Maria has first meeting with
students in the Netherlands
ROTTERDAM--Commissioner Maria Buncamper-Molanus met with students of Haagse Hogeschool on Thursday.
The Commissioner is on a week-long trip to the Netherlands to recruit professionals to fill critical vacancies within the new government organisational structure of country St. Maarten.
The main recruitment drive will take place during the Passaat Recruitment Days event on Saturday. In addition, the Commissioner added the session with the students of Haagse Hogeschool to motivate these students to return home after they have completed their studies.
She also gave a briefing on the constitutional developments.
This session, which attracted more than 50 students, was organised by St. Maarten Student Support Services (S4). S4 Director Linda Richardson and her staff were all in attendance. Also present were Head of the Study Financing Department Calvin Mardenborough, who is on a working visit to S4. Constitutional expert Mito Croes also attended on Richardson’s invitation.
It was the Commissioner’s second trip to the Netherlands to meet with students in a period of six months.
The St. Maarten delegation prepared its information booth for the Passaat event on Friday. A panel discussion entitled “Should I stay or should I go?” was held on Friday evening.
The Commissioner will make her official presentation at Passaat and will commence with appointments/interviews with potential employment candidates today, Saturday. These interview sessions run until Monday.
The Executive Council approved a budget of approximately NAf. 1.1 million that would allow government to hire persons. These vacancies are within the seven ministries for country St. Maarten and are essential to the constitutional process for St. Maarten to become an autonomous country within the Kingdom.
Two persons will be hired for each ministry to fill senior management level positions. They will be partly responsible, along with the other civil servants, for helping to establish the seven government ministries.
Three criteria have been established that determine how those vacancies will be filled: the person must have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree level of education; the vacancy must be difficult to fill; and it must be necessary to fill the vacant position as it is critical to the constitutional trajectory.
