Aveiro, Portugal –
From 2018-2022, the City of Aveiro (Portugal) ran the Aveiro STEAM city project to help the city transition into a digital, knowledge-based economy.
Central to the project was the provision of training and skills development in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM).
The main objectives of the Aveiro STEAM City Project were twofold. First, the ambition was to ensure that the education system provides people with the skills required in the local labour market in the context of the ongoing digital transition and an increasing shortage of digital skills in the local workforce. Second, the project also aimed to encourage companies to rethink the resources they need to innovate, grow, and establish means of to a attract a new range of talent in the STEAM domains. Thanks to the development of digital talent and the integration of new technologies such as 5G and IoT (Internet of Things) into the city’s activities, the project also contributed to increasing productivity, offering better-paid and more sustainable jobs, and improving competitiveness nationally and globally.
The Aveiro STEAM City Project was organised in four implementation axis: 1) Education, 2) Training, 3) Technology, Services and Apps and 4) Challenges. Within each of these areas, a wide catalogue of activities was developed and offered to individuals or businesses.
Among other things, the City of Aveiro established 31 tech labs, a STEAM educational programme for primary schools, and two other labs in the Municipal Citizenship House and the municipal library. As part of the tech labs in schools and over a 12-month period, students could acquire work experience and obtain a professional certification within the STEAM domains. The project also included the organisation of coding boot camps to give unemployed people, students and professionals who want to change careers, the opportunity to work as software developers in local companies. For example, a 28-week Java Script boot camp, which combines classroom and on-the-job training, was organised by the City of Aveiro and Academia de Código. The cost was shared between participants and the city and local companies. The City of Aveiro also established Digital Urban Platform to collect data and a Labour Observatory to assess the skills needed in the local economy and to design short-term courses that meet labour market needs.
The development and implementation of the project have been based on close cooperation between the local authority and public and private partners in the city. Among the main stakeholders involved in the project was the City of Aveiro, the Instituto de Telecomunicaoes (R&D Institute), the Altice Labs (R&D Institute), the Universiade de Aveiro (University and Research Centre), CEDES (University and Research Centre) and INOVARIA (an association of businesses). The Municipality and its partners all shared the same vision and are now, collectively, still working to promote the economic development of Aveiro and promote the attraction, retention or creation of new talents.
In terms of the development of digital technologies in the city, a key outcome of the project was the establishment of the Aveiro Tech City Living Lab, which provides a connected digital infrastructure through the city of Aveiro supported by fibre link technology, reconfigurable radio units, 5G-NR radio and 5G network services. In order for local start-ups and scaleups to develop and test their projects and benefit from the Aveiro Tech City Living Lab, two Urban and 5G Challenges were organised. The challenges to be addressed through these competitions were directly proposed by the municipality or by other stakeholders in order to tackle and resolve urban issues.
The Aveiro STEAM City Project ran from 2018 to 2022 and was supported by funding from the European Regional Development Fund within the European Programme Urban Innovative Actions (UIA).
According to the data collected throughout the project, with training and steam education activities, partners were able to: 1) Increase the STEAM and digital skills by 69% in unemployed people and 82% in the school community (teachers and students); 2) Increase the opportunity for participants to obtain better paying, more sustainable, productive, and qualified jobs by 80%; and 3) Include 75% of trained participants into the job market. In particular, the Tech City Bootcamps were successful in redirecting individuals’ careers in order to enter the labour market as develops. Moreover, data from surveys also shows that Aveiro is now considered to be a welcoming environment for start-ups, companies, R&D Centres and other players in the domain of technological innovation. Lastly, through the development of the 5G infrastructure, the city has now reached 100% coverage of 5G communication services in the defined area.
The Aveiro STEAM City Project shows how skills challenges and shortages can be addressed through strong collaboration with educational institutions and businesses in a city or local area. It also shows how cities or local areas can develop their own labour and skills forecasts (through the Labour Observatory), which can lay the ground for the development of tailor-made training and education offers. Lastly, it shows how training and education strategies can be combined with strategies for local development – in this case through the transition of the local economy into a knowledge-based economy.
OECD (2022), "Future-proofing adult learning systems in cities and regions: A policy manual for local governments", OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Papers, No. 2022/03, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/11fa26cc-en.
