Millions for tackling low literacy in Eindhoven and surrounding areas

The national government has asked South-East Brabant to be one of the two pilot areas for innovative training of low-skilled and low-literate people. The region attracted attention due to its successful approach in this area, including Taalkracht. This institution, part of Summa College, will train at least 200 people in close consultation and cooperation with regional municipalities, UWV and the business community in the Brainport Eindhoven region over the next two years.

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The idea behind the LLO Collective Low-Educated and Low-Literate scheme is
that residents from the Eindhoven region, who currently have little prospect, will have a chance after the
training can progress to work or be better able to perform their work
Low-educated and low-literate residents now hardly make any
use of opportunities to obtain a (better) position in the labor market.
This means they cannot keep up with social and economic developments
developments, the business community is losing employees and talents
unused.

The program
National Growth Fund, a government initiative, has been set up for the entire
program has allocated a total of 52 million euros. There are two pilot regions in
The Netherlands designated for the next two years: Southeast Brabant and Twente.
Eindhoven and the surrounding area will receive 2,3 million euros to carry out the trial
in 2023 and 2024.

City plan low literacy

Township
Eindhoven has been designated as the contact point for the pilot, the implementation will take place
on behalf of Taalkracht, a division of Summa College specialized
in tackling low literacy. Eindhoven is working in the City Plan
Low literacy has been successfully addressed in recent years in collaboration with the business community,
housing corporations, libraries, educational institutions and other institutions and has
thus a very large reach.

Southeast Brabant
has been requested as a test area, because we already work closely together on this
area,” says team leader Maarten van Ham of Taalkracht. “This is how the
region together at the Eight Hundred (a project for residents without
starting qualifications on the labour market) and there is a comprehensive policy for the
approach to low literacy in the Eindhoven region.” In the context of LLO
Collective efforts are made to develop basic and professional skills of the
participants.

Alderman
Stijn Steenbakkers (Education, Brainport, Economics) is pleased with the
millions in subsidies. “Everyone, young and old, deserves the opportunity to participate in
society, to develop talents and get the most out of themselves.
Basic skills, such as reading and writing, are of great importance for this.
But unfortunately, this is not self-evident for everyone. With the City Plan
We were already leading the way in the Netherlands in the field of low literacy. And with this subsidy from
In addition to that, we kill two birds with one stone. We offer our
residents in the region a helping hand to improve their basic skills and
to gain more confidence, but at the same time they can also
to further develop in a career that suits their talents. And everyone has that right."

New educational concepts

In
the framework of LLO Collective Low-Educated and Low-Literate is used for
innovative, new educational concepts. Van Ham: “We look at promising
professions in Southeast Brabant and schools short-cycle. This way I can easily
propose that we work closely with colleagues from Summa College
to teach a welding course in combination with basic skills. The candidates
those who successfully complete it will retain or gain a better position on the
labor market. This would make it easier for them to move on to, for example, a
so-called bbl training, where they work and learn at the same time.”