Sissel Leire
Chairman of the Board Kruse Smith AS
Large labour market
With 195,000 inhabitants within an hour's drive, the battery factory will have access to a wide and exciting job market.
Within the one-hour circle, there are a total of 122 000 people of working age and around 30 000 of them are aged 25-39. Around 37% of the region's workforce has a college or university degree.
The long and proud industrial tradition contributes to the region's high proportion of skilled workers. The region's growing proportion of the population with higher education supplements the companies with cutting-edge expertise, which, in interaction with the skilled workers, has helped the companies to remain competitive for hundreds of years.
Cooperation in the NCE Eyde and GCE Node clusters helps to link the companies and their employees more closely across the board. It builds the industrial culture in the region and the community between the companies in the Eyde cluster. Thanks to the good contact between the companies, knowledge is shared and developed, leading to development and innovation.
Varied working life
The region's business community consists of more than world-leading process and offshore industries. We have nationally leading travel and experience companies and a growing IT industry. Kristiansand is also the headquarters for many regional tasks, and has a large public sector, with a county administration, hospital and university.
Business establishments
The business clusters in the region are industrial locomotives that pull the rest of the business community forward and contribute to many new establishments. Every year, around 2,000 new businesses are established in the region, ranging from sole proprietorships to large companies.
A selection of companies in the process industry in Southern Norway.
Talents from abroad
The Joint Battery Initiative may soon need to recruit specialists from abroad. Kristiansand municipality has a well-functioning apparatus for receiving foreign labor. The Kristiansand region has many international companies that are dependent on recruiting skilled professionals internationally. It is important that those who come here are met in a good way and thrive, whether they come alone or as a family.
Relocation Region Kristiansand
Business Region Kristiansand, which is the municipality's business department, provides relocation services to companies that hire new international employees. There are many practical and formal things that need to be in place to ensure an efficient and safe move to Norway. We have good solutions for everything from work and residence permits, housing and school places for children. We also help with job searches for spouses.
Kristiansand municipality assists a number of businesses with practical and formal needs after recruiting people from other countries.
Secrets of Kristiansand
The social network is also important. "Secrets of Kristiansand" is a social meeting place for in-migrants. Meetings are held six times a year, and the meeting place has a special focus on international skilled workers. Here they learn something new about the region from relevant speakers, and not least they meet Norwegians and other immigrants. The meeting place is a collaboration between the University
i Agder (UiA) and the Chamber of Commerce in the Kristiansand region (NiKR).
International schooling
In Kristiansand there are many opportunities for education at all levels and in different languages. As one of the few schools in the country, Kristiansand International School and Kristiansand Katedralskole Gimle offer free IB schooling at all levels from 1st grade to upper secondary school.
Courses and training in Norwegian and Norwegian culture are offered by several, including Aftenskolen, Folkeuniversitetet and Kongsgård School Center.
