New Skills for New Jobs Lars Vildbrad, Deputy Director Regional Development, Central Denmark Region Challenges and Partnerships in Central Denmark Region

Local government reform The new regions 19 Region Sealand Region South Denmark Central Denmark Region – 22% of the Danish population Region North Jutland Aalborg  Viborg Vejle  Hillerød  Sorø Region Greater Copenhagen

East - West

Regional tasks  Health health service, hospitals, GPs and medical specialists  Psychiatry and social care  Regional development regional spatial planning and regional development: Business development, education, employment, culture, and tourism.

Structure Regional Council 41 members Executive committee 19 members Committees Growth Forum 20 members Coordinative Committee Chairman and 19 mayors Regional administration

Growth Forum – strategic focus  Education and skills development  Innovation and it  Entrepreneurship and business development  Rural development  Internationalisation Clusters  Energy and environment  Foods  Business/Health

New Challenges  A growing (national) need for qualifications  More young people must seek education at a higher level than primary and secondary lower level - 20% do not!!  An active adult and further educational system which can continuously educate people to match the demand for new qualifications.  “Lifelong learning” as an important focus area for the companies in Denmark in order to meet the challenges in a globalised knowledge economy.

The necessary interaction between educational institutions and companies Primary school Secondary school (38) Business college (20) Technical college (20) Adult educational center (11) VIA University College employees full-time students several thousand part time students Aarhus University employees students Labour market Private sector Public sector Youth education and adult education and training

So what have we done in Central Denmark Region?  It is a regional task to enable the relevant match between qualifications demanded and supplied  “KompetenceMidt”: A network and partnership organization – 1 board and 6 partnerships  Marketplace for highly educated employees  Entrepreneurship – part of the education  How to integrate the foreign students – and make them stay in Denmark  Scientific and engineering

Job center Other networks Business bureau - Technical College Business College Adult education center Social and health care school Language school Education Center Labour market Representatives Job center KompetenceMidt

Market place for highly educated employees  Focus on demand as well as supply  Canvassing SMEs regarding their possible need for highly educated employees (using student internships/projects as an ”ice breaker”)  Initiatives on universities aimed at increasing student’s interest in SMEs as their future workplace  Broad scope, not only engineers and business economists!

Some of the positive results:  A single entrance to further education in Central Denmark  6 well-functioning partnerships (they present to the companies the entire range of education offers)  A cooperation between the consultants of the business service system and the consultants of the educational institutions  A well-functioning corps of educational consultants organized in partnerships

Key messages  The Danish Flexicurity Model – encouragement to seek education  One entrance – for companies and for employees - to new qualifications  Flexibility – possibility to adapt the educational supply in order til meet the demand  Focus – the importance of regional focus and partnerships