Innovation-in-Europes-Cities_Bloomberg-Mayors-Challenge1

Five Core ThemesEconomyDoing more with lessOne in five proposals to the European MayorsChallenge identified youth or youth unemploymentas key areas of concern for the city administration.A significant number of cities suggested schoolleveltraining to prepare students for employmentand connect them to the future job market(including Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland and Rijeka,Croatia). Other cities, including Newcastle,United Kingdom and Herne, Germany proposedtraining opportunities in deprived or migrantareas. Košice, Slovakia wanted to promote accessto the local job market in an effort to reverse thebrain drain to western Europe. The challengesof deindustrialisation led the famous port city ofPlymouth, United Kingdom to propose an app tohelp youths from families who had worked in the(now redundant) docks for generations access thebroader labour market, while Kaunas, Lithuaniaplanned to include young people in generatingsolutions.In general, these proposals aimed to providesupport where national government and EU policiesand programmes have not sufficiently tackledyouth unemployment in cities. These innovativeapproaches largely focused on providing cityspecificskills that are not supplied by the nationalcurriculum. Many suggested reducing the structuralskills deficit (retaining and growing talent) byproviding training, entrepreneurship advice, andlanguage and local-market specific coaching.There was a strong focus on the need to interveneearly in the education process, before it’s too late.Rather than seeing this as a post-schooling issue,many cities proposed creative add-ons to traditionaleducation by drawing on local resources to supportyoung people throughout their formative years. Aperceived ‘generation gap’ was also defined as a keyconcern by many cities; programmes to link theyoung and old looked to provide potential solutionsto this, as did approaches using new technologies to‘speak the language’ of young people.A number of submissions provided evidence thatthe economic crisis may not have left Europe yet,given the emphasis on re-using vacant lots of emptyurban land – a classic indicator of pervasive urbandereliction. Adapting space for social and economicbenefit featured regularly across the proposals,demonstrating a growing recognition by Europeancities that smart and sustainable urban planningcan help to solve a range of structural issuessimultaneously. Prato, Italy proposed developingan urban park to integrate an immigrant enclave.Amiens, France suggested giving new life toabandoned public spaces by introducing shared,self-navigated river transport; Zaragoza, Spainproposed to negotiate bulk supplier contractsto regenerate entire neighbourhoods, whileparticipatory design was seen as a tool to involveunemployed youth in redeveloping a deprivedsuburb of Tampere, Finland.Proposals to temporarily use abandonedbuildings or vacant lots, or programmes tore-invigorate post-industrial or post-Sovietneighbourhoods with new activities all demonstrate“The proposals indicate agrowing recognition amongstmunicipal governments thatmore needs to be done locallyto foster economic prosperitythrough the efficient managementof resources, peopleand time.”a growing appetite among city administrationsto invest in sustainable initiatives that bolster theeconomy, improve connectivity and keep the cityhealthy.While some cities put forward projects thatprioritised the need to participate meaningfullyin a globally competitive world, others specificallytargeted productivity within the city. Liège,Belgium and Maastricht, the Netherlands bothidentified the negative impact of the lack of foreignlanguage skills on their economies, and proposedteaching native populations foreign languages toincrease global competitiveness. Gliwice, Polandproposed using mathematical modelling toreorganise public and private transport resources toefficiently manage capacity and routes on demand.Across the board, the proposals indicatea growing recognition amongst municipalgovernments that more needs to be done locallyto foster economic prosperity through the efficientmanagement of resources, people and time. In thisregard, cities in Europe are taking matters intotheir own hands in areas that were traditionally theresponsibility of regional and national government.In an era of reduced budgets and increasedresponsibility, innovative responses are enablingcities to do more with less.Finalist proposalsBologna, ItalyWith a youth unemployment rate of 17.5%,Bologna identified the rise in the numberof NEETs (Young People Not in Education,Employment or Training) as one of the corechallenges to its economic revitalisation.#Angels4Bologna is a mentorship schemedesigned to increase the capacity of schoolgoingstudents (aged 8-16) to enter the jobmarket or become entrepreneurs. Around 3,500students would receive extra-curricular trainingfrom a broad range of private and public expertsto target a structural skills mismatch, but also togrow relationships with people in industry. Theinitiative shows how local authorities can respondto the need to develop specific local skills,supplementing knowledge and skills acquiredthrough the national education curriculum.22