Sweden is falling behind in digital skills - Ygeman, now we must work together!

70,000 people in IT and tech are needed in Sweden by 2022. Now both the government and the business community must act.

This is what Fredrik von Essen writes together with a number of representatives from Sweden's IT industry in a debate article on the news site Breakit.

In the 2018 election campaign, digitalization issues were completely forgotten in the debate. Instead, issues of law and order, migration and integration dominated the Swedish debate. From having been a Swedish paradigm, digitization has for a long time now led an obscure existence in Swedish politics.

Sweden has historically been at the forefront of digitalization. Through reforms such as the home PC, we achieved an unprecedented spread of computers in homes. The breakthrough of the GSM system in Sweden made us a leader in mobile data, and Sweden is still at the forefront of broadband to households.

We from the business community therefore have two things to say. First, congratulations on your job, Anders Ygeman, and second, we must work together!

It is no coincidence that Sweden has successful IT companies, from those best known to consumers, such as Spotify and King, to companies that deliver advanced solutions in areas such as biometrics and automated vehicles. This is the result of far-sighted initiatives in collaboration between the public sector and industry.

When other countries are investing heavily to become the winners of digitalization, we have an acute lack of Swedish initiatives. Past successes have made Swedish policy complacent and overconfident.

There is a perception that we can keep the lead in IT without political effort. But in our companies, which are fighting every day in fierce international competition for the talent to develop their businesses, we see that the lead has already been taken by others.

Other countries are closing the skills gap. They are better at getting young people to choose a profession in digitalization. They are recruiting women at a much higher rate. And they are better at harnessing the skills that immigration brings.

As an industry, we have a responsibility to recruit more widely and stimulate interest among young people. We recognize that much more can be done, perhaps we have been too busy growing today to think about growth tomorrow.

We have therefore now produced a manifesto that we want the government to act on. It contains concrete activities that we will carry out, but also activities and initiatives that the government can quickly implement to reduce the skills gap in the IT and technology field.

We commit to implementing several concrete measures in three strategic areas to help close the skills gap and to broaden the recruitment base for Swedish companies in IT and digitalization.

1. #UpgradeSweden. We establish a hub to share knowledge and give people the opportunity to upskill or reskill. We bring together existing trainings and encourage others to share their trainings.

2. #WelcomeWoman. We are starting a collaboration with a party with a large network to create meeting places between women and tech companies. This work is strengthened through inspirational efforts aimed at high schools and technical universities to reduce dropouts.

3. skills immigration - not skills expulsion. We ensure as far as possible that no mistakes are made in recruitment and employment through a checklist for companies. It should be easy to work and live in Sweden.

But our high ambitions and our promises of strong action are not enough. In our manifesto, we therefore invite not only the rest of the business community, but also the public sector.

If we are to find and train 70,000 talented people by 2022, many of the proposed decisions need to be put in place this year.

We therefore call for a strong government program to broaden the recruitment of new skills so that Sweden once again becomes a leading country in digitalization.

A digital skills reform, where the PC reform is followed up with a digitalization allowance for further education. Retraining for professions in digitalization should be rewarded through tax breaks. In upper secondary schools, not only do teachers need further training, but study and career counselors must be given a mission to actively inform about promising future opportunities.
The foundation for later educational choices is laid in school. The Government should therefore task the National Agency for Education with developing a strategy to interest girls in a career in digitalization, from primary to secondary school.

Facilitating labor migration. The rigid application of the rules, whereby negligible mistakes by workers or employers lead to the withdrawal of work permits and deportation, must be reviewed. Instead of scaring away talent, we need positive measures to attract more people to develop their talent in Sweden.

Sweden has many structural advantages over key competitor countries. But other countries are not standing still. We must continue our reform efforts.

We, who represent and lead companies in digitalization, are ready to take our responsibility to equip Sweden for the future. We now expect the government to come together around a real agenda for us to be competitive in the digital economy.

Making Sweden a leader in digitalization again should therefore be one of the government's top priorities. A priority that does not only apply to our new Minister for Digitalization Anders Ygeman. But also Anna Ekström, Minister for Education, Matilda Ernkrans, Minister for Higher Education and Research, Morgan Johansson, Minister for Justice and Migration, and Åsa Lindhagen, Minister for Gender Equality.

Maria Rankka, CEO Brunswick Sweden
Joacim Damgard COO Microsoft CEE
Lars Kry CEO Sigma IT Consulting
Beatrice Silow Director of Communications Sigma IT Consulting
Fredrik von Essen Business Policy Expert IT&Telecomföretagen
Ivan Liljequist, Stockholm Blockchain and Ivan on Tech,

The debate article was published by the news site Breakit on 2019-02-14.