Top reasons Brits should consider Brainport Eindhoven

Note: Jackie Harding, a British-born journalist and photographer, has lived in North Brabant for eight years. Jackie is one of millions of British citizens who will be impacted by Brexit. Jackie wrote this overview of life in Eindhoven to educate her fellow citizens about why they should seriously consider the Brainport region if they decide to work and live in the European Union.

If you have a background in engineering or IT, the Eindhoven region with its many innovative tech and IT companies in all sorts and sizes makes sense on so many levels, including pure proximity to England. Should you get homesick, you’re back in London, Manchester or Liverpool in an hour from Eindhoven Airport.

Not only does everyone here speak English, English is the main business language of the Netherlands and many university courses are taught in English. Many broadcast television shows are in English with Dutch subtitles, and it’s not unusual to hear Dutch people not just go back and forth between English and Dutch in ordinary conversations but speak to each other only in English!

The climate is basically the same as London’s with both cities weighing in at about 76 cm or 30 inches of annual rainfall. In our experience, Brits tend to come here and stay because the Netherlands looks and feels a lot like the UK but is a higher-functioning society with less crime and ethnic tension.

Overall, it’s considerably less expensive to live in Eindhoven than in major British cities, especially London.

As a Brit living in the Netherlands for eight years, I am happy to lay out the welcome mat for the disenchanted and to offer some words of encouragement as you pack your teabags and Marmite for your big adventure.

Brainport Eindhoven
The Brainport Eindhoven region is unique in Europe, with a sophisticated mix of innovative companies ranging from global tech giants to successful startups and scaleups. With top engineering programmes and a major research campus, Eindhoven is generating global buzz due to deep-tech partnerships with CERN, booming semiconductor companies and even solar cars. To complement the tech, there’s a tradition of creative, cutting-edge design here courtesy of Design Academy Eindhoven, with Dutch Design Week and other events drawing thousands each year.

Careers
In terms of careers, there are far more opportunities here than in Brexit Britain, especially for engineers, physicists and those with tech skills such as developers and coders. While London remains the financial capital of Europe, the tech industry here is deeper- and wider-ranging from Philips Healthcare and to emerging companies and future unicorns such as Lightyear and SendCloud. There are literally thousands and thousands of jobs here, including openings for people with “soft” skills such as management and marketing. You can check out all the tech & IT jobs in Brainport here.

Language
If you enjoy learning a new language, the Dutch offer a wide range of courses and schools to improve jouw nederlandse taal (your Dutch). If you’re having a difficult time working language classes into your day, this is a great country to live as almost everyone speaks some English and, if they are under the age of 30, they embrace the opportunity to show off their English skills. All students must graduate secondary school with a passing grade in English … and it shows.

My Dutch is minimal, but I am able to live my life here with some essential phrases and a little help from Google Translate. I find as time goes on that I absorb more than I realize. In my experience, doctors, hospitals, vets, banks – all the important contacts – speak English to some degree. Even when they say, “I only speak a little English,” it is invariably better than the Dutch most expats speak!

Read more about the high English proficiency in the Brainport regio

Travel
The UK is an easy destination from the Netherlands with frequent short flights from Amsterdam Schiphol, and Eindhoven Airport offers short flights to London Stansted, Manchester, and Edinburgh. I often drive to the UK, as it’s good to have your own transport on occasion. The drive is very straight-forward … 3 to 3.5 hours (if you avoid Antwerp’s rush hour) to Dunkerque or Calais, France for frequent ferry sailings or the Channel Tunnel.

Another benefit of living in the Netherlands is close proximity to many European countries. Germany, Belgium, and France are a day-trip away and many other areas are close enough for a weekend visit by car, train or cheap flights, all without borders. This is one of the benefits I love and embrace. I still get a thrill, even after eight years, when I can say to friends, “Oh, we popped over to Luxembourg for a weekend on the motorcycle!”

Healthcare
People in every country have concerns about their healthcare system, and the Netherlands is no exception. Everyone here pays for healthcare in their taxes for the basics and are also required to take out the mandatory health insurance after a four-month grace period. If you are from an EU country, these policies vary in price depending on your coverage.

My experience – and the experience of many other expats – is the waitlists for hospital and doctor appointments are much shorter than the UK, and the primary care from your Dutch GP can be very different. For example, doctors here are cautious about over-prescribing antibiotics or prescribing any drugs that can be addictive. The expat joke is that you go to the doctor for an ingrown toenail or serious back pain and they will suggest you, “Go home and take paracetamol!” That may be unfair, but the approach to primary care and preventative care in the Netherlands is very different from the UK. Different, but not bad.

Saying that, I have always felt my doctor takes me seriously, and my only wish is that routine checks for women such as breast and cervical screening were more frequent.

Furthermore, Eindhoven, being such an expat hub, has its own international health care facility, which approaches patients in a more familiar way called SGE international.

Education
Many families enroll their young children in local Dutch schools. Although they must speak Dutch, children, as we all know, are sponges when young and soon learn the language. Moreover, several schools in Brainport offer multilingual education even in primary and secondary schools, read more.

The Dutch education system is a familiar one at primary age with non-compulsory kindergarten at the age of four and primary education beginning at age five until 12 years old. Secondary schools are in three levels according to the child’s academic ability:

VMBO:  vocational level for four years, more practical and leading to Career Related Education
HAVO: middle level for five years, aiming at Universities of Applied Sciences after graduation
VWO: higher level for six years, theory-based in preparation for Research Universities

If you want your child to continue his or her education in English, there is International School Eindhoven, which covers primary and secondary education needs. It prides itself on small classroom size and integration of all culture.

Culture
Brits will find the Dutch interesting in their openness. The Calvinist theology has shaped society with its open “nothing to hide” approach and, consequently, it’s not unusual to see everyone’s blinds open at night or for a Dutch person to shock you with their frankness and honesty. It has taken me a while not to be taken aback by friend’s comments. They really do have similar humor, right down to the infamous British sarcasm.

I can also tell you, you’ll find a work environment far different from our British approach. The Dutch strive to work toward consensus and there are more meetings and discussions than in England. While corporations are, of course, hierarchical, Dutch executives give far more weight to the opinions, observations and suggestions of all employees.

Outside the office, there are plenty of misconceptions about life in the Netherlands.  Despite Amsterdam’s fame for “coffee shops,” most Dutch people are not frequent pot smokers and find it very bad manners if you smoke anything on the streets. They are actually quite an unpretentious people and don’t appreciate ostentation. They are also, like the Scots, famous for being thrifty.

Cycling here is a joy as cyclists are king, and the car drivers better believe it! The cycle paths are wide and often separate from the roads, making cycling an enjoyable alternative way to travel. As the country is (mostly) flat, there no hills to struggle up!

The Netherlands
OK, the country is very flat, but it is also beautiful, and once outside the cities, the landscape is stunning. The countryside is filled with green fields, woodlands, strange inland sand dunes, two substantial rivers and quaint little, historic towns filled with typical Dutch gabled houses and windmills. I am lucky enough to live in one of these cute towns, Heusden, and it truly is like living on a film set!

The Netherlands has a long undeveloped coastline as the dunes provide the country with flood defenses. Other than Scheveningen and Noordwijk, which are resort towns, you can walk for miles without seeing a single building. The sea mostly looks cloudy, but it and the beaches are clean.

Everyone knows Amsterdam, which is, of course, a feast for the eyes and filled with fantastic world-renowned museums, canals and fantastic restaurants, but outside of Amsterdam there are many cities worth a visit:

• Den Haag: the political hub of the Netherlands, close to the beach, historic and very multicultural
• Utrecht: a university city and one of the oldest cities in the country
• ‘s-Hertogenbosch: a lovely old medieval city and the birthplace of artist Hieronymus Bosch
• Maastricht: another university city close to the Belgian and German borders. Maastricht is the oldest city in the country and one of the oldest in Northern Europe.

There are many other enchanting cities worth exploring such as Delft, Leiden, Breda, and Groningen, and because the Netherlands is so small, all are easily accessible.

Eindhoven may not be picturesque or historic like Maastricht or Amsterdam, as it was on the front lines of the allied invasion in 1944. But it has its own definitive vibe and is well known as the technology and design hub of the Netherlands. Consequently, the Brainport region is very international, as the local industries attract people from around the world. Dutch Design Week, GLOW, the old industrial area known as Strijp-S all offer innovative ways to entertain with a great support network for newly relocated internationals.

The Netherlands is an easy choice for a Brit. English is the second language, the weather is familiar, the Dutch have comparable humor and, best of all, the UK is a short flight away for those homesick moments. So go grab your hat…this is a good place to hang it!

Visit the work part of our website for more information about the region and discover all tech & IT jobs in the region.