Helping newcomers find a job? Train the employers!

There is a great shortage on the labour market, but permit holders from, for example, Eritrea have a relatively hard time finding a job. How can this be solved? By training employers, instead of just employees. Nina Hansen, Liesbet Heyse and Marloes Huis, together with the Stichting Lemat, developed a training which helps employers in hiring and working with newcomers.

Giving tools to employers

The training was developed as part of the research project 'A training for a realistic perspective on tolerance for employers and work coaches to hire and work with newcomers', funded with a Start Impuls Grant from the Nationale Wetenschapsagenda. The main focus? Newcomers receive language lessons and learn about the Dutch labour market, but employers also need tools to prepare themselves for working with this group of people, according to the researchers.

Being aware of miscommunication

The training focuses on increasing cultural knowledge and making people aware of miscommunication. Participants will take a close look at real-life situations to investigate where communication goes wrong. When miscommunication occurs, it is generally not a case of not wanting to do something, but not understanding a task or not being able to,' says researcher Nina Hansen. 'If you know this as an employer, you realise that you have to explain more, and that improves cooperation.'

This month, two new groups of employers and coaches started the training, financed by the Province. Together with the Lemat Foundation and the municipalities in the North, the researchers are further developing the training for the entire region in order to prepare even more coaches and employers to hire and work with newcomers.