This report has been prepared by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director. This work was conducted as part of the OECD’s Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme with financial support from the government of the Basque Country (Spain).
The primary authors of this report are Lucas Leblanc, Policy Analyst CFE/LESI Division and Miguel Peromingo, Employment Policy Consultant under the supervision of Jonathan Barr, Deputy Head of the CFE/LESI Division and Head of the Employment and Skills Unit, who also drafted sections of the report and coordinated the overall project. Karen Maguire, Head of the CFE/LESI Division, provided overall guidance and feedback on the development of the report. Ida Peltonen, from CFE/LESI provided statistical support to the report under the supervision of Alexander Lembcke, Economist, CFE/ESG. OECD colleagues within the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS) provided helpful comments on a draft version of this report, including Glenda Quintini, Thedora Xenogiani, Anne Lauringson, and Katharine Mullock.
Basque government officials, at the time of drafting, played an instrumental role in the co-ordination of this project, and provided constructive feedback on the development of the report. In particular, the OECD would like to thank Javier Ramos Salazar, Head of the Lanbide technical cabinet, Maria Jalon Del Rio, Lanbide, Amaia Arteaga Dañobeitia, former Director of Employment and Inclusion in the Department of Employment and Marcos Muro Nájera, former Deputy Minister of Employment and Youth in the Basque government.
The OECD would like to express its gratitude to the Department of Employment and the Department of Education for their input in various parts of this project. Rikardo Lamadrid Intxaurraga, Director of Technology and Advanced Learning, Tknika, Basque Department of Education and Tknika staff provided key information about the functioning of vocational training in the Basque Country. The OECD would also like to thank Susana Franco and Mercedes Oleaga of Orkestra, the Basque Institute for Competitiveness, for their input on the report. The OECD would also like to thank Michael Stein, Area Manager in the regional directorate of North Rhine-Westphalia of the German employment services, and Gunn-Elin Åsgren, Product Manager, Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, for sharing their experience in public employment services with counterparts in the Basque Country.
Finally, the OECD would like to thank all local representatives that participated in the OECD’s fact-finding mission and workshops. These include representatives from Confebask, the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), the Asociación empresarial de sociedades laborales y empresas participadas de la Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco (ASLE), the Confederación de Cooperativas de Euskadi (KONFEKOOP), the chambers of commerce of Alava, Bilbao and Gipuzoka, the Asociación de mujeres empresarias, Garapen, the Consejo de la juventud de Euskadi, Novia Salcedo, the Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), the Univerisdad de Deusto, Mondragon Unibertsitatea, the Asociación de Entidades de Trabajo Protegido del País Vasco (ELHABE), the Asociación de Empresas de Inserción del País Vasco (GIZATEA), Lanbide and the Basque government.