The future needs of skills in the Swedish Industry

Ingenjör4.0 and Collegial invited to a webinar about the future needs of skills in the Swedish industry. This webinar was hosted by Greta Braun, PhD Student at Chalmers university and expert in skill gap analysis demonstrating how a declining population means that we have to work smarter and more efficiently in the future. At the same time, the industry must be resilient, sustainable and human centered – what is called Industry 5.0.

To solve these issues almost half of the employees’ skills have to change dramatically according to World Economic Forum. A study by ManpowerGroup shows that engineering skills are the most challenging to find, regardless of industry and geography.

Skills shortage, a threat to Swedish competitiveness

Maria Rosendahl, Head of Industrial Policy at Teknikföretagen, presented the results from the big survey “Kompetensbehovsundersökning” performed by Industrirådet. The survey shows that the recruitment situation now and in three years’ time is extensive for both skilled workers and engineers. A majority of the responding companies say they need to recruit the coming years and 85% state it is harder than before to find the right competence. Lack of experience and the right education are common reasons. This skills shortage is a threat to Swedish competitiveness and risks leading to companies moving abroad.

Ingenjör4.0, upskilling designed to meet the needs

Greta Braun and Maria Rosendahl were joined by Johan Kreicbergs, Head of Sociopolitical Affairs at Sveriges Ingenjörer and Suncana Bandalo, Product Engineer at Sandvik and an ingenjör4.0 student, to discuss how these challenges can be met.

Johan Kreicbergs said that the members of Sveriges Ingenjörer testify that time is the biggest issue for upskilling and reskilling. The industry is running at full speed and engineers’ skills are needed here and now. At the same time, upskilling is crucial to meet the needs in the future. To find the balance between short-term and long-term need is challenging. Upskilling initiatives have to be flexible and fit in the flow of work, like Ingenjör4.0.

Suncana Bandalo has taken many Ingenjör4.0 modules. She thinks the modules reflect the industry’s need well. Suncana described that her learning path is driven by curiosity. She picked the modules she found interesting and then prioritized together with her closest manager. Suncana thinks the responsibility for upskilling lies with both the employer and the employee – it’s a joint venture, where both parts want the company to succeed also in the future she said.

Ingenjör4.0 is setup to give the students cutting edge knowledge from research in a way that can be used directly in their daily work. Suncana told that since she took her first module two years ago, she has implemented her new knowledge and thereby become a better customer to other parts of the production meaning she is more confident and asks better questions.

To access the shared insights and strategies, follow the link below and fill out the form to watch the recorded version!

About Ingenjör4.0

Ingenjör4.0 is an upskilling program aimed for professionals with an engineering background. They offer organizations to take part of their web-based learning modules, led by prominent teachers from Swedish universities, that will enable you to develop the knowledge and skill sets needed for future manufacturing.

The upskilling program is a direct response to identifies skill gaps in Sweden. The initiative will increase the competitiveness of the Swedish industry and strengthens Sweden’s role as an international innovation and digitalisation leader. Ingenjör4.0 was initiated by The Swedish Production Academy within the strategic innovation programme Produktion2030. Since the start in 2020, engineers from companies like Sandvik and Volvo have started their upskilling journey with Ingenjör4.0.