First ever joint meeting of two EUROCITIES working groups Education and Employment comes to Birmingham in April. Officers attending the meeting will represent cities that are forming the EUROCITIES network. It is a network that brings together local authorities of more than 130 large cities in over 30 European countries. EUROCITIES provides a platform for its member cities to share knowledge and ideas, to exchange experiences, to analyse common problems and develop innovative solutions, through a wide range of Forums, Working Groups, projects, activities and events. Birmingham was a founding member of EUROCITIES (in 1986). BCC officers are actively engaged or virtually engaged in a number of EUROCITIES’ Working Groups among others the Employment Working Group and Education Working Group. These two Working Groups come to Birmingham to look how we are linking education with employment.

The aim of the visit is to look into issues like poverty, NEETs and managing the transition form education to employment. This meeting will create an excellent opportunity for a debate on what is currently happening in Birmingham, what our challenges are and what we think we are doing right. More importantly, this meeting gives us a unique opportunity to confront our thinking with people from other countries in Europe who are battling with similar challenges in their home cities.

Programme includes visits to: Wilson Stuart Special School, Waverley School, Aston Engineering Academy, South and City College and Midland Heart.