Fewer hurdles for international trainees

It will soon be easier for international students to follow a period of training in the Netherlands. This is the intention of the Dutch cabinet, set out in a letter to the House of Representatives. The rules will also be relaxed for foreign technical and medical workers. The government’s plans will mean that from October 2006, international students will no longer require a work permit if they are studying in the Netherlands and want to follow a period of training or an internship as part of their studies. Furthermore, the cabinet wants to allow trainee technology designers (TOIO’s) and doctors doing their specialist training (AIOS’s) to use the highly skilled migrant programme. Until now, these groups have not been able to benefit from the simplified admission procedures that the programme offers.

The cabinet’s proposals are supported by the findings of a recent report published by ISO, a national student association. The report concluded that it is anything but easy for foreign students and knowledge workers to gain entry to the Netherlands despite the fact that the country is crying out for highly skilled workers from other countries. The relaxation of the rules “is in the interests of our economy,” explained the Minister for Economic Affairs, Laurens Jan Brinkhorst. Maureen Bergman, a mobility obstacles officer at Nuffic, sees daily examples of the red tape that foreign students and workers have to deal with. She told us, “These problems have been around for a long time. The sooner the government relaxes immigration formalities for students and knowledge workers, the better.” (Source: Transfer, June 2006)

Source: NUFFIC, 30 June 2006