Nikky Hofland, director of TechMeUp and Artie Ramsodit, program director of the House of Skills Board program show that many great things are already happening on the labor market in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. TechMeUp provides interest-free advances to people who want to retrain in the tech sector. “There are many retraining initiatives, but retraining takes time,” says Hofland. “Sometimes you have to go to school full-time to retrain and not everyone can afford to be without income for six months. We want to take that money worry away.”

Transferpunt Zorg & Welzijn (Healthcare and Welfare Transfer Point) is one of the newest programs of House of Skills, in which people can investigate whether the care sector is something for them. “We help them to orientate themselves properly,” says Ramsodit. “They can experience, see and feel what that other work looks like. They can discover which part of the care appeals to them and which does not appeal to them. They can then obtain a basic care certificate within 20 weeks.”

The two call on employers in the region to focus on sustainable retraining and to show a little more courage when hiring people with a distance to the labor market. “Engage those lateral entrants and invest in someone else,” says Hofland. And Ramsodit: “Give them a contract that offers perspective.”

If you want to know more about TechMeUp, please contact Nikky Hofland. If you would like to know more about the Healthcare and Welfare Transfer Point, please contact Artie Ramsodit.

A new kind of metropolis

Greg Clark offers us the outside perspective today. He is a senior advisor at bank HSBC, a professor at the University of London and has been researching cities for decades. On a global level, European cities are often pushed aside, he notes. “As if they have no future. But we should not prioritize quantity over quality. The secret weapon of European cities is their ability to reform. It is their social capital. To develop a new city together with their citizens.”

As far as he is concerned, Amsterdam has the opportunity to be a leader, especially because of the region. To become a reality, the region must do five things. Contribute to the growth of affordable housing, stimulate the green economy, protect the quality of life, continue to provide equal opportunities for all and continue to provide a good home base for start-ups. “With this, Amsterdam can become a new kind of metropolis, with a focus on the clean economy.”

Own strength

Thijs Kroese is an alderman in Purmerend and a member of the transition committee of the MRA. He emphasizes that for good cooperation, municipalities must continue to work on their own profile in the MRA. “In Purmerend we have the Creative Tech Campus for e-sports, in IJmond you have a lot of industry. Know about yourself what you are good at and also know what your population is good at. If everyone focuses on their own strength, our collaboration will only benefit.”

This regional cooperation does not only exist at government level, but we are also seeing more and more at companies. Take Rabobank, which recently merged several regions into Rabobank Metropolitan Region Amsterdam. “We have been in existence for six months and we are really enjoying it,” says CEO Erik Versnel. “Investments go beyond municipal boundaries. We are now able to link good initiatives together.”

Versnel argues for a redefinition of the we. “We from the municipality, we from Rabo, we from education: I think we should let go of all that. If we want to work together in this region, then the we is the MRA. Let’s keep each other focused on that.”

Three MRA Beliefs

MRA chairman Femke Halsema concluded the afternoon as always with her State of the Region. In it she mentions the reclamation of the Haarlemmermeer, a project that only came about centuries after Leeghwater’s first idea, thanks to viscous management and endless discussions. “Today we presented the new cooperation agreements between municipalities and provinces in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area,” she continues. “A venture more modest in size than one of the greatest reclamations in our history, yet a modest success, worth raising a glass together.”

The MRA works together on the basis of three shared beliefs. “That through better cooperation we can have the most inventive region with the best-educated population in Europe, that we have to be a region for everyone. For example, we work together with MBOs, HBOs, universities and programs such as TechConnect, which trains hidden talent in different cities of our region in a way that suits a new generation of city dwellers. And that we distinguish ourselves internationally in feeding on a human scale.” The third belief is that the region must be sustainably connected. “Our digitized economy is leading the way. By working on a data agreement, we will also show that this can go hand in hand, with the protection of digital rights, autonomy and privacy.”

The reclamation of the Haarlemmermeer was finally completed just before the industrial era. “Once again we are at the beginning of a new era, once again we are confronted with threats and uncertainties”, concludes Halsema. “Fortunately, there are now people with good ideas and vision and the most advanced technology is making possible what was thought impossible. Ultimately, we decide together what we are going to do with it. I am looking forward to that with great hope.”

Have you missed the State of the Union 2021 broadcast or want to watch it again (in Dutch)? See below.