“Sustainability has a strong appeal”

How do we create places where young people can fulfill their dreams? How do we break invisible barriers to higher education? How do we attract talent who want to help build a sustainable society? These were some of the questions when a panel of interesting guests discussed the challenges and opportunities facing Norrbotten.

Top row from left: Helena Karlberg, moderator, Patrik Söderholm, LTU, Maria Wetterstrand, CEO Miltton Group.
Bottom row from left: Linda Strandenhed, Young Entrepreneurship, Anna Utsi, Chairwoman Invest in Norrbotten,
Helena Lundberg Nilsson, Regional Development Director Västra Götaland.

Norrbotten's population continues to decline, while we will need to hire for tens of thousands of jobs in the coming years. Many young people are leaving the county, especially girls. Linda Strandenhed, project manager for Ung Företagsamhet in Norrbotten, meets many young people who are thinking about their future.

– We meet young people who want to stay but are worried about not getting a fun job or a job at all. How do we create places where young people can fulfill their dreams? How do we get others to come here and fulfill their dreams? We create meetings between young people and people they would otherwise never meet. Mingling with young people and people from the business world. They come into new rooms and meet people who can help them move forward. But there are others who need to be involved. Open and welcoming networks would be needed much more.

Networks and role models are particularly important for girls to choose to stay, says Linda Strandenhed.

– Highlight role models, which people are doing things here that we may not know about? What do women need to feel at home in the jobs that exist? We meet girls who want to stay if there are opportunities, and networking is important there.

Want to contribute to a sustainable future

Hybrit's initiative is generating interest among young people, says Anna Utsi. Photo: Åsa Bäcklin.

In the green transition and young people's involvement in climate issues, there is an opportunity for Norrbotten, said Anna Utsi, chairwoman of Invest in Norrbotten AB.

– We now see that the new projects like Hybrit have a strong appeal among young people. Today's young people have different expectations and demands andh wants to contribute to a sustainable future, she says, and also sees great opportunities in remote work, which has had a breakthrough due to the pandemic.

– We will work of distance to a much greater extent. For Norrbotten, this means that we can attract cutting-edge expertise from anywhere in the world. But also within Norrbotten, we don't have to live close to our workplaces.

Helena Lundberg Nilsson is regional development director in Västra Götaland, a county that, like Norrbotten, is an industrially dense county with large companies in a global market. The county relies heavily on an automotive industry and a chemical industry that, just like the steel industry, is transitioning to fossil-free. Here too, skills supply is a big issue. Companies are looking for talent to recruit.

– We received signals that in the public sector we were not cooperating enough with the large companies and universities on how we created the conditions to attract talent. Jobs to accompany us have been a very important issue. Attractive communities, a cultural life. Just coming together is a huge force. Here we should cooperate in Sweden on talent recruitment. We could market ourselves offensively together to be the nation with research and sustainable solutions, she suggests.

Skills exchange a matter of fate

Talent is one thing, but in the wake of the green transition, she also sees a great need to train people who already have jobs and an education – sometimes a higher education.

– How many in the automotive industry need a completely different type of competence? It's thousands. Both engineers and those with lower education. You are a specialist in combustion engines and will now work with electrified vehicles. It has to go quickly and this is something we share with the rest of Sweden. We are not set up for further training, skills exchange, skills conversion. Exciting conversations are taking place, but it is a question of fate: how quickly can we exchange skills among many people with both higher and lower education?

Breaking barriers

Norrbotten is particularly short of highly educated people. The proportion of people with higher education is lower than in most counties, and the gap is also increasing. Many young people here have been able to get well-paid jobs in industry without higher education. But if these jobs disappear, perhaps due to automation or the green transition, many low-educated people from Norrbotten could have a difficult time on the job market.

Maria Wetterstrand, former spokesperson for the Green Party, is now a public debater and sustainability consultant. She believes that universities should bear a great responsibility for recruiting to higher education.

– They have to work on breaking down barriers. Some people don't apply for higher education, there may be negative attitudes, no one in the family has studied. You have to work actively to get people to apply who otherwise wouldn't choose it. Higher education institutions have a big responsibility there, there are barriers on the way that you have to look at.

The former spokesperson participated in the conversation remotely from Brussels.

Wetterstrand, now based in Brussels where she is CEO of a PR firm, says that one issue that has become a big one within the EU in the wake of the pandemic is the question of “strategic autonomy.”

– It has been noticed during the pandemic that we are dependent on raw materials from other parts of the world and have a low degree of self-sufficiency. Here the EU wants to achieve an increased degree of self-sufficiency in essential raw materials. There are opportunities in the circular economy, but there are also opportunities for increased production in minerals and metals. We need to talk about this. What can Norrbotten contribute and how can we handle conflicts with local environmental interests?, says Maria Wetterstrand.

Diversification of business

That question is related to Anna Utsi. Norrbotten's economy and labor market today rest heavily on iron ore mining and the steel industry, but diversification is already being seen within the mining industry as well.

– Graphite mining, for example, is in other customer segments. Then LKAB is looking at broadening its portfolio to include phosphorus and extracting rare earth metals from mining waste.

Anna Utsi believes that the demand for metals and minerals will remain high, citing as an example that an electric car needs three times as much copper as a conventional car. There are minerals that are needed for batteries and solar panels.

In addition to the diversification of the mining industry, other industries are emerging, supported by the county's strengths. Data centers, for example, benefit from cheap electricity and free cooling for much of the year.

– The tourism industry is an example and here it is important that authorities and various actors follow and support it. Diversification will happen quite spontaneously, predicts Patrik Söderholm, professor at LTU and one of the authors of the report.

“Norrbotten becomes a system demonstrator”

Söderholm sees great opportunities for Norrbotten as a "front runner" in sustainability.

– The green transition involves an incredibly exciting development. We will become a system demonstrator. There are pilot plants here and there is a well-functioning regional innovation system with connections to universities and institutes. We must nurture and develop that, this green innovation system. Which actors should be involved, what roles should we have? It needs to be strengthened.

This is a development that should mean opportunities to recruit from near and far. But if Norrbotten is looking for workers outside the country's borders, it's not something Maria Wetterstrand has noticed from her horizon in Brussels. She calls for a more active stance.

– I haven't noticed any big campaigns to get people to move to Norrbotten. The pandemic can have a positive effect with remote work and many have reassessed their priorities in their lives a bit. But if you don't tell them that "we want you to come here", they still don't have Norrbotten top of mind. But imagine if you go out and say "we want you to move, this is needed, this is what we can offer, we want both women and men for all jobs, we have the university". Norrbotten must show the attractive parts that it has, she says.

Read the full report Norrbotten's role in the economy (pdf)

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Norrbotten is going like a train - but in the success there are seeds of problems (May 10, 2021)