Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher is to look into how the quality of integration courses for immigrants can be properly monitored, following questions about the lack of controls on companies with the ‘Blik op Werk’ trade mark.

The Telegraaf says on Tuesday that €42m was spent on integration courses last year, but that no one actually checks up on the education offered by integration institutes.

The ‘Blik op Werk’ trade mark was introduced several years ago in an effort to weed out cowboys. Immigrants can only get a government loan to pay for their integration course if they go to an approved school.

The Telegraaf says companies can get a preliminary certificate if they have qualified staff, a complaints procedure and a proper schedule. However, no one checks if qualified teachers actually teach and there are no classroom inspections.

The only controls the Blik op Werk foundation carries out is to check the administration – and this is carried out by appointment, the paper says.

Ratings

In addition, the ratings on the Blik op Werk website are often based on just a handful of comments from successful students, the Telegraaf says.

Minister Asscher told the paper that he planned to investigate how the controls can be tightened up, and if there is a role for the schools inspectorate.

There are currently 148 institutes on the Blik op Werk website which provide integration and language training.