New year - new initiatives for more young people & more foreign-born into the IT industry

Skills supply Education and training

Despite the economic slowdown, the IT industry needs more people. The two main sources of labor are foreign-born and young people - the first more short-term, the second more long-term.

The IT&Telecom Companies' IT Competence Council, which next meets on February 7, will carry out a number of activities around the two sources during the year:

1. create an annual event for secondary school students to meet IT companies. The IT sector is concerned that young people have an outdated image of IT professions, and therefore unnecessarily opt out of training courses that lead to the creative and well-paid jobs available in the sector. To change attitudes, direct encounters between young people and IT companies are needed.

2. establish a network of guidance counselors to help spread a more accurate picture among young people of the wide range of opportunities available in the sector.

3. establish effective courses in the Swedish language and Swedish (IT) workplace culture for foreign-born people, in cooperation with educational institutions and matching authorities (e.g. the Public Employment Service).

4. promote diversity leadership, thereby facilitating the entry of foreign-born talent into both the IT industry and its client companies. A seminar and PR initiative in cooperation with a leading media player is planned.

5. Investing in more IT in school education, including through participation in a national programming competition for schoolchildren in grades 4-9.

Are you involved in some form of staff recruitment or skills development? Then you are welcome to join the IT Skills Council and its LinkedIn group. The Council is open to (1) IT companies that are members of IT&Telecomföretagen (2) Companies that are not primarily IT suppliers but still recruit IT staff on a large scale.