TalentIT Twente stops

Enschede, December 2023

TalentIT Twente stops

TalentIT Twente was founded to improve the availability of IT personnel in Twente. Many students (WO and HBO) left Twente after graduating, partly because they were unaware of the great opportunities and companies in Twente.

Since 2018, TalentIT has been committed to introducing students to companies in Twente as future employees during their studies. More than 55 companies were involved and more than 165 matches were made. Initially, mainly Dutch speaking student were involved in TalentIT. This has increasingly shifted and currently mainly foreign students participate in TalentIT.

The participating companies indicate that: 

• Larger companies experience fewer problems finding IT personnel.

• There is also a great need for medior and senior IT personnel, in addition to junior employees.
• Smaller companies benefit greatly from TalentIT. They don’t have the time and/or staff available to look for suitable employees or students.

TalentIT has been partly funded by grants from the province of Overijssel and Twente Board (formerly Region Twente). In addition to an annual fee, companies paid a limited amount per match. Per mid-2023, the grants have ended. We are proud and grateful for the contribution we have made in the IT landscape of Twente, by helping students find internships or jobs. However, in the past year we have seen that our organization is too small to properly tackle today’s problems. The income is too limited and above all, too unpredictable. This means that the activities we have offered so far, will unfortunately have to stop.

At the same time, we, the board of TalentIT Twente, conclude that there’s more needed to structurally improve the shortage of IT personnel in Twente, than matchmaking. Besides that: a greater scale of coordinated activities is needed to continue in a financially responsible manner. 

In order to continue the goals of TalentIT Twente, we have focused on merging together with Talent Center Twente (TCT). TCT is a new initiative in which all the Talent organisations of Twente are addressed more broadly. This way, the knowledge and experience of TalentIT is retained and we help facilitate a quick start of TCT. We underline the need for an initiative like TCT: an organization that carries out the tactical/ operational coordination of several, if not all, talent-related themes in this region. Many initiatives in Twente are often carried out in isolation, and as result we miss opportunities for synergy between those initiatives. 

It is still unclear when Talent Center Twente will start and in what form the activities of TalentIT Twente (connecting students and companies) will be resumed under this new label. 

Given the needs of companies and the increasing number of vacancies (177% itn the 2nd quarter of 2023, compared to the 1st quarter of 2020( source: Twentse Arbeidsmarktmonitor)), we consider it very disadvantageous that we have to stop our activities, even if temporarily. In the coming years, the number of IT-related vacancies will continue to increase, while IT will play an increasingly more important role in businesses. SME’s, an important part of the economy in our region, will miss opportunities if we cannot fill these vacancies. At the same time, SMEs must also tackle this themselves: train juniors to become meteors and set up the organization to utilize international talents. 

We strive to ensure that TCT can provide SMEs in Twente with the right and sustainable support.