They could win the Skills of the Year Award at the Tech Awards 2022
They attract, recruit, develop, retain and help strengthen the entire tech sector's access to the right skills. Companies and organizations that recognize the importance of attracting the right people to an exploding sector.
This year's skills award - the Tech Skills & Talent Award - rewards stakeholders behind solutions and initiatives that strengthen the entire tech sector's access to skills. The winner takes responsibility for strengthening the attractiveness of the industry and works actively to cover the industry's large skills gap through various activities, such as skills development and lifelong learning.
IDG and TechSverige are behind the award. The prize will be awarded at the Tech Awards Sweden event in Stockholm on March 22 - and here are this year's finalists:
ABB Upper Secondary School - Teknikspets education
A unique upper secondary school program in Sweden that takes place in collaboration between ABB's Industrial Upper Secondary School and Mälardalen University, where young people can earn 30 credits already in upper secondary school. The course content is based on the digital revolution and the schedule includes programming, IoT, cloud and not least artificial intelligence, which is a recurring theme. An excellent example of how skills enhancement initiatives can start early and contribute to securing the supply of skills in technology and digitization for Sweden in the future.
Changers Hub - Changers Tech
Changers Tech is a programming training program within the framework of Changers Hub, the acclaimed innovation house in Alby, Botkyrka founded in 2015 with the vision to democratize the path to success. Young people from marginalized areas learn programming, while gaining access to an attractive network and meeting role models in the form of teachers and inspirational speakers. The initiative has attracted a great deal of attention and several course participants have now found jobs at Handelsbanken, the City of Stockholm and tech start-ups.
Hello World
Hello World is a non-profit organization that encourages interest and spreads knowledge about science, technology, innovation and art created with digital tools among young people through camps and weekend meetups. "We light up digital stars" is the stated goal. With scholarship funding, loan computers, income-tested fees and free travel to camps, the financial threshold for participation is lowered and digital creation is made easily accessible to all children and young people regardless of background and circumstances. Targeted initiatives towards, for example, disadvantaged areas and young girls contribute to positive integration.
KTH - Software Development Academy
How to manage the talent pool of newcomers and make them employable in the tech sector? During 2017-2020, the laudable initiative Software Development Academy was run at KTH with the goal of quickly "up-skilling" new arrivals and preparing them for jobs in tech. An innovative accelerated learning concept where course participants in 15 weeks learned software development to such a level that they could go directly to work. 350 people from 76 countries of origin, of which 57% are women, have completed the training and 83% have found work within 6 months. This is a very welcome and long-awaited initiative that needs to be continued and developed.
Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences - Tekniksprånget
Tekniksprånget is an ambitious internship program run by employers and the government to attract young people to higher technical education - and secure Sweden's skills supply. During a four-month paid internship, 18-20 year olds across Sweden get the chance to test the engineering profession in practice, giving them a better idea of what awaits them after their studies. More than 180 employers are involved in the project and offer internships in over 100 locations in Sweden. IVA has been running the project since 2012 on behalf of the National Agency for Education.
Girls coding - Technigo
Digital education, without losing the interactivity and feeling. Sandra Hindskog and Hanna Pettersson were fed up with the lack of programming courses that felt creative and fun, so they decided to start them themselves. Tjejer Kodar is an initiative to inspire and educate women in technology and programming, through inspirational lectures and short free courses. A total of 15,000 women are currently part of the network, regularly attending courses and trainings. Technigo is a 22-week digital bootcamp for those who want to become front-end developers with an innovative approach. Its approach and tone deviate from the usual tech norm, which may explain why 80% of the course participants are women.