Brussels government campaigns to put people to work … for Brussels government

The Brussels regional government has started a campaign to encourage job-seekers to consider a career with the Brussels regional government. Yesterday minister-president Rudi Vervoort, together with employment minister Céline Fremault and secretary of state for the civil service Bruno De Lille, met with the senior civil servants from Brussels departments as well as the so-called “public interest institutions” – cleansing department Bruxelles Propreté, the regional investment and housing agencies, the transport authority STIB and so on.  The purpose of the meeting: to do something about the region's 20 unemployment rate (up to 30% in some municipalities) by making job-seekers aware of the availability of jobs with the region.

Brussels, Vervoort (pictured) pointed out, has only 10% of the country's population, but provides 15% of the jobs. However half of those jobs are taken by residents of Flanders and Wallonia. The region needs, he said, to work not only on the questions of mobility created by that situation, but also to find a way better to match supply and demand.

The region has therefore created an action plan for jobs with the administration, which includes the following steps: the creation of internships or stages with public sector employers, in particular for young people; creating jobs in the public sector for those young people who leave school without any qualifications; better matching of the needs of employers with the skills taught in schools and training; and improving the chances of Brussels job-seekers of obtaining a job which requires Dutch language skills – many of which jobs are at present filled by job-seekers living in Flanders.