Transnational kick-off meeting in Belgium

0 Posted by - July 13, 2017 - Uncategorized

Marja-Liisa Ruotsalainen, Antti Meriö, Marcus Penttinen, Mervi Leminen and Tanja Rimpilä

After the Easter the representatives of Finnish SMErec consortium, both from Joensuu and Turku traveled to Belgium to meet transnational project partners in the city of Ghent. The main idea of the trip was to meet transnational partners and to have the first transnational kick-off meeting, organized by the HoGent College University. The key purpose of the meeting was to create a common vision and the framework for transnational cooperation. The kick-off meeting was held in the beautiful city of Ghent, the Flemish-speaking area of Belgium.

Wednesday 19th of April 2017, Gent
We spent the day in Hogent College University having our first transnational meeting. The Finns met Belgian and German partners for the first time in the meeting.

Picture 1: Transnational project partners

At the beginning of the kick-off meeting, the Belgium partner as the coordinator of the transnational project reported other partners the status of the transnational project. Because most of the project partners hadn´t met each other before we introduced ourselves and our national projects.

In Finland more than 99 % of companies are SMEs. In Belgium, the percentage is 54. SMEs are facing many challenges in their selection processes. Many times the selection decisions of the companies are based mostly on a good feeling. The objective of the national project in Belgium is to develop selection processes of SME´s and to promote of non-discriminating employment practises.

From the public recruitment services point of view the situation is very similar to Finland. The services are fragmented, both from the jobseekers’ and the employers’ point of view.

German partner the Hochschule Hartz was also interested in the selection, especially competencies and data analysis in selection processes. Objective of the project is to develop a digital tool and the target group is primarily the health care.

The Finnish consortium introduced the SMErec project. The transnational partners considered the amount of companies in project significant. The SMErec also differs from other national projects because it provides recruitment training for companies and university students and involves students to the development of digital tools.

Thursday 20the of April 2017, Ghent and Brussels
On Thursday morning the Belgium partner arranged us a city tour in amazing old town of Ghent.

Picture
3: Old town of Ghent

After the city tour we travelled to Brussels. Where we first met the personnel of EU-offices of Eastern and North-Finland and Southwest Finland. Then we went together to meet Juuso Stenfors, the Desk officer/Programme Manager in DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion in European Commission.


Picture 4: Administration Buildings of European Commission, Le Charlemagne ja Lex

Picture 5: Our consortium in Brussels, in right Mr Stenfors

Overview:

The kick-off meeting was very successful and an excellent start for a wide transnational co-operation. Each one of the transnational partner had significant expertise to offer for co-operation. The visit to Commission was very comprehensive. Our meeting focused on several themes around EU and ESF-programme. We got a lot of up-to-date information of the EU Commission practices.

Other good memories

The Ghent turned out to be a very active student city. Besides to our partner University HoGent, there were also other higher education institutions. About 20 % of the residents were students, and with a population of about 250,000 people, the street picture was very modern. The city of Ghent has a long history. The old town is large and architecturally coherent. The number of bicycles was noteworthy.

Picture 6. View of old town Ghent