The following two case studies (based on an interview with a process supervisor) show how clients with different learning levels are going through the guidance process in the municipality of Emmen. For both clients, Dutch is not their mother tongue. This is characteristic of the group of clients from the municipality of Emmen who agree to take language lessons. Virtually all clients whose mother tongue is Dutch refuse to take language lessons (more about this in chapters 8, 9 and 10 of the national evaluation report).
Client 1: a highly educated woman from England, who speaks no Dutch at all and progresses quickly.
- Arrival at the training and diagnostic centre: the client has applied for social security benefits and came to the training and diagnostic centre the same week (this is the procedure for all clients who apply for social security benefits).
- Administering Literacy Screener and interview about the outcome: the client comes from England and did not yet speak any Dutch. The communication was therefore entirely in English. For this reason, she did not do the Literacy Screener, but she went directly to the appointment with the language point coordinator.
- Referral to education: the language point coordinator connected the client to a volunteer. As of November 2016, they meet each other once per week for a 1.5 hour language lesson.
- Results (so far): the language lessons are still in progress. The client is a highly educated woman who is very motivated to learn the Dutch language. The lessons are going well, she is making good progress. She began with learning basic skills. For instance, she can now count and knows the seasons, months and the days of the week. She can also greet people, introduce herself and ask people she meets a few questions. Her vocabulary is growing, which enables her to be understood in many everyday subjects. She has formulated the goal for herself at least to be able to partially speak Dutch during a job interview.
- Overall experience of the client: the client is very ambitious and very much enjoys the language lessons. In her daily life, she has few people around her with whom she can speak Dutch, which sometimes makes practicing outside the lessons difficult.
Client 2: a client whose mother tongue is not Dutch, with low language and computer skills. She is progressing slowly.
- Arrival at the training and diagnostic centre: the client has applied for social security benefits and came to the training and diagnostic centre the same week (this is the procedure for all clients who apply for social security benefits).
- Administering Literacy Screener and interview about the outcome: the client was completely overwhelmed. In the 12 minutes available, she answered 10 of the 24 questions, of which she had 5 correct. This score is a strong indication of low literacy. In a conversation with the client, it was clearly audible that she has a lot of difficulty with the Dutch language. Her vocabulary was limited and she had difficulty with reading comprehension. It was also not a surprise to the client herself that she had obtained a poor score.
- Referral to education: the language point coordinator connected the client to a volunteer. The client was eager to take language lessons and started them quite quickly. As of August 2016, she takes weekly language lessons at the language point. This involves practical exercises with reading and writing, for example using a book, newspaper or the internet. She also does exercises on the computer to improve her computer skills.
- Results (so far): the client still finds the Dutch language very difficult. Her vocabulary is still limited, as a result of which she quickly loses the thread when reading a text or in conversation with other people. The client has not formulated a specific goal. Although her language skills are progressing slowly, she believes that the language lessons are helping her. Her computer skills are progressing more quickly.
- Overall experience of the client: the client very much likes the support from the volunteer. Her motivation is evident from her persistence: she has been coming to the language point for lessons every week for almost seven months.
