Panel discussion on skills supply
(Source: Facebook Develop Norrbotten, 2025-04-01)
– The supply of skills is our most difficult challenge because it is the most complex, says Fredrik Hansson (S), vice chairman of the Luleå municipal board, at the Norrbotten Region development conference.
Fredrik Hansson participated in a seminar about the Norrbotten Competence Arena project, which will break new ground in collaboration.
– We will build new and stronger structures for the county's skills supply. Have the right facts, the right decision-making basis, to make decisions that strengthen the county. Also work with the county's small and medium-sized enterprises in the increasingly fierce competition for labor, says project manager Karin Erkki, Norrbotten Region.
The need for good data was repeatedly raised during the seminar. Today, data is often missing at the municipal level, or the data that is available is outdated from the start. Forecasts are often just projections based on historical developments.
– We see a challenge in the fact that authorities take the forecasts as truth and a basis for the future. This does not provide the right conditions for planning. The National Agency for Education's basis for how the authorities should plan educational investments shows that Norrbotten will reduce the most in all of Sweden, and Västerbotten will have a surplus of construction workers. This does not match the picture we have of investments, everything that is to be built. The forecasts need to change to change the future, says Evelina Åström, Byggföretagen.
Evelina Åström, Swedish Construction Companies.
Isak Utsi (S), chairman of the municipal board of Arjeplog, believes that it is welfare that is hardest hit by the skills shortage.
– I believe that the industry has better conditions to recruit personnel, to get people to establish themselves in northern Sweden. The challenge is for welfare, he says, and also highlights that the trend of reduced childbearing keeps him awake at night. In the long term, this means that a large proportion of the working-age population will disappear.
Isak Utsi (S), chairman of the municipal board of Arjeplog.
Fredrik Hansson calls for more flexible rules to make it possible for former Northvolt workers from other countries to find new jobs.
– There are well-educated people here, of course we want those from Northvolt to stay in northern Sweden. But our recruitment processes are too rigid, you have to know Swedish. We need to think differently and review our recruitment processes because this is not enough. Everyone says that providing skills is their biggest challenge, but here there are people to recruit - and interest is a bit lukewarm.
Isak Utsi wanted to see a more active state labor market policy that helps unemployed people in southern Sweden contribute to alleviating the labor shortage in the north.
– In Arjeplog, unemployment is 2,9 percent. We can develop training courses, but who are we going to put the knowledge in the hands of? It is not reasonable that some regions have 14 percent unemployment and Arjeplog 2,9 percent. We are testing things like “Try-to-live”, we pay for your accommodation for the first few months while you see if Arjeplog is something for you. We may also need to figure out such innovations together.
Text: Sara Stylbäck Vesa
Photos: Simon Eliasson
Kompetensarena Norrbotten is a project that aims to manage the county's increasing skills needs as a result of the extensive industrial establishment in Norrbotten.
The project is run by Region Norrbotten in collaboration with the county's municipalities and business companies, Akademi Norr and the Lapland Municipal Association. It is funded by the European Social Fund, ESF+.