The EGTC Linieland van Waas en Hulst consists of municipalities of Beveren, Stekene, Sint-Gillis-Waas (BE) and Hulst (NL). Besides Beveren, it is a sparsely populated region. Beveren includes parts of the second-largest Europe’s port area of Antwerp. There is a tendency of population decline in border areas. Therefore, it is important to strengthen the labour market in the regions by maintaining and attracting skilled workers. Cross-border cooperation and specifically enabling cross-border internships in the context of dual and vocational learning is identified important by the EGTC in this regard.
In the port area of Antwerp, there are companies actively involved in the labour market with the specific need for technical skills. A large labour potential is also indicated by the Dutch companies in the border region. At the Flemish border, there are some schools and Hulst has one small technical school. Therefore, students often find internships across the border.
However, the EGTC has come across obstacles in these internships. In some situations, they have found these internships across the border are rather unadvisable due to the far-reaching legal and financial consequences for these students. On the basis of the report, the ECTG aims to discuss these obstacles at the higher level with Dutch and Belgian authorities in order to seek for a solution.
