UIA projects contributing to inclusive and smart growth: Report reflecting experiences and first lessons now available

In early 2018, the four UIA Experts working with the four projects selected under the jobs and skills topic in the first Call for Proposals got to work on collecting and reflecting on the first lessons emanating from the innovative solutions being implemented in Bilbao, Madrid, Milan and Rotterdam. The four projects are now in the second of the three years of implementation.

The UIA Experts identified four questions around which the most valuable lessons were being generated:

1. How important is industry clustering in these projects’ approaches to supporting the jobs and skills agenda?
2. How are the four city authorities evolving their roles as brokers in the approach to jobs and skills development?
3. How are the four cities developing place-based approaches to jobs and skills?
4. What can the four projects say about city approaches to talent management?

In order to answer these questions, UIA Experts worked with the projects to gain further insight and it allowed them to find the most relevant and common elements to be shared with other cities across the EU. A capitalisation workshop was held on 22 June 2018 in Brussels to deepen the conversation around the four questions with participants from other Member States and Institutions. Policy input from DG Regional and Urban Policy as well as DG Employment, social affairs and inclusion stressed the key role that cities should play in shaping smart and inclusive economies especially when looking at the post-2020 Cohesion Policy framework.

This final report builds upon the introductory paper published in June 2018.

Read the publication and learn from the main lessons of the first generation of jobs and skills projects.

Learn more about the implementation of the projects under the jobs and skills topic by reading the UIA Expert Journals in the individual project webpages.