This spring, chip manufacturer ASML threatened to leave the Netherlands. This was partly due to the restriction on the number of foreign students and knowledge migrants, which PVV and NSC in particular are pushing for. ASML feared it would soon not be able to find enough employees.

Rather quickly, the previous cabinet then decided to pull out the purse and make 450 million euros available, plus 80 million a year from 2031. Among other things, that money should be used to win additional students to engineering. The plan was codenamed “Beethoven.

38 thousand additional technicians

Government party NSC asked written questions about this. This party still views the arrival of foreign students and knowledge migrants to the Netherlands with suspicion.

Some 38 thousand additional technicians would be needed for the microchip sector, especially around Eindhoven. These are employees at all levels: from mbo, hbo and scientific education. One of the Beethoven plans: to ensure that technically trained internationals continue to work in the Netherlands. Also, more women should choose engineering.

NSC wants to know how those government millions are going to provide extra technicians. The new education minister Eppo Bruins does not yet have a specific answer to that, but the companies and educational institutions can, for example, “develop programs to link international students to jobs in the microchip sector,” he suggests. They can also use the money to adapt their recruitment campaigns to break “gender bias".

Healthcare, education

There are more studies that need additional students, NSC notes. Consider nursing and teacher training programs. If you make engineering studies more popular, won't it be at the expense of health care and education?

The potential success of engineering studies may indeed come at the expense of health care and education, acknowledges Bruins (who, incidentally, sits on the cabinet on behalf of NSC). Therefore, according to the minister, the regions are working to “enlarge the pool of talent.” He mentions upskilling and retraining workers, but also “the targeted attraction of international talent.”

Home country

Other countries are also struggling with a shortage of technicians, he explains. One solution in those countries: once their engineering students have gone abroad, they want them to return to the “home country". He doesn't say it explicitly, but so the Netherlands is not the only country that is trying to attract these internationals.