Meet Mateusz Boczkowski
Mateusz Boczkowski is the owner and founder of Hollcert B.V. Born and raised in the south of Poland. Together with his fiancée Magdalena he is the proud parents of 3 children (Igor, Pascal and Hana). His working day consists of keeping the (financial) administration up to date, planning trainers and locations, telephone outside office hours and keeping an overview. Since training is given 7 days a week, he also works 7 days a week. Therefore, he does not have much free time. He likes to spend it with his family, playing sports and relaxing.
How did Hollcert training & coaching start?
In 2010, when I was 30, I came to the Netherlands as a migrant worker. I had completed my studies and gained work experience in Poland. My oldest son had just been born and I wanted more financial security for my family. In the Netherlands, like many migrant workers, I started in a distribution centre. There, I immediately saw opportunities to train migrant workers in their own language. By asking help from people I had met, I was able to start Hollcert. You can read more about this at the bottom of this page and on the previous page. I am very grateful for the help I received and the friendships (with Dutch people) that developed from this.
What do you appreciate about the Netherlands?
The best things about the Netherlands are the structure and the fact that all the people in the street generally have a cheerful “carefree” face. That fits in perfectly with my life motto. I like to make people happy. If others are happy, then I am happy too. When at the end of the day everything is finished and all candidates and employees are home happy and healthy, I am completely satisfied.
You have made a conscious choice for large training locations. Can you explain this in more detail?
Other trainers often choose several small locations spread over the country, so that the candidates have a shorter travelling distance. However, I see more advantages to a large location;
- More trucks are available, so candidates can do more practical hours
- Guarantee that training is given 7 days a week
- Differentiation, we have the largest multilingual training site in Europe
- Multiple trainers available, allowing candidates to switch between groups and receive as much tailor-made training as possible
We notice that candidates come from all over the country, Belgium and Germany. That shows me that it is no problem for them to travel a slightly longer distance for a good training course.
Waalwijk is located in the logistical heart of the Netherlands. So that was no coincidence?
That is correct. The first training location was in Nederweert. A logical choice for me at the time. TWhen this became too small, we moved the training location to Waalwijk. The heart of the logistics centre of the Netherlands. It was of course an exciting step to start a larger location with more costs and risks. This was necessary for growth and I saw enough opportunities to make it work. After that, a training location was also opened in Eindhoven, where the office is located. It is very nice to see that with our training courses, we offer candidates more opportunities on the Dutch labour market. More about our locations and possibilities can also be read on the about us page.
Mateusz as one of the founders of foreign-language training courses
Finally, we spoke with Rick Wigman (Owner Romaxi Holding BV) about getting to know Mateusz and the development of their friendship.
The acquaintance
Mateusz and Rick met when Rick was the in-house trainer for specific forklift truck training. One day he had to give a training in Weert and Mateusz was one of the students. Rick noticed that Mateusz learned very quickly and had a lot of questions. He was very curious how it works in the Netherlands when it comes to training. Rick found Mateusz a clever boy and thought “he will understand”.
The beginning of a friendship
Six months later Mateusz called Rick to have coffee with him, because he had plans to start his own business and was looking for help to do so. What Rick did not know is that since that training (so half a year) Mateusz was sitting with Rick’s card in his hand every day, hesitating to call him. Rick immediately decided to make an appointment because of Mateusz’ motivation and interest. This led to intensive contact and a beautiful friendship in which they help each other.
Entrepreneurial spirit
Rick likes to see how Mateusz, as one of the founders of foreign language training, has brought Hollcert to a successful company. Mateusz’ strength lies in daring to do business, investing and taking risks. Rick has a lot of appreciation for how Mateusz does everything and is glad that he was able to contribute to the success.