Turn your transitievergoeding into a new tech career
Dutch statutory severance is one third of a month's salary for every year of service, capped at EUR 102,000 gross in 2026, and the law is explicit that it exists to ease your transition into new work. Retraining is one of the things it is for. Arrange it before you sign your settlement and your employer can pay the Code Labs Academy course directly, so that part of the money never becomes taxed income.
Severance money is transition money, and retraining is what it is named for
Being told your job is going is a bad day. It is also the one moment in a Dutch career when a lump sum arrives that is explicitly meant for the problem you now have: finding different work. The transitievergoeding is not a favour and not a negotiated extra. It is a statutory right under article 7:673 of the Burgerlijk Wetboek, owed to employees whose contract the employer ends or chooses not to renew, and it is calculated at one third of a month's salary for every year of service, up to a maximum of EUR 102,000 gross as of 1 January 2026. Almost nobody reaches that ceiling. Real payouts usually land somewhere between EUR 5,000 and EUR 25,000, and that is the range worth paying attention to, because it overlaps almost exactly with the cost of a full Code Labs Academy bootcamp. The name tells you what the money is for. It is a transition allowance, intended to help you move into new work, and retraining is one of the uses the law has in mind. There are two ways to spend it on a course, and the difference between them is real money. Either your employer pays the training directly and deducts that amount from your vergoeding, with your written consent given in advance, in which case that part of the money goes to the school without income tax coming off it first. Or you take the payout, it is taxed as income like any other pay, and you pay the school from what is left. Both routes work and both are entirely normal. The first is cheaper, and it is only available in a window that closes the day you sign the vaststellingsovereenkomst. One thing you do not have to worry about at all: there is no accreditation question here. The money is yours, so Code Labs Academy can be paid by you or invoiced to your departing employer like any other supplier. What this page cannot do is tell you what your own situation is worth or what you should sign. Get that checked by a lawyer, your union or het Juridisch Loket before you agree to anything, because the order in which things happen decides how much of this money reaches your new career.
Employees dismissed at the employer's initiative. If the company ends your contract, whether through UWV, through the kantonrechter or during a reorganisation, the transitievergoeding is a statutory entitlement, not something you have to win. It follows your Dutch employment contract, so nationality and residence are not conditions.
Including a fixed-term contract that simply is not renewed. This is the one people most often miss. If your temporary contract ends because the employer chooses not to extend it, that also counts as ending at the employer's initiative, and the vergoeding is owed.
There is no minimum length of service to clear. The calculation is proportional, so a short contract produces a small amount rather than nothing at all. If you have been there years, the sum is usually large enough to change what is realistically possible next.
If you resigned, this is not your route. The transitievergoeding follows dismissal by the employer. The law also recognises a small number of situations where the entitlement can be reduced or lost, which is one of several reasons to have your case looked at before you sign anything.
Leaving by mutual agreement is a negotiation, not an automatic right. When you exit through a vaststellingsovereenkomst rather than a formal dismissal, the amount is whatever you and the employer agree. In practice the transitievergoeding is the floor most of these negotiations start from, so know your figure before the first conversation.
No provider approval applies to any of this. Because the money is yours, nobody vets the school. There is no Dutch keurmerk, register or accreditation to check, and an online English-language bootcamp is treated the same as any other purchase you make with it.
Frequently asked questions
What if my employer refuses to pay the course directly out of the vergoeding?
Then you take the payout, which is yours either way, and you pay us yourself. You lose the tax advantage, not the money. Ask for the reason first, because it is often administrative rather than principled: some finance teams simply do not want to process a foreign invoice or to complicate an already agreed settlement. Offering a quote that is ready to pay, with the amount and the payment terms already set out, removes most of that friction. If the answer stays no, the course is still reachable: interest-free monthly instalments up to 60 payments paid directly to Code Labs Academy, a discount for paying the full fee upfront, and the other discounts on our site. The vergoeding then becomes your deposit rather than your whole budget.
I have already signed my vaststellingsovereenkomst. Have I missed the tax advantage?
Probably, and it is better to hear that straight than to be strung along. The offset only works if your written consent to deduct the training costs is given before the costs are made, which in practice means before the settlement is finalised. Once the vergoeding has been agreed as a cash sum and processed through payroll, it is income like any other. Ask your adviser whether anything in your particular agreement can still be reopened, but do not plan on it. What you have not lost is the money itself, or the course. Most people who fund a bootcamp this way pay from the net payout, and you can spread the rest over interest-free instalments.
Is the transitievergoeding taxed?
Yes, when it is paid out to you. It counts as income and the employer withholds payroll tax on it before it reaches your account, so the figure in your settlement is gross and what you actually receive is lower. Plan with the net amount. This is exactly why the offset route is worth asking about: the portion that the employer pays directly to a training provider is not paid out to you as income at all, so it is not reduced by income tax first. Your own tax position depends on your income for the year, so if the sum is large, have an accountant or your adviser look at the timing with you.
Can I claim WW and do the bootcamp at the same time?
You may well be entitled to WW after a dismissal, and plenty of people retrain while receiving it, but do not assume that studying is automatically permitted or that it excuses you from the obligations attached to the benefit. UWV looks at your availability for work and your job-search activity, and the answer depends on your hours, your programme and your individual situation. Put your specific plan to UWV before your course starts and get their answer in writing rather than working it out afterwards. Our part-time bootcamps run live outside standard working hours, which makes that conversation easier, but it is still UWV's call, not ours. Separately, UWV only purchases training from providers admitted to its Inkoopkader Scholingsdiensten, which we are not, so this page is about your own money rather than about UWV buying the course for you.
Does an online course from a foreign provider count?
For this route, yes, and that is the point of it. Nobody has to approve the provider, because you are spending your own severance rather than public or pooled training money. There is no Dutch keurmerk to produce, no register to appear in, and no application anyone can reject on those grounds. Code Labs Academy is a German company and is AZAV-certified there, which carries no legal weight in the Netherlands and we will not pretend otherwise. It is a quality signal, and for this route nothing more than an invoice is needed. It is worth being clear about where that stops: UWV's Inkoopkader and several regional scholingsvouchers and O&O funds do require Dutch keurmerken such as CRKBO or NRTO, which we do not hold. Those doors are closed to us today. This one is not.
My vergoeding is smaller than the course fee. Is this still worth doing?
Usually yes, because it changes the size of the problem. A EUR 8,000 vergoeding against a EUR 12,000 programme leaves a gap you can spread over interest-free monthly instalments, up to 60 payments, paid directly to Code Labs Academy. Two other things are worth checking before you conclude the gap is too big. First, a new employer can fund training completely tax-free under the studiekostenvergoeding route, so if you land a role part-way through, the remaining fee is a reasonable thing to negotiate into the offer. Second, do not count on deducting the course yourself: the personal deduction for study costs in the Dutch income tax return was abolished on 1 January 2022. If you are self-employed, training that serves your business is a different matter and one for your accountant.
Get personalised advice
Looking for guidance on how to finance your bootcamp? Book a one-on-one consultation with our education specialists. We can help you compare discounts, payment plans, and financing partners, and, if you’re in the Netherlands, talk through common routes such as employer sponsorship (opleidingsbudget), sector O&O funds, SLIM for eligible employers/SMEs, UWV support (where eligible), or DUO’s lifelong learning credit for recognised programmes (where eligible).
