Skills supply roadmap: Mobilisation for education and provision of skills
Jointly adopted by Jernkontoret, Svemin (Swedish Association of Mines, Minerals and Metal Producers) and the Swedish Association of Industrial Employers, the roadmap marks the way to the skilled workforce vital for the nation’s mining and steel operations.
The roadmap for the supply of human resources was launched during autumn 2019.
For Sweden's mining and steel sector, to be able to meet increased demand for its products, to be globally competitive in the future and contribute to the green transition while also providing employment and prosperity it has to manage a defining challenge. The success of Sweden’s mining and steel industries is built not only on metal ores and hydroelectric power but, above all, on all those who work in these industries. The maintenance of a skilled workforce has risen up the list of priorities. The availability of human resources with the right education and skills needs to be improved. An effective supply of competence is vital to raising productivity and to strengthening the competitiveness of companies in this sector.
Today these sectors find it very difficult to recruit sufficient new employees. The recruitment process takes too long, companies have to compromise on qualification requirements and often start by offering further education and training for new employees. Declining interest in engineering amongst young people, fewer applicants per place both on vocational programmes at high school level and relevant higher education programmes as well as the difficulties of attracting the right competence to the sector are all major obstacles to filling vacancies. All this is a strategic challenge that has to be tackled.
The purpose of this roadmap is to present a shared view of the challenges facing the mining and steel industries where the supply of education and skills is concerned. The roadmap also highlights what industry, political decision-makers and the education system need to do to improve the supply of competence to the mining and steel industry. Acting together, we can strengthen the Swedish mining and steel industries though ensuring the supply of a skilled workforce. This is something that Sweden as a whole will benefit from.
This Skill supply roadmap was launched in July 2022, and is the second edition. Since the first roadmap was launched in 2019, major initiatives and investments have taken place in mining, iron and steel. Therefore, the report needed to be updated.
The roadmap has been developed within the framework of the strategic innovation programme for the mining and metal producing industry, Swedish Mining Innovation, with funding support from Vinnova, the Swedish Energy Agency and the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas).
The roadmap is written in Swedish and can be ordered or downloaded here.
