How a focus on skills can help increase employment for newcomers

In the Dutch labor market, there is still a strong emphasis on diplomas and CVs when looking for new employees. For newcomers to the Netherlands, this is a major obstacle to finding work. The focus is often on what someone lacks compared to people who were born in the Netherlands. If the norm were to shift to looking at what someone can do, rather than what they lack, this could make the path to employment smoother and more equitable. This idea of doing justice to someone's experience and talents by focusing on opportunities is in line with the international trend in which skills are becoming increasingly important in entering the labor market. What does this mean for newcomers? Are employers willing to look at it this way? And does a focus on skills necessarily lead to a more inclusive labor market? 

By Sandrine Lafay

Webinar Focus on Skills

In the webinar "A Focus on Skills" organized on April 29, 2021, we discussed these questions with experts. This webinar was organized by OpenEmbassy the Newcomers & Work Platform, which we are developing with the support of the Goldschmeding Foundation. The Platform aims to help more newcomers find work more quickly, more sustainably, and with an eye for their talents and ambitions. We do this by supporting initiatives that guide newcomers to work with funding, research into effective components, knowledge sharing, coaching, and community building. And we do this by translating everything we learn from the initiatives into shareable knowledge.

International trend: focus on skills 

The shift towards a focus on skills rather than diplomas and CVs is in the air, as evidenced by the number of meetings, studies, and initiatives dealing with this topic. This is not surprising, according to Hafid Ballafkih, senior researcher at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and head of the Labor in Transition research group. Shortages in the labor market are becoming so severe that a new way of looking at labor potential is necessary. In addition, professions are changing at an ever-increasing pace and people are having to change jobs more often.

A focus on diplomas alone, based on the assumption of a linear career path, no longer fits the reality of today's transitional labor market. Education alone is no longer capable of providing the labor market with the right profile. The monopoly on valuing learning now lies with education in the form of diplomas, but learning opportunities are everywhere: you learn throughout your life in all kinds of different contexts.

If that principle is recognized, we shift the focus to the individual and suddenly much more becomes possible. This development is also important for people who have been forced to leave their country to build a future elsewhere. In a time of increasing migration and diaspora, a flexible perspective on what someone can do in the labor market is necessary.

Looking at opportunities: newcomers to the labor market

"The energy among newcomers became noticeably higher and more positive when skills were discussed," recalls Michelle van Toor, Inclusive Labor Market Program Manager at the Goldschmeding Foundation, from the time she taught Orientation to the Dutch Labor Market (ONA) classes to newcomers. Skills are recognizable and give a certain strength because everyone has skills, and they are also important here. "That energy always dropped again when we moved on to the CV," says Michelle van Toor, because it has to comply with all kinds of technical rules and there is a gap when you look at work experience. That is, of course, incredibly discouraging."

The focus on diplomas also poses an obstacle for newcomers who want to enter the labor market, because diplomas obtained in their country of origin are often not valued in the same way in the Netherlands. A focus on skills has the potential to bridge this mismatch in diplomas. Many instruments use the skills classification developed by the European Commission (ESCO), and the framework thus provides a common language that transcends cultures, work experience, and education systems.

The potential of focusing on the skills of newcomers 

Currently, a focus on skills is already being successfully applied by various initiatives to guide people, including newcomers, into work. For example, ComPas, an initiative that works with the creation of a competency passport, has been working intensively since 2018 with the municipality of Breda, some 18 organizations in the social domain, and employers. (2). People who are distanced from the labor market, including newcomers, are guided by ComPas, and the development programs they follow through the municipality and work companies are linked to relevant tasks, skills, and competencies, enabling employers to make a better match with the candidate.

Omar Sirre, board member of ComPas, sees the focus on skills as a way to build on the strengths of newcomers, enabling them to take control of their talents and development: "By giving people who need to start or continue their careers in the Netherlands the tools to show who they are and how they want to develop further, based on their own ambitions for the future, you already unlock a great deal."

There are also international examples. For example, the SkilLab app, which automatically generates a skill profile for the user via an assessment in the newcomer's native language and links this to career opportunities in the new country, is used in Ecuador, Peru, and Panama to guide newcomers to work. Of the participants who were linked to a vacancy via the app, a quarter were hired within a month.

Initiatives that enable a focus on skills

In the webinar, six initiatives presented their tools and working methods: UQualify, Skilllab, NewBees, IamProgrez, House of Skills, and ComPas. 

Within the Newcomers & Work Platform, there are also participating initiatives that incorporate a focus on skills into their approach. For example, NewBees, which organizes healthcare traineeships for newcomers within our Platform and guides them toward a job in home care, developed an online matching platform based on the skills of newcomers (4). DOK030 took the motivation of newcomers as the starting point for their Pizzaiolo project, in which newcomers were trained as pizza bakers.

Research conducted by our research partner Regioplan revealed that this focus on motivation was an effective element in their approach: the group of participants was close-knit, there were no dropouts during the program, and everyone successfully completed the course. The focus on motivation and skills will once again play a role in DOK030's new project within the Platform, in which they will use the same approach to train newcomers to become Data Center Professionals.

From discourse to action: the skills mindset among employers

The tools needed to implement this focus on skills in the labor market are already in place. Countless initiatives have developed useful tools for providing insight into skills, the best-known example being the personal skills passport. But are employers also prepared to take this step? A skills passport must be accompanied by a skills mindset on the part of the employer, and there is still a long way to go in that regard.

Wilma Roozenboom, director of Refugee Talent Hub, has noticed in her conversations with large corporations that there is a gap between ambition and implementation. Although employers indicate that they want to look at skills and, certainly in sectors experiencing labor shortages, recognize the importance of this, in practice they still get stuck on traditional diplomas and job descriptions with strict requirements. In some cases, these requirements are laid down by law (such as safety certificates in construction), but in other cases they have simply evolved over time.

Harriet Vinke, research coordinator at Instituut Gak, takes a positive view: if employers really start to feel the shortage, they will take the plunge. She points out that it is important for soft elements such as motivation to be included in skill passports: employers want motivated participants above all else; in many professions, the rest can be learned on the job.

A focus on skills rather than just diplomas and resumes could provide a richer picture of what someone can and wants to do in all jobs. Applying this focus in sectors experiencing labor shortages, such as engineering, ICT, and healthcare, where the urgency to look at labor potential in a different way is highest, would be a good start to furthering this development.

Towards a more inclusive labor market

Skills-based thinking has the potential to make the Dutch labor market more inclusive, but that does not necessarily happen, Michelle van Toor points out. For example, large corporations use assessments to test whether participants have the required skill set, but these assessments are not always suitable for people from different cultural backgrounds. There is therefore a risk that existing biases will be reflected in the tools used to assess skills.

Inclusivity and accessibility of the skills tools are therefore important prerequisites. They should not be too language-intensive, or they should be available in various languages and usable regardless of educational level. In addition, it works best if the tool can be used via an app on your phone, because almost everyone has a phone.

Finally, technology alone is not enough, emphasizes Wilma Roozenboom. The human touch remains important: personal guidance to ensure that newcomers with the skills passport get through that first door. "You have to be given the opportunity to show your skills passport, because if you're standing in front of a closed door, your skills passport is still not much use to you."

Ready to get started?

Check here to see which initiatives were present at the webinar and how you can make use of the tools they offer.

(1) In January 2021, Hafid Ballafkih, Joop Zinsmeister, and Najat Bayl published the research report "The Skills Passport: a qualitative exploration of the opinions of employers and employees." Click here for the full report.

(2)Read more about this collaboration here

(3) This project is being carried out in collaboration with HIAS. Read more here.

(4) For more information, see www.new-bees.org/online-solutions

(5) During the webinar, six initiatives presented their tools and working methods: UQualify, Skilllab, NewBees, IamProgrez, House of Skills, and ComPas. Click here for more information about these initiatives and their contact details.