The Emden University of Applied Sciences (HESL), International Welcome Centre Northern Netherlands (IWCN) and the Innovatiecluster Drachten (ICD) have developed a procedure to enable non-EU students from Germany to perform their internships and graduation work in the Northern Netherlands. The consortium was assisted in this by a Interreg subsidy. This project, “Ecosystem Development ICD-HSEL,“ is made possible by the Interreg program Deutschland-Nederland and its program partners and is co-financed by the European Union (EU).
The aim was to develop a sustainable cross-border ecosystem. Attracting and retaining HBO-level educated employees for the entire region is important. The international courses at HSEL are reinforced by cross-border practical partners from the 'high-tech systems cluster' in the North of the Netherlands, the ICD. HSEL students become acquainted with the Dutch labour market in the border region by doing internships and writing theses at these ICD companies. The interest of the ICD companies to continuously come into contact with young talent is also served by this. The role of IWCN also comes into its own here: facilitating the placement of international employees in the region.
Development process
A procedure has been developed for internationals (in the complex triangle of non-EU student - Dutch company - German school) in which all (study) requirements had to be met. Companies must also have an IND registration. In addition, students must apply for Erasmus support to meet minimum financial residence requirements and some companies must be facilitating with regard to temporary housing. The latter given the distance between Emden and the location. In order to introduce companies and students, 3 Hightech Safaris were organized during the project at 8 ICD companies. The ICD was also present at the annual Jobfair of the HSEL.
After designing this procedure, the first student assignment is now ready. There are now 3 more students in the matching process with an ICD company. IWCN plays a facilitating role in all government-related matters.
