Vantaa, Finland—
The city of Vantaa, Finland, has launched the Urban Growth project to co-create and test innovative solutions to support the local SMEs and their employees through up-skilling, re-skilling and investing in digitalisation.
The project contributed to the development of a skills ecosystem and the creation of new jobs.
The key objective of the Urban Growth project is to identify innovative solutions that support company’s growth and enable skills development of their employees, in response to the needs of Vantaa-based SMEs and technological change.
The City of Vantaa faces challenges related to the low skill levels of their workforce, which impact SMEs competitiveness, especially in the era of digitisation and automation. The Urban Growth project was co-created thanks to the collaboration between the city, education providers, businesses and research institutes. These stakeholders addressed issues related to employment, competence development and digitisation. The Urban Growth Vantaa project targeted low educated adults who are employed and need guidance and support in improving their skills. The project is structured around the following steps:
1. SMEs receive stimulus and support in sustainable growth, competence development and technological change.
2. SMEs start investing time in employees’ education and training.
3. SMEs’ employees, especially those with low skill levels, learn new skills and earn new degrees.
4. SMEs’ efforts in growth and social investments are supported by a firm-specific project account manager.
Due to SMEs’ resource constraints, the Urban Growth Vantaa project launched the idea of a project account manager to help employees in their specific learning needs, whether they are vocational or academic, and remains in contact with the company for a long time.
The main stakeholders involved in the project are the city of Vantaa are education and research institutes, including the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Vantaa Vocational College, Etla – The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, and the Labour Institute for Economic Research LABORE, Helsinki Region Chamber of Commerce, and a range of private companies.
The project has reached 70 SMEs and provided training or support to 714 adults. An evaluation to measure the impact on the programme in terms of recruitment, improvement and updating of skills, digitalisation, growth and productivity was conducted by an external research institute. Unfortunately, due to the relatively low response rate to surveys shared with participating firms, the final results of the evaluation lacked statistical significance which made it difficult to draw any meaningful conclusions.
The programme highlighted that it is fundamental to collaborate with employers and encourage them to change their behaviour with regards to recruitment, upskilling of employers, and strategies for long-term productivity and growth. Another important aspect is the implementation of an impact evaluation that can measure the progress of the programme. This would highlight whether changes in the delivery are needed and can help policy makers assess whether the initiative has been a good investment.
OCDE (2023), Policy Options for Labour Market Challenges in Amsterdam and Other Dutch Cities, OECD Reviews on Local Job Creation, Éditions OCDE, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/181c0fff-en.
