It is an age-old complaint: it is almost impossible to get technical staff.
On Friday, the trade organization Techniek Nederland will launch a long-term campaign under the title ‘You can do so much more in technology’. This should draw attention to career opportunities in technology. The campaign should not only interest young people, but also lateral entrants.
Superheroes
To this end, the campaign introduces four imaginary superheroes (‘geniuses’), each representing a discipline within the profession. In addition, Techniek Nederland presents the outcome of a market survey showing that technicians are ‘extremely happy’ with their jobs. “They believe that their work matters, they enjoy working and they are proud of their profession,” is how the employers’ club summarizes the results of the survey.
Marcel de Groot is happy with the campaign. He is director of De Groot Installation Group in Emmen. The family business has 24 branches in the country with a total of 1,100 employees. “There are positions at all locations that are difficult or impossible to fill,” says De Groot. “It slows down our growth. We could take on a lot more work. The problem is mainly in the workplace. Every profession that you practice in overalls has an image problem. But it is also not easy to get project engineers, for example. While technology is a very nice profession.”
‘World increasingly technical’
The lack of technicians affects ‘the entire industry’, says the entrepreneur. “While our world is becoming increasingly technical. Look at robotization. But also all kinds of other developments that people don’t think about. Due to the rise of the electric car, all kinds of parking garages now have to be equipped with sprinkler systems. That takes a lot of work. People think that the light turns on automatically and the water flows automatically, but that is not the case.”
He calls the outflow of technicians from secondary vocational education ‘pathetic’. “We are particularly looking at the outflow from other sectors. For example, we hired a number of chefs who were fed up with the irregularity of their work. These people are good at organizing, but it takes a few years before they can really work at a high level.”
Lifelong learning
What does his company do to make working in technology attractive? De Groot: “We really believe in lifelong learning. That is why we set up the De Groot Academy. It has a program of training and further education for all levels of employees. We are also socially involved. We pay a lot of attention to work-life balance, although this is quite difficult due to the heavy workload.”
According to De Groot, attention to inclusivity, for example by attracting status holders and more women, may provide some relief. “We won an award for the attention we pay to women in the company,” he says. However, it is difficult to get women to work full-time, in De Groot’s experience.
Role of women
“In the Netherlands you earn proportionately more part-time. That is not good. We often have to offer women flexibility in working hours, for example because they want to take the children to school. The role of women in the household is still quite traditional. As for status holders and migrants, it must become much easier in terms of regulations to allow those people to work.”