Closing remarks: Rewarding the allocation of funds to universities of applied sciences

Higher vocational education will have an important role in the future, higher vocational education with high quality should be rewarded, writes Fredrik von Essen at IT&Telekomföretagen in a final response to Martina Lindgren, Nackademin.

In a reply, Martina Lindgren emphasizes all the benefits of higher vocational education. They are many - and important - as IT&Telekomföretagen agrees. For those who carefully read the IT skills shortage report, it is clear that the university of applied sciences will have an important role to play in the future. Furthermore, IT&Telecom proposes to reward the allocation of funds to high quality universities of applied sciences. The way in which universities of applied sciences work, with close contact to business, is something that must become more prominent in other parts of the education sector.

Many courses need links to the business world

This is because digitization means that developments risk becoming unmanageable; the pace of development is too fast to keep up with. Even today, the knowledge acquired in the first year of a technical university education is often outdated by the time you graduate five years later. The fact that society is moving so quickly towards the future means that many courses will need to be more closely linked to industry to remain relevant. For the right skills to be available in Sweden in the future, it is necessary to take this into account.

Society needs to rethink

The fact that IT&Telecom companies are advocating the establishment of a Commission for Lifelong Learning is about this. Society needs to rethink and try to understand what education will need to be in the age of digitalization. It is likely that the conclusion will be that education cannot be limited to twenty years in school. That will not be enough to equip someone for a lifetime. Instead, people will need to engage in some form of lifelong learning. This is the only way to cope with the many technological transitions that lie ahead.

A commission should be set up

Higher education will have an important role to play in the future, and its working methods will be more significant than in the past. Whatever the case may be, it is important to note that the education system needs to be reformed and reshaped to suit a fully digitalized society. A commission on lifelong learning should be set up to give us a holistic perspective.