Director sometimes takes training money

Tekst Bea Ros - redactie het Onderwijsblad - 21 april 2022 - 6 Minuten om te lezen

Picture: Nanne Meulendijks

At the start of the school year, her director said: you have a training budget, take a look around to see if there is something for you, indicate what you would like to do, and we will see if that fits the possibilities.

Exactly as it should be, Nicole ter Harmsel, chief driver thinks AOb Rayon East and teacher in group 7 of primary school De Windhoek in Almelo. “All my colleagues are now following a training course. In recent years I have followed the training to become Learning to learn specialist and this year I'm doing a fear of failure course. These are all things that you can immediately apply in practice.”

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Eager to learn

It is a state of affairs that a teaching assistant at a primary school in North Holland can only dream of. She is eager to learn and regularly quarrels with her director and board about professionalization. “At the moment I pay for almost all education and textbooks myself,” says the teaching assistant, who does not want to be called by name because of the conflict on this subject.

“When I knock on my director's door, I always get the answer that she should check if there is still money.” Strange, she thinks, because it feels as if she is coming to beg, when she is entitled to it. “A director should not say see if i have moneybut Do you already know how you want to use your money?"

Some directors still do not realize that these are individual budgets

Dirk-Jan Jonkers, trade union consultant at the AOb, recognizes these kinds of sounds. “Some directors still don't realize that these are individual budgets. They throw all the professionalization funds in one heap and then it can happen that the money is gone when an employee wants to take a course. We get a lot of questions about that.”

Previously, professionalization funds were indeed allocated per school and the director determined how this was spent. If an employee took an expensive education or course, there was no money left for others. With a bit of bad luck you fished behind the net year after year. But since the latest collective labor agreement, this is no longer possible and everyone is entitled to training money.

Not only are some directors poorly informed, many employees are also not aware of their rights. Jonkers regularly receives calls about it and then he explains how it works and what they are entitled to. “With that knowledge, you are stronger in your negotiations with the director.”

Consultation

As an employee, are you free to determine how you spend your budget? Yes and no. The principal or school administrator cannot force you to take a particular course - at least not from your own budget. Team training and study days are a different story, but they are paid for from a different fund. According to the collective labor agreement, the employee and employer must agree on individual training in consultation.

“A unilateral obligation is therefore not possible. A director can of course give tips or recommend something, but the wishes of the employee are central," says Ter Harmsel. Of course you work at a certain school with a certain educational vision. “If you want to do a course that doesn't match that at all, you have to come up with good arguments.”

With a bit of bad luck you fished behind the net year after year

Hanneke Claessens, teacher in group 5/6 at Jenaplanschool De Sterredans in Nijmegen is never told 'no' from her director. “I am actually stimulated.” Over the past twenty years, she has attended various courses, attended conferences, completed a two-year course as a language expert and was a member of a reading club for children's literature.

“Personal interests and career, for me, they go hand in hand. Look, I'm not going to request a drawing or painting course from my director. It should not only enrich myself, but also be useful for my work and school.”

Picture: Nanne Meulendijks

The teaching assistant in North Holland has less positive experiences. Her school board buys courses every year from which employees choose. “Many colleagues therefore have the impression that they are not allowed to choose anything outside of this range. And it is not encouraged to do so. While there is so much interesting offer.”

And even within their own offer, people cannot always follow the course they want. A colleague was not allowed to take the 'With Sprongen Vooruit' course for arithmetic mathematics because, according to the board, there was already enough expertise in-house. “People just had to transfer that knowledge to colleagues.”

Furthermore, she now has to report in February which school she wants to do next school year. The teaching assistant thinks this is not convenient, because then you do not yet know in which group you will be working and which issues you will encounter. “Suppose you have a lot of children with specific learning difficulties, then I want to train myself in this. But that is not possible. I put a question to the participation council about this, but never got an answer.”

Participate

At Ter Harmsel's school, colleagues know who is doing which course. It is a fixed item on the agenda at team meetings: how are you doing and what have you learned?
Claessens would like that too. “Sharing with colleagues is often not an option for us due to a lack of time. You talk about it in the corridors and you give each other tips, but it doesn't happen on a structural basis."

Professionalization is also not a permanent part of her performance appraisals. “That's actually quite weird. I think that teachers should keep their knowledge up to date and in such a conversation you could make agreements about this together.”

The anonymous teaching assistant in North Holland has not had a performance interview for years, partly due to the many changes in the management. “I sometimes ask for it, but then I am told: we do the teachers first, they take precedence. Then it becomes difficult to discuss my ambitions.”

It is unclear exactly how much money is spent on individual professionalisation

Claessens also wonders what exactly happens to the budget that is not spent. At her school, money that is left over flows back to the general reserves of the school board. “It is unclear exactly how much money is being spent on individual professionalisation. That is not recorded per school and per foundation,” she says. “That is not only due to the management and board, but also to teachers themselves who are not aware of their duties and rights. Then I think: just read your collective labor agreement.”

She is also a member of the joint participation council and remembers that a question was once asked there about what is done with training money that remains on the shelf. “Perhaps a good one to bring up that point again.”

Rights and obligations

According to the latest collective labor agreement, employees, teaching and supporting education, are entitled to an individual professionalization budget of 500 euros per year (in 2020 and 2021 this was 600 euros due to an extra contribution from OCW) and two hours per working week with a full-time appointment. You can save the budget for three years, you can also cluster the hours. After consultation with the employer, the employee determines how he or she spends the budget.
Board members are entitled to an individual professionalization budget of 3.000 euros per year (3.100 euros in 2020 and 2021). This amount is higher because, because of the School Leaders Register PO, they are obliged to regularly undergo further training.

This article appeared in the April issue of the Education magazine, which is published eleven times a year AObmembers falls on the bus. Read more about all benefits from the AOb-membership.

Also read: 'Pay attention to your hours for sustainable employability'