Based on Skills was named winner in the Small Business category at the 2025-2026 Enterprise of the Year election . The jury praised the company's innovative approach to the labour market: it is no longer diplomas or CVs that are central, but skills and potential. In this way, Based on Skills responds to the growing need for equal opportunities and better use of young talent.
Founder Kevin van Windt worked for years with young people on their path towards a stable place in society through his company Young Ambition. In that practice, he saw daily where things get stuck in the labour market. "A lot of young people are rejected on the basis of not enough work experience. This puts you in a vicious circle: if you don't get a chance to gain experience, you can never fulfil it," Van Windt says.
It is all about skills
That experience led to a fundamental question: what really makes someone fit for a job? According to Van Windt, those are skills. "Ultimately, employers are concerned with how someone performs in the workplace. If you do well, you do well. That is independent of a diploma." Based on that belief, Based on Skills was developed: a platform that connects employers and jobseekers based on soft skills, talent and competences.
Making skills visible
To make skills concrete and visible, Based on Skills developed its own assessment. Using easily accessible multiplechoice questions, users gain insight into their personal skillset. "Many people don't know what skills they have. This is even more so for young people, because they haven't discovered it yet," Van Windt explains. The assessment produces a top five skillset, which users can modify or refine themselves.
Future-proof vacancies
It also supports employers in revamping their recruitment. According to Van Windt, many vacancy texts are outdated and insufficiently attuned to the current labour market. Based on Skills therefore developed an AI tool that rewrites vacancies into appealing texts that are better suited to Gen Z. At the same time, the system automatically filters out relevant skills from the job, making the match with jobseekers transparent and clean.
Direct match
Linking the skills of job seekers to the skills demanded in vacancies creates an instant and clear match. "The jobs come along while swiping. Really like Tinder, but for work," says Van Windt. Based on Skills thus positions itself not as an employment agency, but as a platform where supply and demand come together directly.
Also come to Almere
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