Published on 20 December 2023
As part of our Network’s series of bi-annual meetings, we met in Magdeburg in early December to explore the shared challenge around how to attract and retain (international) talent. Magdeburg faces a very specific issue in this regard with a huge investment by the global technology company Intel, which will create thousands of opportunities for highly skilled people over the next few years through the opening of a new facility.
We heard from an excellent line up of speakers and panel guests, including examples of good practice from Eindhoven and Leuven, cities outside of the Network, and also from our own members about many of the projects and services they run to help attract and keep talent in their cities.
We also heard first-hand from Mila Wilson, Intel’s director of Talent Acquisition in Germany about the kind of personal attributes that the company looks for in applicants when building their workforce. Crucially, we also heard the voice of students who highlighted the important factors for them when choosing which city to study in – and deciding whether to stay on and start their career after graduating.
The programme presented lots of opportunities for sharing views and ideas, and generated a wealth of material that will be synthesised into a useable format. More about this in 2024 here on our website!
We are already planning our next meeting in Ghent in May 2024, where we will be exploring the theme of ‘community and challenge-based learning’.