Are IT skills needed at secondary level? Absolutely... but it won't come by itself!
"The IT industry is crying out for skills" is a headline we have often read in recent years. The skills most often referred to are post-secondary skills of various kinds - IT engineers, system scientists, YH-educated programmers, etc. There is a great deal of interest here from our member companies in carrying out collaborative activities of various kinds to increase the influx of these skills, for example through our Choose IT initiative aimed at young people on their way to university studies and through our initiatives focusing on people born abroad.
However, it is easy to forget that there is a more artisanal side of the IT sector, whose access to skills is at least as critical; without competent network technicians, support staff, field technicians, etc. However, for this category of skills - the high school one - it is much more difficult to get the commitment of IT employers of various kinds (I say "IT employers" because it is as much about IT departments outside the IT industry, as the IT industry itself, where these skills are needed). Somehow it is hoped that young people and others will sufficiently seek out this part of the industry, without the need for employers to make any active efforts.
A concrete example of the difficulties in creating collaboration concerns the upper secondary vocational programme where, among other things, network technicians are trained (the computer and communications specialization of the electricity and energy programme). A central part of the programmes is so-called APL, workplace learning. Here, the schools have to scramble to find employers for the APL places. The great irony is that despite much initial resistance to accepting the APL students, in almost all cases the employers end up being very satisfied and happy to hire the technicians directly. One wonders, however, why it must be so slow...
On March 21, IT&Telekomföretagen invited representatives from both IT high schools and member companies in the Stockholm area to a breakfast discussion on how we can solve the APL problem. We have sent targeted invitations to the IT companies that we know need high school skills, and received responses from a few brave ones - credit to them. However, we welcome many more. To ensure that companies attending the breakfast do not feel hostage to receiving trainees, we have clearly labeled the discussion as "CONDITIONLESS". What we hope to get out of the discussion is not only more interested IT companies, but equally these IT companies' inroads with client organizations, where they know technician skills are needed. Unlike many of the IT companies, whose operations are run on a consultancy basis, client organizations have IT operations that are run "in-house" making it much easier to take on trainees.
Fredrik von Essen