Join forces now!

Our member companies are recruiting again, and I hear about problems finding skills. There is also a concern that projects will have to be moved abroad because there are simply no skills available at home. In the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise's recruitment barometer , the IT sector stands out as the industry that has the most difficulty recruiting alongside the plumbing industry. Plumbers and IT engineers - these are clearly jobs of the future.

Yesterday, the Technology Delegation submitted its report to the Minister for Science, Tobias Krantz. The report presents a number of concrete proposals aimed at motivating young people to choose scientific and technical education. "We've heard it before - it doesn't help anyway," said one participant at today's seminar. Nevertheless, this is one of the most important reports of the year and the message is simple - act now.

We educate for the society we strive for. The Technology Delegation has a vision of a society with great global competitiveness, with the ability to meet future challenges in areas such as the environment, demographics or infrastructure, and also wants a society where citizens have the skills to understand, absorb and influence different parts of society. This requires a high capacity for innovation and both cutting-edge expertise and a high level of technical literacy among citizens. And this is what the proposals aim to achieve. Change the pedagogy in schools in terms of technology and science subjects, develop teachers' skills, ensure that the business community contributes, reward municipalities that work actively with these issues and ensure that the transition between school and further education is as smooth as possible. And as I said - take action now before it is too late.

Given the reaction to the presentation, this is the right approach. Now we hope that the government - present and future - will get to grips with the proposals and not let it become a shelf warmer. That would be a disaster for us all.