Today the high school students on the entrepreneur program in Ulricehamn are showing off their businesses for the first time this school year. In September they started their businesses in small groups and today the first competition round takes place. They will judged by a panel of business people on their annual reports, marketing, sales strategy, company presentation, product and/or service. In March they will compete on the semi- regional level and the winners in each category will continue to the regional level followed by the national and European level. During one year they start up and run a business and this American based idea is this year including more than 3,1 million students only across Europe. Schools all over Europe help students to start up student companies and Ulricehamn has a strong winning tradition in this field. In the last 10 years we have been among the best 5 in Sweden every year and two years ago Bolsa from Ulricehamn even one a category on the European level.
Two years ago I helped out as a jury member locally and was seriously impressed by the achievements of the student. This year I had a role as adviser for a student company called Decor.Decor is a company focusing on interior design using sheet metal to create a multifunctional plate, tray or table. It has been fun to be apart of a group of students fighting real hard to go from 6 different ideas to production, making a business plan, creating a selling stand, learning to sell their product etc. How many companies go from idea, production and sales in 4 months?
Now I cross my fingers that they will get credited by the jury this afternoon. To me they are already winners but naturally I think they deserve to win at least best stand at the exhibition!
PS: They did win best stand and were nominated for best business. Well done!!!
Summertime!
Lake Åsunden, Ulricehamn
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Dutch on the move...
It is almost time for the 2012 Emigration fair in Houten, the Netherlands – a fair Ulricehamn has taken part in the last 3 years. This is Europe’s largest Emigration Expo and attracts around 12000 visitors during two days – all interested in emigrating from the Netherlands. It might sound sad that so many people are thinking about leaving their country, especially such a well organized, wealthy, democratic country but I see it as a sign of times. We live in a global world, the migration flows are constantly increasing and more and more people want to explore the world they live in. 100 years ago emigrating from Europe to Canada was a one in a life time decision. Once you moved you knew that you would probably never return. Today, global infrastructure and digital solutions make it possible to stay in contact with family and friends and moving to another country might not be forever.
My family is part of this migration flow and my husband and children are part to the statistics of emigrated Dutch people. In the last two years I have been part of a group from Sjuhärad (small region in west Sweden) who visits the Emigration Expo in order to attract more inhabitants to our area in Sweden. This year we will be there again and so far 42 people have moved to our region since 2008.
The urbanization in the world has had a major impact on Sweden. I think more than 80% of all municipalities suffer from a decreased number of inhabitants. As each municipality have taxation right the town has less to spend when the number of inhabitants decrease. Each municipality is responsible for education, childcare, elderly care, sport facilities, local infrastructure etc. so when many people move to bigger cities, smaller communities find it harder to offer a high service level.
The Dutch have always been traders, explorers and travelers. To seek new knowledge and to try new things is part of the Dutch culture. According to Henrik P van Dalen and Kéne Henkens from Tilburg University, the Netherlands are experience an emigration wave again. They have studied emigration and the reasons for emigrating.
In a study from 2008, 25% of the people who had plans of emigrating in 2005 had left the country two years later. This is interesting to look at if one wants to look at the time span from idea of emigrating to actually doing it. Several studies talk about an average of 6 – 7 year from idea to action but if 25 % move within two years, we, who want to attract new inhabitants, can focus on the 25% ?
Looking at numbers from Statistics Netherlands (www.cbs.nl) 132 000 people emigrated from the NL in 2006, many of them to nearby countries such as Germany, Belgium and France. Between 2006 – 2009 the numbers decreased but in 2010 they started to rise again. In the first 6 months of 2011 58 000 people emigrated which was 5000 more than the year before. According to P van Dalen and Henkens men are twice as likely to emigrate as women, and it is mostly the young (under 30) who emigrate. It is also more common that the emigrants come from the higher income spectrum and 69 % of them choose to settle somewhere in Europe. The increase in the last two years also show that it the increase of emigration mainly is to be found in the group of people born in the Netherlands.
When we as a town or as a region discuss immigration I think we need to look at the facts, be realistic about what we can achieve and be honest to anyone interested in moving here. I also think it is important to stay connected to anyone who moves here and to listen to their experiences. It is not easy to be the new one in town and if you come from another country it is even harder. To support newcomers is something we need to do together, all of us living here.
My family is part of this migration flow and my husband and children are part to the statistics of emigrated Dutch people. In the last two years I have been part of a group from Sjuhärad (small region in west Sweden) who visits the Emigration Expo in order to attract more inhabitants to our area in Sweden. This year we will be there again and so far 42 people have moved to our region since 2008.
The urbanization in the world has had a major impact on Sweden. I think more than 80% of all municipalities suffer from a decreased number of inhabitants. As each municipality have taxation right the town has less to spend when the number of inhabitants decrease. Each municipality is responsible for education, childcare, elderly care, sport facilities, local infrastructure etc. so when many people move to bigger cities, smaller communities find it harder to offer a high service level.
The Dutch have always been traders, explorers and travelers. To seek new knowledge and to try new things is part of the Dutch culture. According to Henrik P van Dalen and Kéne Henkens from Tilburg University, the Netherlands are experience an emigration wave again. They have studied emigration and the reasons for emigrating.
In a study from 2008, 25% of the people who had plans of emigrating in 2005 had left the country two years later. This is interesting to look at if one wants to look at the time span from idea of emigrating to actually doing it. Several studies talk about an average of 6 – 7 year from idea to action but if 25 % move within two years, we, who want to attract new inhabitants, can focus on the 25% ?
Looking at numbers from Statistics Netherlands (www.cbs.nl) 132 000 people emigrated from the NL in 2006, many of them to nearby countries such as Germany, Belgium and France. Between 2006 – 2009 the numbers decreased but in 2010 they started to rise again. In the first 6 months of 2011 58 000 people emigrated which was 5000 more than the year before. According to P van Dalen and Henkens men are twice as likely to emigrate as women, and it is mostly the young (under 30) who emigrate. It is also more common that the emigrants come from the higher income spectrum and 69 % of them choose to settle somewhere in Europe. The increase in the last two years also show that it the increase of emigration mainly is to be found in the group of people born in the Netherlands.
When we as a town or as a region discuss immigration I think we need to look at the facts, be realistic about what we can achieve and be honest to anyone interested in moving here. I also think it is important to stay connected to anyone who moves here and to listen to their experiences. It is not easy to be the new one in town and if you come from another country it is even harder. To support newcomers is something we need to do together, all of us living here.
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