Local skills strategies and local development: the case of Gandia, Spain

In recent years Gandia, a medium-sized town located on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, has become an outstanding example of local economic growth within the region, while at the same time facing important challenges. These include the arrival of immigrants, the need to adapt the local economic system and the labour market to an increasingly competitive and global economy. Since 1998 the municipal Centre for Integral Services and Municipal Employment (CSI-COM), has led a collaborative effort by local actors to face up to these challenges. CSI-COM is an example of good practice in the promotion of skills, employment and economic development at local level. It does so by enhancing non-mobile or non-material resources for development, such as human resource training and the diffusion of information and knowledge, and by increasing the region's entrepreneurial capacity. This paper focuses on the elements of the CSI-COM strategy which relate to skills. Given the changing needs of local industry and the arrival of an important new pool of labour market supply, skills and vocational training are becoming increasingly important for town. The innovative CSI-COM structure has allowed all the relevant partners to come together to tackle skills issues using a common agenda and a common information base.