Braindrain in Friesland

Every year there are leaving more youngsters than there are moving into the province of Friesland (between 1500 and 2200). Youngsters are leaving in most cases because of school and work. The foundation Jong & Ondernemend Fryslân wants to find a solution to keep all those talented young people in the province.

Description

The challenge

The issue where we want to find a solution for as an organisation is the so called ‘braindrain’ in the province of Friesland (North of the Netherlands). Every year there are leaving more youngsters than there are moving into the province (between 1500 and 2200).  Youngsters are leaving in most cases because of school and work.  Most of the youngsters who choose for higher education are moving out of the province. In Friesland, higher education is offered (Bachelor) but there is no university. Many people who moved out are not turning back. Expectations are that more and more youngsters will move out the coming years. This has a big influence on the education level off the Frisian population. It also means that the population will shrink because off dejuvenation and ageing.

The foundation Jong & Ondernemend Fryslân wants to find a solution to keep all those talented young people in the province.

We want to make an online or real-life platform where youngsters can find each other and/or organisations in the province of Friesland. Through this platform we want to connect all these parties and help the youngsters to build up a network, connect them so they can work together and help them to find or create jobs. We don’t know how to set up a platform like this and are looking for people who know how we can create this.

Target community and Location

1) The challenge is located in the province of Friesland (Netherlands). Foundation Jong & Ondernemend Fryslan is operating in this province
2) The target group are youngsters from 15 years till 30 years old who leave the province because of higher education or work.
3) Jong & Ondernemend Fryslan is a foundation who sets up project ‘for’ but mainly ‘with’ youngsters from 15 till 30 years old.

COMPETENCIES

1) Our foundation is closely working with young people from the province of Friesland in the age 15 till 30 years. We stimulate and guide them in entrepreneurship. We guide them in finding their talents and offering workshops and masterclasses to develop their skills.
2) Jong & Ondernemend Fryslan is a new and beginning foundation and exists for 1 year now. Finding a solution for the challenge described in this paper is one off our goals and we are now trying to find out in which way we can do this best. That means we are in the stage where we are generating ideas. With our project Meet-up café and the JOF-truck we are trying to stimulate entrepreneurship amongst youngsters and we are also trying to connect them with each other so they can build up a professional network.  We think that building up a network off talented youngsters is one of the keys to the solution of this challenge.
3) Tjitske Kiemel: Working for the local government and has a lot of knowledge about the subject. Marije van Tuinen and Janke Johanna van Zanden have a lot of experience in working and guiding youngsters

Innovation

We don’t know if any other organisation in the province has already tried to find a solution. We want to try to make a platform with the goal to create work and study opportunities so eventually the youngsters will stay in the province. We are looking for people who have experience with setting up platforms (online) like this

Commitment

We can provide information and data and expertise from the local government on the issue. We have a big network of young people in the province. Those people can help in all kinds of ways.