Published in swedish in Dagens Nyheter May 30 2016
Sweden is a fundamentally stable country, but we face a number of challenges. One of the most critical, in both the near and the long term, is within the field of education and training. Far too many people in our country suffer from social exclusion, and many more are at risk of doing so. The reasons for that can often be found in inadequate education, poor language skills, or education/training that is not properly adapted to conditions in the Swedish labor market. Those of us who deal with knowledge in the form of research and education fully appreciate the complexity of the challenges facing Swedish society. We realize there are no easy answers, and that much work is already being done. But we firmly believe that these challenges are best met with a common view on reality with broad support and the involvement of many stakeholders, whose complementary competence, experience and perspective can be deployed in the best way.
Universities, scientific academies, as well as private research foundations possess key knowledge and expertise that can contribute to the efforts made to meet the challenges ahead. On the basis of their respective platforms, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Swedish Academy and the Wallenberg Foundations have together decided to make an active and joint contribution to the efforts being made to come to grips with the major challenge regarding levels of education and training, and social exclusion. Some of the initiatives will take place in collaboration with the Universities in Gothenburg and Stockholm.
We have identified a number of initiatives that we believe will have an impact in both the near and the long term. Our joint effort is focused to two areas. First of all, we want to support young people in suburbs to our major cities with a high proportion of immigrants, areas where schools are struggling to cope with the integration. To ensure that youngsters in these areas and schools do not find themselves excluded from society it is essential they be encouraged to remain in education. The other area we will focus our intention on is the large number of new arrivals who currently have a long way from the Swedish labor market. We will be launching an initiative targeted at educated new arrivals. Here, we will be taking steps to more quickly adapt education and training courses to the needs of the new arrivals and demand in the Swedish labor market. In all, these initiatives will span a ten-year period. The Wallenberg Foundations are contributing SEK 300 million to these programs.
The first initiative is being coordinated by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and will be organized as summer schools for young people in deprived areas as well as for newly arrived students. New arrivals and Swedish high school students who sign up will attend a two-week intensive course focused on scientific topics. Their work will be supervised by teachers and researchers from schools and universities throughout the country. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will be starting a pilot project this summer. Over the next few years the initiative will be extended so that every summer around two hundred students will be offered this exciting opportunity to deepen their scientific understanding.
The initiative aimed at preparing and helping well-educated new arrivals to enter the labor market involves a number of elements. The first is based on the Jobbsprånget (“Leap to Work”) initiative launched by the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, based on experience from the Tekniksprånget (“Leap in Technology”) internship program for newly arrived adults with degrees in technical, scientific and business subjects. Co-funded with the government, the program aims to arrange internships at Swedish enterprises for up to 4,000 newly arrived adults with university degrees. The other part is coordinated by Sophiahemmet (a private hospital, training and research institution), and offers a rolling three-month training course for newly arrived doctors, dentists and pharmacists. KTH Royal Institute of Technology will also receive funding to start a targeted program for new arrivals, aimed at preparing IT-programmers for the Swedish labor market.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, in collaboration with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is also receive substantial funding to further develop and expand its “Natural Sciences and Technology for All” program (NTA) so that it can be better adapted to the needs of newly arrived children.
The Swedish Academy will be involved in intensive courses in Swedish as a foreign language for newly arrived children and young people of school age. The initiative takes the form of a three-year project to develop knowledge-based intensive courses in Swedish. In other words, it is a sort of high-quality “Swedish for Immigrants” for young people.
In addition to these initiatives, the Wallenberg Foundations will be supporting a number of projects aiming to help students in deprived areas. For instance, these students will be given much greater access to the Universeum Science Centre in Gothenburg and the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm. Funding will also be made available so that students at the Universities of Gothenburg and Stockholm can tutor school students in deprived areas. The Wallenberg Foundations initiative also includes integration projects and initiatives to employ more teachers in underperforming schools.
Having engaged in dialogue with numerous experts and stakeholders, we have decided to carry out these initiatives for new arrivals, education and training. We, that is to say the scientific academies and the Wallenberg Foundations, consider that our contribution to meeting these challenges faced by Swedish society will be best deployed in the educational sector, and in collaboration with schools and universities. Our aim is to raise the educational level of people belonging to particularly disadvantaged groups, and to increase the rate at which well-educated new arrivals enter the Swedish labor market.
These initiatives are substantial, but naturally will not suffice to solve all problems. However, we hope that this statement of intent by central academic bodies may spur others to take action in this area. This is our way of helping to reduce social exclusion by trying to ensure that Sweden makes better use of all the skills, talent and expertise available in our country.
Göran K Hansson, Secretary General the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Björn O. Nilsson, CEO the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
Tomas Riad, Permanent Secretary the Swedish Academy
Peter Wallenberg Jr, Chairman Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation