Netherlands

In 2014, the University of Tilburg carried out an evaluation of the Startersbeurs. At that point around 1,500 graduates and 152 municipalities participated in the instrument. The evaluation showed that after one year of the programme 52.3% of participants found paid work during or at the end of the internship, and 36.7% found work at the enterprise where they did their internship. The participants evaluated the Startersbeurs and its contribution to their improved position on the labour market with a 7.8 score out of 10, and three quarters of participants felt the work experience was relevant and helped them find a job. Furthermore, 37.5% felt the programme contributed to a broader professional network, and 29.2% felt that the programme contributed to improving specific relevant competences. Between 2013 and December of 2015, 3,000 graduates made use of the measure.
The benefits have indeed been as expected, namely to help the employability of graduates, by giving them practical work experience and thereby helping them find jobs. Both these connected goals were reached. No particularly unexpected benefits came forward during the evaluations (from 2013 and 2015). One unexpected benefit of the measure is that it seems to especially help women and graduates from classically female-dominated studies and fields. Around 70% of the total applicants for the grant were female between 2013 and 2015.
The instrument also includes a training or education voucher in some municipalities. This can be used by the participant for extra education and training according to their needs. The participant can decide how best to use this to invest in themselves. However, an unexpected issue which came to light during the second evaluation of the grant (in 2015), showed in municipalities where the voucher was available, that 75% were aware of how much they could receive. The other 25% of participants were either not aware of the budget, or were aware, but did not know how much they were eligible to receive. Participants did not make use of the education voucher for different reasons: they forgot they had such a budget, considered it not high enough for a real investment in themselves, did not have time to use the voucher given their work, it was deemed unnecessary, they did not know on what they could spend the voucher, or the personal contribution to training activities was too high. These issues could be remedied by better information provision amongst municipalities, but it is unclear at present whether actions were taken to improve the awareness and use of the training vouchers in those municipalities offering the voucher.

In the first period that the School Ex Programme ran, the target for 2009 to 2010, was to help 10,000 graduates between the ages of 18 and 27 to get into another level of education or into work. In 2010, 12,000 graduates or school leavers had been helped. In 2009, 77,000 students in secondary vocation education (MBO in the Netherlands) filled in the national questionnaire, accounting for two thirds of the exam candidates for that level of MBO in the Netherlands. Of this number, 40% went on to receive a personal conversation about their future plans.
The benefits have indeed been as expected. A large numbers of students in secondary vocational education have participated in the programme, and due to its success, it was renewed for the school years 2013-2014, and 2014-2015. In the 2014 evaluation of the measure, 66% of students considered the talk and guidance they received via the programme to be “very useful”. An unexpected benefit in 2013 was that students with non-European backgrounds and young women were both groups of focus for the programme. This is because technical professions are notably in demand, and to counter stereotypical attitudes and hiring actions, young women and youths with a non-European background were given more focus within the sectoral approach of the School Ex Programme. As a local example, no real unexpected costs have arisen from the programme in the case of the Graafschap College. The programme in the Graafschap College estimated that around 150 students make use of the programme every year, and calculated the budget accordingly. This estimation was quite good as the number of students remained relatively stable and as a consequence, the budget was sufficient. Furthermore, outsourcing the survey from a call centre to tertiary education students helped reduce costs of contacting 2,500 pending graduates.

The measure seems to be relatively effective. For the school year 2014-2015, 93,000 applications received for work-based learning positions. This is a slight increase compared to 2013-2014, when the number was 92,600. This is difficult to evaluate, as the target number of participating enterprises and work-based training positions is not known. At the national level, the government is satisfied with the performance of the subsidy, though from 2017 a budget reduction was introduced, as less HBO, WO, and PhD and post-doc students made use of the training positions than expected. Unexpected costs arose from the suboptimal alignment between enterprises and the educational programmes. This was one of the reasons why the online portal was introduced, namely to allow more efficient checking of the applications from enterprises. Furthermore, a trend came to light in 2015 that students in practice sometimes did not receive enough support and face-to-face time with the individual responsible for their guidance within the enterprise.