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Study and Workshop Visit to Brittany – Answering Local Skills Needs

Answering Local Skill Needs

This Stride for Stride project aims to build the concept of Regional Skills Ecosystems, ensuring regions align their education and training provision with regional smart specialisation strategies (S3). In this context, the Brittany Region hosted the second in-person study visit from 8 to 10 November, proposing engaging knowledge-sharing exchanges with local stakeholders around the idea of ‘Answering Local Skills Needs.’

On Tuesday 8 November, participants from Croatia, Spain, Norway, Italy, and Belgium were welcomed in Rennes by Ms. Forough Dadkhah, Vice President for employment, training, and guidance, and Mr. Olivier Gaudin, Head of Employment at the Regional Council of Brittany (pictured below). The opening was followed by a presentation from MVGroup regarding digital inclusiveness and training support for businesses and people in the region. The first day ended with a visit to the Brittany Parliament, at present home to the regional Court of Justice.

  • Learning about local governance in Saint-Malo with Regional Deputy Carole Le Bechec

Study visits to innovative schools and enterprises

On 9 November, project partners travelled to Saint-Malo to tour the Malpertuis secondary school – a  part of the GRETA network – where they were welcomed by Headteacher Gaël Boissiere and his team. At the school, partners learned about how schools and training providers work together with local businesses to provide individuals and workers with skills requested by the industry.

As the unemployment rate in Brittany is low at 5%, the regional efforts are focused on upskilling and reskilling unemployed people and those at risk of social exclusion.  An example of a socially-inclined young enterprise was shared by Mr. Basile Ricquier, co-founder of 3DTex,  a company whose employees are people with disabilities, recruited according to their motivation and attitude, and not to their experience in the sector.

Discovering local governance models

The project partners also had the opportunity to discover Brittany’s governance on the local level, through its thematic Territorial Committees. The Employment Territorial Committee is key to identifying skills needed, supporting companies with the recruitment of staff, and adapting the training offer, among others. Mrs. Carole Le Bechec, deputy of Saint-Malo at the Regional Council of Brittany and member of the Environment Territorial Committee, shared with the participants her role and explained her commitment to the citizens, stating ‘we need to listen to the territory.’

She stressed the importance of international cooperation through networks such as EARLALL to share experiences and advocate for the challenges at the regional and local levels.

Imagining alternative working spaces

On 10 November, partners discovered ‘third places’ by visiting La Canopée, a co-working and multi-functional space that responds to the phenomena of hybridisation: economic sectors, people, and professions together under the same roof. They develop initiatives to improve the attractiveness of the local territory; support employment; recruitment; and train and accompany people in the digital transition.

To conclude, the partners shared impressions about the lessons learnt and discussed the project’s next steps.

Thank you to Brittany for hosting the partners for this interesting and educative visit!