Skills shortages must be put on the political agenda

Skills supply

Three questions to Fredrik von Essen, industrial policy expert at IT&Telecomföretagen.

You have busy days at work right now, what are you up to?

- I'm just putting the finishing touches to a report that describes the skills shortage in the IT and telecom industry, with a number of proposals for action. The report will be presented on March 19, the same day as the final of my other major project, the Next Up school IT competition, where 1,000 pupils in Stockholm, Umeå and Gothenburg compete to develop the best solution proposal for cases from our member companies.

What are the most important issues for you right now?

- The most important thing is to get the issue of the skills shortage on the political agenda, and to understand that active efforts must be made at several levels. I think politicians and others have settled for the fact that we are so IT-mature in Sweden and have many successful IT companies. However, the world is catching up and overtaking us, while our IT companies cannot develop their business because they have a shortage of qualified people to employ. One way to address this is to ensure that, both in the short and long term, we attract and retain more girls and more foreign-born people in the industry.

How can I as a member get involved in your issues?

-"Our main forum is the IT Skills Council, which includes recruitment managers from member companies, where we discuss problems and decide on measures and proposals for action. One example of a measure that has emerged from the Council's work is the Next Up project, where we now have about twenty partner companies that help eighth graders, whether they are girls or boys, around the country get a proper insight into what an exciting and creative industry this is. Other measures we are discussing are what efforts are needed to bring more foreign-born people into the labor market in general, and into our industry in particular. If many of our member companies make a contribution, however small, we can have an astonishing impact!