Visit by students of The Hague University of Applied Sciences to the Social and Economic Council (SER) of Curaçao

As part of their study at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (HHS), in which they followed a Minor and/or Major in Kingdom Relations, a group of 40 students of The Hague University of Applied Sciences are currently making a 12-day visit to Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire. They are visiting various institutions (including the Social and Economic Council, the Representation of the Netherlands in Willemstad and the Board of Financial Supervision), in order to become better acquainted with them and also to see if they would like to do an internship at one of these institutions.

Like last year, a closer acquaintance with the Secretariat of the Social and Economic Council (SER) of Curaçao was on the program. As a result of last year’s visit, two students from the HHS are currently doing internships at the SER: Maxence Vrede and Tara Ottenheim. These students were in charge of organizing this time.

After an introductory quiz that tested the knowledge about the SER of Curaçao among the visiting students – which showed that they had prepared themselves well in terms of content – the Director/General Secretary of the SER, Mr. R. Henriquez, elaborated on the objectives and the role of the SER, its composition, its advisory work and other activities. Current affairs were discussed, as well as the international role of the SER of the leeward island. The interns gave a presentation to their fellow students about their experiences with the internship, and their internship supervisor, Ms. Barbara Perquin, Sr. advisor at the SER, elaborated on the internship possibilities and requirements.

Many relevant questions were asked by the students, and some already expressed interest in doing an internship at the SER of Curaçao.

Due to the high number of visitors, it was unfortunately not possible to organize the meeting at the SER itself; the National Archives was kind enough to make their auditorium available, with a sandwich lunch to be enjoyed on the porch afterwards. This also allowed the students to get to know the beautiful “Bolo di Batrei” (Wedding Cake), as the monumental building in Scharloois also called.