Interreg South Baltic Programme 2021-2027

The South Baltic Region has many competitive strengths: a vibrant service sector, a performing education system and a huge potential for green and blue growth. Despite a lot of good initiatives to increase the share of labour force working in the blue and green economy sector the SB Region is still facing the need to identify and overcome the obstacles; like the lack of interest to the youth for technical education, the interest of pupils in blue and green studies and a mismatch between higher education and the labour market of the green and blue sector .The challenge to be addressed by the project “SB Bridge” is to improve motivation for green and blue related studies and jobs for pupils, who are bridging from school to tertiary or vocational training , increase number of youngster with interest for green and blue studies and reduce the mismatch between higher education and their graduates and the green and blue labour market. The project is aiming build a bridge between education and requirements of engaging SMEs by developing a new approach based on the German concept of the “TechnOlympics”, which was piloted in the Project SoBaTo in SBP 2007-2013. The targeted project SB Bridge is based on the concept where cross boarder events of a competition to arouse teenager’s interest in technics and innovation. The implemented competitions were on theoretical and practical tests. The practical test was based on real live requirements and tasks of involved SME. The purpose is an innovative approach to raise motivation on the one hand and on the other hand matchmaking between skilled pupils and graduates and SME. The intended project will develop this concept towards a more specialized focus on the SBP´s priorities on blue and green industries and required skills to the whole SBP Region by involving more partners. The seed money is needed to develop a project that can be rooted long term in SB countries.