Young people who want to improve their chances on the labour market would do better not to get a degree in economics or social-cultural disciplines. The Telegraaf reports this on the basis of figures from the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market. Study programmes in technology, education, and transport offer better prospects. The prospects of a job are also good for people pursuing a professional HBO programme or university degree.

VVD leader Mark Rutte's attack on former party colleagues Geert Wilders and Rita Verdonk in an opinion piece in the Volkskrant on Tuesday was not well received by the VVD faction. The GPD newspapers report on this. The faction was not informed about the article until shortly before publication. A few faction members think that Rutte has made his right wing rivals out to be bigger than they actually are. Others are not happy about the fact that Rutte wrote the article together with right wing columnist Joshua Livestro.

"You may be throwing away money when buying gifts," Charles Kalshoven of the economic bureau at the Postbank says in the Volkskrant on Wednesday. He says that gift-givers often fail at choosing the right gift. Research among Postbank customers indicates that a third would rather receive money than a gift. But that is not true for givers: only 15 percent prefer to give people money for their birthday. 40 percent of the gift recipients admit they re-gift presents that they don't want.

The GPD newspapers report a strong increase in the number of Romanian criminals in the Netherlands. Investigation bureau Ultrascan estimates that there are about 1,800 Romanians active in criminal circles here, while there are about 2,400 Romanians with an official work permit. The criminals specialise primarily in fraud with PIN passes and credit cards, robberies, break ins, human trafficking and prostitution. Ultrascan expects that the number can rise to 10,000 in the summer months.

Schools that allow their pupils to attend the national student demonstration on Friday are punishable by law, Ronald Zoutendijk of Ingrado, the association for mandatory school attendance and early school leavers, says in the GPD papers on Wednesday. Pupils should only be given a free day under very exceptional circumstance, which is not the case this Friday, Zoutendijk says. A number of schools are giving pupils permission to attend the demonstration planned in The Hague. They are overstepping their bounds by doing so, says Zoutendijk.
 
[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Subject: Dutch news