Thousands of new jobs are expected in the south of the Dutch province of Limburg in the coming three years.
That is the primary objective of Customer Service Valley, a cooperation between triple helix actors in government, the business world, and education, which is now officially going ahead.
Customer Service Valley aims to use training programmes, knowledge exchange, innovation, and further professionalization of the trade in order to further develop South Limburg’s position as a region specialized in customer service.
The first level-three senior secondary vocational education courses (mbo-3) in customer service have already commenced. These are provided by the regional training centre ROC Leeuwenborgh.
Maastricht and the surrounding area have around thirty companies with an active call centre. These call centres provide 5,000 jobs, of which 1,500 are in Customer Service Valley. Customer Service Valley aims to increase this number from 5,000 to 6,000 in three years. In order to achieve this, they will develop their image as an attractive place to set up business for companies in the Netherlands and abroad that have a customer service department.
At the beginning of this year, Vodafone, Q-park, arvato Bertelsmann, the Municipality of Maastricht, and educational institutes such as Arcus College senior secondary vocational school, ROC Leeuwenborgh, and Zuyd University of Applied Sciences signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation in Customer Service Valley.
International Outlook
The concept behind Customer Service Valley originated from the desire to increase the cooperation between companies, which in turn would strengthen the sector and boost its capacity.
Thanks to its international location, culture, and way of doing business, South Limburg is the perfect place to offer effective customer-driven customer service. Hospitality is at the heart of Limburgian culture. It’s also a dynamic region with an international outlook.
Thanks to its geographic location and the international student population in Maastricht, there is an abundant supply of the multilingual staff whom customer call centres require. In order to achieve international recognition, Customer Service Valley is working with other cross-border initiatives.
