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The meeting starts in English. Everyone nods, the agenda gets going, and then someone asks a question in Dutch. The answer comes back in Dutch too. Within five minutes the whole meeting has switched, and your new colleague from Spain sits there, watches it happen and slowly tunes out. Nobody...

You have just hired the international specialist you spent months looking for. The working language is English, the collaboration is going well, and on paper everything is sorted. Yet you see it happen in many organisations: a few years later that same person is gone. Not because the work disappointed...

Most teams in Dutch organisations speak decent English. Good enough for an email, a call with a foreign colleague, a presentation that just about lands. But between “decent” and “truly fluent” sits a grey zone that nobody measures, and that still costs time and money every week. This article is...

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes | Nicci Severens Sometimes you do not have six months. A new international role is around the corner, a foreign client is at the table, or a team suddenly has to meet in English next month. That is when you are not looking for a...

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Booking is one phone call. But what does your employee actually get after that? A behind-the-scenes look at the Summer Crash Course: five weeks of intensive language training. In our previous blog, why you book now and not in six weeks, we wrote about timing....

Summer is the best time of year to learn a language. Not because it sounds appealing, but because it actually works. Fewer meetings. Less deadline pressure. More headspace. Exactly the conditions under which people genuinely absorb and retain new skills. Not a rushed training day squeezed between two projects, but...

You have invested in language training. Your employees have started. So now what? At some point, someone asks the question: is this actually paying off? A director reviewing costs. A CFO asking about return on investment. Or you yourself, as an HR or L&D manager, needing to show that the...

Language training during the onboarding of expats is one of the most effective investments an HR professional can make, and one of the most underestimated. You found the best candidate. International talent, strong CV, enthusiastic during the interview. The first day goes well. And yet, a few months later, something...

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes The Energy Skills Programme is a preparatory programme by Refugee Talent Hub that prepares refugees for a technical job in the energy sector, with intensive Dutch language training as its foundation. In 2025, the first group of 15 participants successfully completed the programme. Language Partners...