What has been the greatest benefit for your company in hosting LIA students?
– The absolute greatest benefit is meeting new people. The students are often very driven, and the entire LIA experience has been consistently positive. It’s inspiring to support students on their educational journey. For us, it also means strengthening our own brand. We have hosted students from several vocational programs, including Java development, front-end development, and AI/machine learning. Thanks to their diverse backgrounds, everyone has been able to contribute new perspectives, tools, and knowledge. This brings a breath of fresh air and new experiences to the business. 

In what ways have LIA students been involved in the company’s operations during their internships?
– We place great importance on ensuring that students gain a positive and realistic experience of the professional world. We often form mixed teams and collaboratively develop proposals for tasks that the students themselves can help shape. We try to choose projects that are important to the business but don’t have strict deadlines, such as infrastructure work like updating dependencies or code refactoring. New development and exploration of entirely new solutions also take place. Students participate in sprints and planning meetings, work on mission-critical systems, and have access to resources similar to those of regular employees. 

Have you been able to influence the content of the programs through your collaboration with the vocational college?
– We sit on the industry advisory board for programs at a vocational college, which gives us significant opportunities to influence the content. There, we can provide concrete input on the skills that are in demand in the industry. Even companies that aren’t on the industry council can submit feedback and suggestions for improvement, and these are usually welcomed with open arms. 

Is there anything else you’d like to mention regarding YH and the partnership? 

– We also collaborate with the Department of Linguistics at Stockholm University and have staff members who studied at the Royal Institute of Technology. Students regularly reach out to us for internships during both their bachelor’s and master’s programs. Both vocational colleges and universities have their strengths: vocational colleges are more practically oriented, while universities are often more theoretical. 

A major advantage of vocational college internships is that the results do not have to be made public in the same way as academic theses, which means we can immediately apply the students’ work in our operations. 

– Of course, internships and mentoring take time, but many of these tasks would have taken even longer to complete on our own. At the same time, we have the opportunity to provide students with valuable work experience and help ensure the industry’s future. If a company has the opportunity to hire, an internship is also an excellent way to get to know the student and introduce them to the company’s operations during the internship itself.