Ampliar: also strongly represented in the south of the country

For many years Ampliar has supported companies in the construction and infrastructure sector in fulfilling the Social Return obligation. The company operates nationwide and traditionally also has a strong focus on the south of the country. Therefore, in this edition of GWW/Bouwmat, we are pleased to give the floor to Margo van Dijk, Ampliar's South East Netherlands Regional Manager. She talks about Ampliar's unique working method and the many successful projects, such as the A2 School as a 'social development project' of the King Willem-Alexander Tunnel.

As part of corporate social responsibility, provinces and municipal governments impose a Social Return obligation of a significant portion of the total contract sum or wage bill when tendering for a project. "That amount must be spent on employing people with a distance to the labor market," says Margo. "Many companies find it difficult to implement this and therefore turn to Ampliar. We offer a supporting role from A to Z and are able to get people, who often have no experience in construction & infrastructure, to join us. And eventually even help them to a permanent job, because that is the starting point of Social Return."

A2 School

Ampliar has divided the Netherlands into four regions, one of which is the South East region. "Our focus is on the province of Limburg and the eastern part of Brabant up to Tilburg," explains Margo. "We have been active in this region since 2009 and, partly at the request of the municipality of Maastricht at the time, joined the project 'Undertunneling A2 Maastricht,' the current King Willem-Alexander Tunnel. From this project, the A2 School was established, a reintegration project focused on the infrastructure sector, where people were offered training in addition to Social Return for a structural and sustainable flow to a regular job in the region. This has proved to be a huge success. People who started as groundworkers are now working as superintendents, just to give a practical example."

Spider in the web

Another major infra project where Ampliar asserted its added value was the Buitenring Parkstad Limburg, the N300. "That too was a long-term project and enormously successful because of the good cooperation with the Social Return coordinator of the Parkstad region," says Margo. "Here we were the spider in the web to guide people with a distance to the labor market, train them where necessary and keep them employed for several years in order to enable a sustainable flow to regular employment. The province of Limburg even conducted research at one point into the success of both projects in terms of Social Return," Margo knows. "One of the main success factors turned out to be the good internal communication between Ampliar and all parties involved through locally present contact persons who take their responsibility and switch quickly with each other."

Besides these large-scale infra projects, the smaller projects where we can place one or two people for Social Return are just as important to us, Margo assures. "For example, we are currently involved in infra projects in the Weert, Eindhoven and Venlo region." Ampliar is PSO 30+ certified and thus, in the procurement law, equated to a sheltered workshop. "It is deductible for the full 100%. Not only the labor costs, but also the guidance and training costs."