Technology sector federation boosts role Flemish supported employment ​ enterprises

Collaboration between technology companies and supported employment enterprises in Flanders is set to expand significantly in the coming years. According to the Belgian technology industry federation Agoria, around 15 per cent of companies in the sector currently collaborate with a supported employment enterprise. The sector organisation believes this figure should at least double.

In Flanders, around 26,000 people currently work in supported employment enterprises, spread across about a hundred enterprises. These are employees who face barriers to the labour market, for example due to a disability, long-term unemployment or other obstacles to entering the mainstream labour market. In supported employment enterprises, they can perform adapted tasks within industrial processes.

According to Agoria, this collaboration can offer the technology industry a solution to labour shortages and fluctuations in production. Supported employment enterprises carry out tasks such as assembly work, support logistics processes or dismantle products for recycling. The sector also believes that repetitive tasks requiring high-quality control are well-suited to this type of collaboration.

“The potential is huge. Today, around 15 per cent of our companies collaborate with supported employment enterprises, but we believe that figure could at least double,” stated Jolyce Demely, general manager of Agoria Flanders.

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The ambition was announced on Monday during a working visit to the supported employment enterprise BWZ in Zottegem. The visit was organised by Agoria and Groep Maatwerk, in the presence of Flemish minister president Matthias Diependaele and East Flemish governor Carina Van Cauter.

Through this initiative, both organisations aim to bring companies and supported employment enterprises closer together on a structural basis, thereby further strengthening the role of supported employment enterprises in the Flemish manufacturing industry.

^{#FlandersNewsService | Supported employment enterprise BWZ © BELGA PHOTO JONAS D'HOLLANDER}

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