General Labour Market Facts

Ventspils is the 6th largest city in Latvia according to the number of inhabitants. Approximately 43,300 inhabitants are officially registered in Ventspils, which is 1.91% of total population of Latvia. Based on the statistical data more than 52,000 inhabitants are living, studying or working, i.e. permanently residing in Ventspils. Approximately 20,000 of Ventspils inhabitants are economically active.

Largest part of economically active inhabitants (~30%) are employed by enterprises involved in port operations and transportation, which is one of the main industries in the city. 13% are employed in commerce sector. Construction companies employ approximately 10% of workforce, and 10% is employed in manufacturing industry. Unemployment rate in Ventspils currently is around 15%. However, this figure only partly reflects the real labour pool situation since there is labour force available in surrounding communities from less developed suburbs. Labor costs in manufacturing sector in Ventspils are generally lower than national average and more than 25% lower than in Riga region.

Education and Skills

There are 9 comprehensive schools and one evening school in Ventspils with graduate number of more than 900 pupils each year. Vocational and professional secondary education is chosen by around 500 pupils and is offered by Ventspils Professional Highschool. Vocational and professional secondary education is offered for graduates from Form 9, but high importance is devoted also to further education and re-qualification programmes. Pupils in Ventspils Professional Highschool can obtain high quality professional education in wide fields of specialization – metalworking and mechanical engineering, motor engineering, power industry, electronics, tourism, finances and advertisement. School guides its development harmonizing the needs and trends in the labour market in the region with the supply of appropriate educational programmes. In order to realize these necessary programmes the cooperation between employers, school and the municipality is being promoted.

Over 1200 students are studying in higher educational establishments in Ventspils. The number of Business Administration and Management students in Ventspils is 500 in Bachelor level, 50 in Master level and 10 in Scientific Dr. level. The studies of Information technologies also are well developed and at the moment about 150 students are studying IT in Bachelor level, but 35 students in Master level. It is also possible to specialize in translation (English, German Russian), more than 300 students have chosen these studies in Bachelor and Master Programmes. In Ventspils increasingly much attention is paid to the manufacturing industry related studies – more than 60 students have chosen engineering (electronics, power and electrical engineering) studies and more than 100 students have chosen other higher education programmes.

One of the cornerstones for human resources development in Ventspils is the Ventspils University College, which was founded in 1997, and nowadays provides high quality higher education in business administration, specialising in accounting, finances, logistics, marketing, as well as IT, electronics and translation. University College is funded by Ventspils municipality, supported by largest enterprises and government. The number of students is 800 and approximately ¾ of students have arrived from other cities.

R&D at Ventspils University College

Ventspils University College’s foundations and branches such as Engineering Research Centre, Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Center, as well as electronics and electrical engineering laboratories are components that have a great potential and high importance in the whole development plan of Ventspils City. The main task of these branches is to develop new or to study present technologies, which can be used in the private sector, in that way creating a link between academic institutions and business.

The Engineering Research Centre of Ventspils University College was founded within the PHARE project “Latvian Electronics and Electrical Engineering Sector Development Project”, launched by Ventspils Municipality. The main task of the Centre is to conduct leading edge applied research for Ventspils High Technology Park, Ventspils Business Incubator, as well as for other enterprises and institutions of the Kurzeme region of Latvia. In that way it contributes the development of scientific and technological potential of the region in the sector of business oriented electronics, telecommunications, computer designing and mathematical modelling. Engineering Research Centre has scientists and different specialists that work in the centre independently, as well as bachelor and master students are involved in the research work. The Engineering Research Centre is based on three business oriented research departments:

• Department of Applied Electronics and Telecommunication;
• Department of CAD/CAM Designing;
• Department of Mathematic Modelling.

Each of these departments is working at the research and development in order to apply these technologies in the market, thus fulfilling the orders of companies and their particular needs. Specific goal is to develop new products for Latvian and foreign electronic and electrical engineering companies as well as for other industries. It is also planned to ensure the elaboration of present products and introduce them in regular production.
Engineering Research Centre is supplied with the most up-to-date technologies and software. The most important feature of Engineering Research Centre is the combination of business and business oriented sciences.

Since 2004 Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Center with the research and development in the cosmic technologies is a branch of Ventspils University College. The centre has 2 radio telescopes – one with the diameter of 32 m, the other with the diameter of 16 m, which due to their size qualify as a unique object in the whole Europe. The future vision of Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Center is connected with reaching of 3 aims – development of higher education, especially engineering education, applied space research and basic astrophysics research centre. Currently, active research takes place on localization problems of asteroids and space garbage, as well as the Sun.