Human Capital in the Region test

Purpose

Human capital investments made at the regional level are important to match labour supply and demand, and to stimulate labour force participation, productivity, innovation and growth. Many regional policy makers are challenged by:

• A lacking responsiveness of the regional educational system to new economic and technological developments.
• Demographic transitions in the form of increasing migration flows and population ageing, with a declining or more diverse inflow of young people joining the workforce.
• An insufficient regional pool of up-to-date qualified and highly-able teachers.

These challenges differ between central (‘Randstad’) regions on the one hand and peripheral (‘Randland’) regions on the other, with the latter often being border areas that are more prone to demographic shrinkage. Employers, schools, local governments and private and public employment services can improve the transition between (vocational) education and the labour market by cooperating at the regional level.

Research themes

• Regional push and pull factors with respect to working and living for people at the higher, intermediate and lower educational level in both the Randstad and Randland areas.
• Geographic mobility of workers regarding commuting and internal and international migration.
• Regional educational infrastructure of vocational schools and higher education institutes.
• Impact of demographic transitions (shrinkage and growth, ageing, migration) on regional labour markets, including the teacher labour market.
• Barriers for international and cross-border mobility, including differences in tax, pension and social security systems, inefficient diploma recognition, poor cross-border public transport and road connections, language and cultural differences.
• Labour force participation of vulnerable groups at the regional and local level, such as migrants, low-skilled and disabled people.