other students and mechanics, Fitsum is at home. As long as he is at home, he receives extra Dutch language lessons to keep his language skills up to par and to continue developing. He finds the online lessons very positive. In fact, he thinks the online lessons are better: “At school you see each other and talk a lot. You don't always pay attention and are less concentrated. Now I learn a lot of things. I am much more concentrated.”

The online lessons offer a variety of skills, assignments, and working methods. Students work together in groups via break-out rooms. In these separate groups, the students discuss reading texts and do speaking assignments. “Working in break-out rooms is a big advantage for me. I also give one-on-one feedback here,” says Jeannette. “I see that they are very enthusiastic about the lessons.”

Online buddies

During the corona crisis, it was decided to call on the language buddies again. This time too, there is enormous interest in helping non-native colleagues with their language skills. Previously, the buddies met on the shop floor, went on excursions, or had lunch together. Now the buddies meet online. Fitsum also has a language buddy again. Twice a week they have contact for half an hour. They discuss the assignments Fitsum has to do and talk about the current situation and everything else that comes up. “I discuss the assignments with my language buddy if I don't understand something. I used to do that with the other students. That's no longer possible now.”

Stedin is very satisfied with the collaboration with TopTaal: ”TopTaal thinks along, is flexible, comes up with creative proposals, and knows how to get things done. We greatly appreciate that. Fitsum wants to grow further and once he has gained a lot of work experience:

Then I want to teach new students how it's done; they can shadow me.

Photo by  Suzanne Blanchard