Catalonia looks to copy Denmark’s example

With some five million inhabitants, an unemployment rate less than half ours and salaries more than double, Catalonia looks to Denmark for inspiration. A business delegation from the FemCAT association last week went to Copenhagen and other Danish cities to learn what makes the Nordic country a leader in social progress.

“People have enough money to avoid problems and feel happy,” says engineer Natàlia Quero in a meeting of Catalan expats. Head of the Copenhagen castellers, Quero says that one aspect that makes Denmark stand out is its school system. “Schools develop citizens, and while Catalonia rewards the accumulation of knowledge, in Denmark education is skills focused,” says Albert who works in a pharmaceutical company.

“It is a safe society, they are never worried because they do not have to worry about the education system, which is public and free,” says Iñaki Manrubia, who has lived in Copenhagen since 2011.

And the Danish job market is a balance between ease of hiring and firing, with safety nets in place and policies to find new work given priority. “Every year, workers have a private meeting with their head that ends in a contract committing both parties to work and personal objectives,” says university researcher Maria Puig Arnavat.