Führungskräfte für Ostbelgiens Zukunft (Fonds)

In East Belgium, there is not only a shortage of skilled workers, but also a shortage of leaders who want to take on responsibility.

The following challenges await the German-speaking Community with its ministries and the companies in East Belgium:

• With the development of the DG into the 4th region (with federal state character), there will be more competences to manage. This will greatly increase the need for bilingual (D/F) responsible persons with leadership qualities.
• The economic structure in the DG is based on 2 large enterprises (400 to 1,200 employees) and enterprises with less than 100 employees. These smaller companies already find it difficult to find and retain bilingual managers.
• Measured by the size of the population (78,000 people), the demand for managers is higher (significantly higher?) than in neighbouring regions. (High administrative demand, small structures, ...)
• Students and young professionals from the region are generally bilingual, but are strongly attracted by Luxembourg, Germany and the Walloon Region. This reinforces the lack of bilingual talent in the DG; finding bilingual staff outside the region is usually difficult. Multilingualism is a basic requirement in the DG to fill managerial positions.
• The motivation to take on management responsibility is less today than it was 30 years ago (work-life balance, the balance between work and private life).

The Fund Führungskräfte für Ostbelgiens Zukunft looks at the state of research in the field of "leading people" and transfers it to the specific needs of the German-speaking Community of Belgium.

• The fund takes up the academic international discourse and communicates essential findings to interested parties from all areas of public life.
• In this regard, the Fund supports and promotes interdisciplinary approaches from the fields of economics and ethics, as well as the humanities and human sciences, among others.
• The Fund translates and contextualises the latest findings to the situation and needs of the DG.
• The Fund helps to develop leaders in the DG and to create an appropriate intellectual and social environment for an ethic of responsibility.
• The fund promotes initiatives, organisations and undertakings that establish leadership as a sub-area of social competence in educational contexts.

In accordance with the working methods of the Foundation, the Fund will particularly support initiatives with a multiplier effect.