Dutch care sector too understaffed to train its own replacements

Care employers in the Netherlands have grown so understaffed that they can no longer supervise enough trainees to replace them, according to the training and labour-market body SBB.

The number of vocational (mbo) students unable to find an internship has roughly doubled in two years to 4,695, statistics from the organisation’s spring report show. The worst shortages on courses for care assistants and social workers.

Without an internship, mbo students cannot graduate. Without enough graduates, the care sector cannot close its widening workforce gap.

Vicious circle

SBB chair Hannie Vlug told broadcaster NOS “This is exactly the vicious circle” the organisation had been pointing out for years. Care employers face such severe personnel shortages that they have no staff free to train newcomers.

The Netherlands is forecast to have a shortage of 266,000 care workers by 2035. The 4,695 unplaced students are part of a total of 467,329 enrolled in mbo courses nationwide, most of whom have found a placement.

But the gap is concentrated on the more school-led track, where students must find their own internships, and on courses for software developers, teaching assistants, and business services assistants alongside the care professions.

Capped admissions

Some courses are now restricting new admissions because there are too few placements. Social-work training is one example, Vlug said, where cuts to the gemeentefonds – the national fund that finances municipal services – under the previous cabinet led councils to scale back spending on social workers.

Education minister Rianne Letschert, the D66 academic appointed in February as part of the Jetten cabinet, told broadcaster Nieuwsuur the situation was “worrying”, particularly because the shortages were in sectors “where you wouldn’t want them to be”. She said she wants to discuss the issue with parliament before the summer.

SBB is recruiting additional companies as training employers and wants the government to provide financial support to the care sector. Schools and employers are also experimenting with splitting placements or spreading internships across the year to ease the pressure on supervisors.