- The aim is to table a proposal to COTEC Foundation members for a joint reflection on the challenges facing young people in cities, and their impact on various social and economic aspects of our territories.
- Through its Fomento de San Sebastián vehicle, since 2022 the city has been a member of the Foundation, an organisation seeking to boost innovation as a driver of social and economic development in cities.
Tomorrow sees the official launch at the COTEC Foundation’s Madrid headquarters of the working group “Young Talent and City” headed up by Fomento de San Sebastián, composed of more than 15 organisations, including the town halls of Madrid, Barcelona and Málaga and businesses such as ENISA, Orange and BBVA. The meeting aims to secure consensus concerning the project’s objectives, methodology and focus.
In the opinion of Local Economy and Employment Councillor Ane Oyarbide, “heading up this working group enables us to elaborate on our Town Hall’s insistence on continued support for young talent, and also to reflect and share strategies to turn our cities into locations which will afford young people full professional development. To do this, it is essential to address challenges such as training, jobs and, of course, housing, a problem which must be solved to continue to offer the new generations a future”.
Since its beginnings in 1990, the COTEC Foundation has made a name for itself through hard work to promote technological innovation in corporations. Fomento de San Sebastián has been a member of the network since 2022, and its arrival signalled the reinforcement of innovation as a key driver of the future development of San Sebastián.
The Foundation operates a number of working groups thanks to the proposals tabled by its members, which come up with issues in the common interest to which the other members may voluntarily subscribe.
Through this working group, Fomento de San Sebastián produces a joint reflection on the challenges posed to young people at this time, and their impact on the various social and economic aspects of our respective territories.
These reflections, alongside a number of good practices pinpointed throughout the working process, will be documented to draw up a “Guide to Collaboration to Boost Young Talent in our cities and organisations”. The guide will:
- Establish a working framework in order to, on the basis of commitment and collaboration by the various agents involved, create spaces conducive to comprehensive development of young people, with particular importance attached to three key aspects: training, jobs and housing.
- Compile criteria and good practices to make the youth perspective part and parcel of the policies of the organisations and agents involved.
The working group to be coordinated by the Municipal Corporation will be structured on the basis of 4 milestones.
- Education and Training for the future.
- Access to the job market and professional development.
- Living standards, young people and city.
- Communication, connection and active participation by young people.
Coordination of this Working Group is part of the Fomento de San Sebastián vehicle’s close collaboration with the COTEC Foundation. Recent major activities include the distribution of the Foundation’s “Gazelle Company Observatory” to Donostia’s business fabric, and the presentation in San Sebastián a year ago of the “6th Survey on Social Perception of Innovation in Spain”.
Fomento de San Sebastián’s Managing Director Iñigo Olaizola admits that “forming part of COTEC is important in terms of this kind of opportunity. We wish to be an active member of the network, and so we came up with a proposal for a working group to attract and develop young talent, which will help us learn and produce proposals to address a key challenge in our city. Heading up this group at the state level, with large cities and businesses, also affords us prestige and helps us boost our city brand focusing on innovation and talent”.
Our city forms part of the select group of cities making up this Foundation. Fomento de San Sebastián’s membership of the COTEC Foundation provides access to an extensive network of experts in innovation, technology and economics, enabling it to make consultations and obtain studies in relation to the specific challenges facing our city, particularly in relation to social innovation.
Fomento de San Sebastián’s proposal to coordinate this working group forms part of the strategic line followed by the Municipal Corporation to generate spaces that will connect to young people and local talent, to offer them the chance to carry out their professional life projects in San Sebastián.
List of participant organisations:
- AGBAR
- AGENCIA GALLEGA DE INNOVACIÓN (GAIN)
- BARCELONA TOWN HALL
- MADRID TOWN HALL
- MÁLAGA TOWN HALL
- BBVA
- CARINSA
- CORPORACIÓN TECNOLÓGICA DE ANDALUCÍA
- ENISA
- CAJA RURAL DE ASTURIAS FOUNDATION
- CASTILLA Y LEÓN COMPETITIVENESS INSTITUTE (ICE)
- LANBIDE – BASQUE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE
- ORANGE
- SEPI
- UNIVERSITY OF GRANADA
- LAS ROZAS TOWN HALL
- GIJÓN TOWN HALL