Career checks for the whole of April in 7.5 minutes out: « What a stress »
Last month, Flemish Minister for Work Zuhal Demir (N-VA) decided to limit the number of career checks up to 1,000 per month. With those checks, employees or self -employed people can follow career guidance at an affordable rate. Later this year, a reform of the system will take place based on a study.
The limitation already caused a rush, which reached the maximum number of after a few days. A new portion of checks was released in April. After just 7 minutes and 30 seconds, a record time, they were all out the door. The Flemish labor mediator VDAB confirms this.
The website now says: « You can no longer order a career check. A career check will be available again next month ». At VDAB you can hear that it is considered how the system can be improved on a technical level. But that does not change the number of available checks.
“Completely absurd”
At De Tijd, Miranda Ulens, general secretary of the ABVV trade union, reacts critically: « This ‘Stop and Go’ policy is destroying the system. By first saving and reforming, the minister allows employees who are looking for help and providers of career guidance in the cold, » said Ulens.
Flemish MP Eva Platteau calls the situation « completely absurd ». « Order career checks such as festival tickets. What is this Flemish government doing? », The Groen-Politics wonders. According to Platteau, it is not a « luxury edition ». « This is about supporting people to make a positive choice about what they like and be able to do. The Flemish government should support them in this instead of letting people compete with each other. This saving policy is not what our labor market and our social security now need. »
« Is that how it works now? »
We also gathered some reactions from people who have not succeeded in getting a career check. « I was ready at midnight and immediately logged in, » someone testifies. « I have received an error message several times, asking to mail to lb.cheque@vdab.be if the problem continued to occur. So I mailed, but then got the answer that ‘it makes no sense to call the free number or to email lb.cheque@vdab.be. The applicant in question eventually entered the order module, but at that time the report came that the checks were already sold out.
Een vergelijkbaar verhaal bij een tweede lezer. « Immediately after midnight, I got an error message first twice. I was not registered, but I did not get any further. I tried a few times, until I received the message at 0.11 am that there were no more checks available. Is that how it works now? »
A third person managed to order a career check, although it cost blood, sweat and tears. « We succeeded, with a lot of ‘renewing page’, having three times the career page of the VDAB open side by side and to get stuck for about twenty times. What a stress. »
