EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Increasing cultural diversity in public and private bodies

Increasing cultural diversity in public and private bodies

Introduction

With the project Onbenut Talent (Unused Talent), the city of Delft wants to create more cultural diversity in companies, institutes, authorities and participation councils. Mediating between highly educated immigrants, companies and institutes increases diversity.

Problem

How do you increase cultural diversity in companies, institutes, authorities and participation councils?

Description

The highly educated immigrants are very well qualified in their field. They have been in the Netherlands for a long time, have followed language courses and speak the Dutch language. Their children go to school here and are familiar with how affairs are organised in the Netherlands.

They generally show a lot of initiative and have a great deal of life experience, wisdom and drive. They often had an important social function in their home countries. They are also motivated to build a fulfilling and useful life in the Netherlands. Onbenut Talent mediates on behalf of these highly educated immigrants who often come to the Netherlands as refugees.

Approach

One of the most important gauges of the success of Onbenut Talent is the cooperation with coaches. The coaches are individuals from the business world or social organisations who selflessly take on this role because they view the social involvement of immigrants as important. The coaches look at CVs and estimate where the person in question can best be placed. The greatest added value of the coaches is their network, which can open doors that would otherwise have remained closed.

Twice per year, the city of Delft organises meetings for participants, coaches, committee members and numerous other interested parties. The first meeting is a networking opportunity to find jobs at one’s own level. The second meeting is a networking opportunity for managerial jobs. The meetings are informal and pertain to a particular theme.

Results

In 2004, 35 of the 68 participating women moved on to a job, education, work placement, reintegration or active voluntary work.
Of these 35 women, 8 are now active in various managerial functions.
In 2005, 130 people received counselling services.
19 people progressed to a regular job, of which 5 landed jobs that befit their own educational level.
3 people started their own business.
5 people are active in volunteer work.
4 people are doing work placements.
5 people are following a university course and 15 people are following some other kind of course.
19 people progressed to a reintegration project.

Contact info

City of Delft
B. van der Steuijt, tel. +31 15 2197903

Project start date

01/05/2001

Links

City of Delft (in Dutch)

Brochure on the 'Unused Talent' project (PDF, Dutch, 174KB)

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment > Urban economy

Keywords

Employment