C 301/54
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
5.8.2022
and/or regional level.
Education clusters are excellent tools, designed to provide space for dialogue and cooperation between the main formal education stakeholders with a view to supporting young people as they prepare to enter the labour market.
Through education clusters, LRAs can work with other ecosystem stakeholders to implement mechanisms such as innovation funds and mini grants for start-ups in certain key fields;
22. considers that students now need to learn using methods which are in some cases radically different from those used in the past.
They need opportunities to apply theoretical concepts to real-life situations, to use them to solve problems in their local and regional community.
Together with universities and other local and regional ecosystem stakeholders, LRAs can foster these learning experiences, for instance by supporting living laboratories, forwarding policy issues for analysis, developing joint strategic projects for the community and facilitating cooperation with other local and regional stakeholders;
23. considers that LRAs, in partnership with universities and other local or regional ecosystem stakeholders, can do a lot to support young entrepreneurs, including students and graduates, by helping them gain access to key resources needed for innovation.
Many young people and students need resources such as laboratories, new technologies and new connections to develop business ideas and/or products and services.
Together with other bodies which have these resources, LRAs can enable young entrepreneurs to access the resources they need to innovate (office space, training, advice, etc.);
24. points out that LRAs can develop smart relationships with universities to develop the local and regional community.
Universities need to produce knowledge and services for their host communities.
LRAs can facilitate this relationship by establishing programmes through which universities are involved on a permanent basis in finding answers to local and regional problems, providing advice and know-how and spreading good practices when they arise so that more communities and authorities can act on them as well.
Public recognition and incentives for universities to get involved play a major role in proving the value of various academic and/or professional paths, encouraging universities to attach greater value to teacher, researcher and student engagement in the community;
25. emphasises that local and regional communities of all sizes can benefit equally from hosting a university.
LRAs can make a significant contribution to developing universities and making them more attractive by laying the groundwork for high quality of life and encouraging attitudes and behaviour geared towards tolerance, inclusion, multiculturalism and public safety.
Universities can locate some of their activities and structures in smaller towns, as well as in cities.
LRAs can help establish university structures and/or research institutes in smaller towns by providing services such as affordable housing for students, allowing certain public buildings to be used for teaching, research and communication activities, and producing reliable quality of life indicators, capitalising on what smaller towns can offer in contrast with cities;
26. considers that the local and regional-level digital transition can be accelerated by cooperating with universities and optimising use of relevant university resources.
Together with LRAs, universities can provide advice or devise digital transition strategies geared to local or regional circumstances.
In partnership with LRAs, universities can lay on short-term digital skills courses or training sessions for the general public, with a particular focus on groups at risk of exclusion (such as older and less educated people);
27.
LRAs can support the development of hybrid campuses which will act as a driver of the digital transition in both communities and universities, ensuring equal opportunities, promoting social integration, improving the competitiveness of young people on the labour market, strengthening of youth work, non-discrimination and intercultural understanding.
Hybrid campuses should pay attention to communication in ensuring equality of opportunity and to the penetration of information, to ensure that it is genuinely accessible to all eligible young people, particularly those living in peripheral regions.
LRAs can provide support, financial and otherwise, for measures to open up these hybrid campuses to various community stakeholders, including at-risk and disadvantaged groups, vulnerable and at-risk young people such as NEETs, young job seekers, women, refugees, persons with disabilities and retired people.
The EU and Member State policies need to give priority to the inclusion of at-risk young people;