Education subsidies to highly educated

16 March 2007

BRUSSELS – More than 213,000 Flemings applied for educational grants for additional training, almost three times the number than when the programme was started in 2003, far exceeding the Flemish government’s expectations.

But Flemish MP Hilde Crevits (Flemish Christian Democrats CD&V) says there are also anomalies. The astronomical success of the plan is also accompanied by sky-rocketing costs.

“The cost of the plan did increase from EUR 9 million to EUR 26 million in 2006,” Crevits said.

Furthermore it emerged that mainly highly educated individuals made use of the grants.

“They were initially intended to offer extra training to unskilled adults, but in practice mainly highly-educated people have made use of the funds to finance extra study at university or schools of professional education. Moreover some people even used the grants for hobby courses like gardening, music or dance. We have to make sure that the training being followed is primarily aimed at furthering someone’s career,” Crevits said.

Subject: Belgian news