Latvia–Lithuania Cross Border Cooperation Programme 2007–2013
Summary of the Thematic Capitalisation Report Labour Mobility Improvement of t and Employmen
2014
Summary of the Thematic Capitalisation Report
“Improvement of Labour Mobility and Employment” The field “Improvement of Labour Mobility and Employment” includes 43 projects with a total ERDF grant 21, 04 million euros. Projects have been divided into five pools based on their thematic focus: “Youth Development”, “Business and Employment Promotion”, “New Technologies”, “Life-long Learning” and “Accessibility and Mobility”. The pool “Youth Development” includes projects that ensure the professional development of the students and youth to be more competitive in the labour market or in the business. Projects mainly focus on following target groups: 1) students and young people, 2) teachers and the academic staff of the education institutions, 3) the employers as an indirect target group. Projects addressed different regional development problems: out-dated curricula that does not correspond to the labour market needs, lack of modern teaching tools and methods, the underdeveloped infrastructure and an equipment, weak cross border cooperation networks of the education and youth institutions. Besides before mentioned problems, some are still outstanding for future projects: it is important to continue increasing the prestige of the Vocational education and training, and encouraging young people and students to start their own business instead of just getting the theoretical knowledge in a business. Furthermore the implementation of the approach of “Creative metropoles” which is interrelated with almost all pools shall be continued. The thematic focus of the pool “Business and Employment Promotion” is related to the activities encouraging potential entrepreneurs and craftsmen to start the business or the self-employment, providing researches and other business related information for the development of the existing and new entrepreneurs, identifying and promoting the specialisation of the local economies of the municipalities, attracting investors to regions and reducing administrative barriers for the entrepreneurs. Projects focus on following target groups: 1) people willing to start the business (e.g. students) and business startups, 2) existing entrepreneurs and investors, 3) self – employed persons and craftsmen, 4) local municipalities and a society as indirect target groups. Main problems addressed by this pool are related to the lack of support initiatives for new entrepreneurs and persons willing to start a business, the lack of competitive and creative business ideas, ineffective public services hinder the development of entrepreneurs, low interest by investors to invest within the border regions. Further challenges to be address by new projects are related to the encouragement of local entrepreneurs to widen business opportunities, for instance, in using the franchise, as well as becoming as franchisors on the international level; the improvement of skills and experience of new entrepreneurs to move a company from the initiation to the growth phase. The idea of “THEME VILLAGES” forming specialised clusters of municipalities for the benefit of a local economy shall be further promoted.
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Projects within the pool “New Technologies” are related to the applied researches for the benefit of particular industries, the development of new technologies and the high level innovations, for instance in the space technologies, finding ways of adapting new industries in the programme area, e.g. planting the truffles or energetic trees in this area. Projects mainly focus on following target groups: 1) the scientists, researchers and other staff of the higher education and research institutions, 2) new and existing entrepreneurs or farmers. Project addressed challenges related to the increase of competitiveness, productivity and a high value added of entrepreneurs, development of new technologies and seeking for the possibilities to introduce new industries within Baltics. In order to optimise further benefits from the inventions got by scientists, these innovations shall better reach the industry and enter the market as new products or new technologies applied and used within the business. The “Life-long Learning” (further – LLL) projects contribute the development of the education and training facilities for the improvement of the skills of existing employees and adults, in general. Thus projects contribute to the employment promotion and increasing of the competitiveness of local inhabitants into the labour market. Projects mainly focus on adult people in a work age who are already employed or seek for the job opportunities. More closer cooperation with employers to ensure the increase of the qualification of employees according to the needs of the labour market as well as the development of smart solutions for better accessibility of LLL are outstanding. The main focus of the “Accessibility and Mobility” projects is related to the increasing the traffic safety in the border regions, improving the side infrastructure of highways, for instance, planning of the suitable rest areas for the drivers and tourists, and developing the transport infrastructure to improve the accessibility of municipalities on both sides of the border. The target groups of these projects are local inhabitants, tourists and other people travelling through the border regions. In next programme, detailed analyses of the needs of target groups are essential in all projects before drafting the project. For better achievement of project results and their exploitation among wider target groups, it is important to ensure cooperation of different stakeholders, e.g. educational institutions, policy makers, business support organisations and the industry/ business representatives. Projects have demonstrated innovative approaches and good practises to be transferred to other regions as the best experience. The good practice and the innovative approach of projects “Business library”, “Creative industries”, “THEME VILLAGES”, “Village Heritage”, “Region invest”, “Roadside rest areas” can be directly transferred and exploited by other regions. In turn, the approach applied by projects “Cross boarder JRTC”, “FruitTechCentre”, “Cross–border DISCOS”, “TRUFFLE”, “ENECO”, “LTLVMARINE”, “KEC”, “eBig3” can be learned and used in other sectors.
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The projects have denostrate several innovative solutions. For example, project „eBig3” has developed a completely new teaching method which uses the multi screen and multi content method. Other smart e-tools to be used within the learning process of students and adults have been developed within several projects, e.g. “Cross boarder JRTC”, “LTLVMARINE” and “KEC”. Projects “THEME VILLAGES” and “Village Heritage” used theories of clusters to foster “alternative” small business in the villages through identifying the specialisation of entrepreneurs and craftsmen of particular villages. Projects “ENECO” and “TRUFFLE” introduced new industries within Baltics. The idea of mobilisation of the human, technical and information resources for the promotion of the entrepreneurship has been developed within a project “Business Library”. The good practice in projects were seen by the development of new models for the public services to promote the employment; identifying and/ or developing the competitive advantages of the regions thus contributing to a local economy; step by step development – first understanding the context through the analysis and then acting; demonstrating the effective use of resources and the real added value of cross border cooperation; and involving different stakeholders. Project showed two types of synergies. First, the synergy between the projects solving similar problems: “Village Heritage” and “THEME VILLAGES” exploiting the idea of thematic cluster of villages. Projects “ENTERBANK” in the west and “Region Invest” in the east part of the programme area both cover the business incubation theme. Projects “TRUFFLE” and “ENECO” introduce new industries. Secondly, projects demonstrate synergies with other financial instruments brining maximum benefit for the regions. The project “F.A.R. Research” was continued in a wider partnership with Belarusian partners under the LV – LT – BY CBC ENPI Programme by establishing FRANCHISE HUB as a contact point for promoting franchising in Baltics and Belarus. Synergy of the “LTLVMARIME” project with other initiatives funded under ERDF, European Fishery Fund and own resources of the Lithuanian Maritime Academy gave a possibility to create a virtual ship consisting of different computerized simulators, e.g. Multifunctional navigational simulator, Engine room simulator, Cargo handling simulator, GMDSS simulator. All projects contribute to the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (hereinafter – EUSBSR). Most of projects (40) addressed the objective “Increase Prosperity”, and three projects addressed the objective “Connect the Region” of EUSBSR. All projects of this field have direct or indirect impact on at least one indicator of the objectives of EUSBSR.
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