Become a work placement company
Meet the requirements for work placement
ECABO can support you in becoming an international work placement company. On behalf of the Dutch government, ECABO is responsible for the recognition of work placement companies for eight sectors: secretarial work, business administration, commercial work, logistics, ICT, legal work, information service provision and security.
To apply for accreditation click on this link: application for accreditation (choose 'Dutch' or 'English')
After registration there will be two options:
- if your company is located close to the Netherlands (German- and Belgian-border), an ECABO consultant will arrange a personal visit to discuss the qualifications for which you would like an accreditation.
- if your company is NOT located close to the Netherlands, we will contact you either by phone or E-mail, if necessary. ECABO will determine how Dutch qualifications tie in with the position(s) you wish to offer as a work placement.
Why an accreditation for company based learning (work placement)?
In the Dutch system of senior secondary vocational education work placement plays an important role in the training programme. Firstly because it’s mandatory and secondly because students spend so much time at a training company: 20 to 60% of their programme will be spent working and being trained in a professional environment, i.e. in a company. We call this company based learning.
For these reasons it’s important that training companies offer a good and safe learning environment.
The responsibility for monitoring this is given to the Dutch centres of Expertise on Vocational Education and Training and the Labour Market by the Dutch Ministery of Education.
It is therefor a legal task to monitor the quality of training companies.
The Dutch educational legislation stipulates that companies training participants in the preparatory secondary vocational education (VMBO) and senior secondary vocational education (MBO) need an accreditation .The accreditation will be given by the Centre of Expertise dealing with the qualification(s) the student will be trained for in the company.
The company will obtain an accreditation after going through a registration procedure and having indicated to meet certain criteria, a.o. offering a good and safe working environment and professional supervision.
To apply for accreditation please click here
Key requirements for a work placement of Dutch trainees
Key requirements are that the students can cooperate as much as possible within your business, and receives professional supervision. As accredited training company, you may also sometimes contribute to the evaluation of the practical results; this will depend on the individual school's policy.
If you would like to offer a work placement to a Dutch student on senior secondary VET level (MBO) you should meet certain criteria: E.g. there should be professional guidance and the student should be able to work in a safe and suitable working environment. Please read the ECABO legal requirements for work placement of Dutch students (pdf).
Apply
Apply for accreditation