Increased Collaboration Between the Defence Sector and Swedish Educational Institutions

Swedish defence industry operates at full capacity following extensive orders from Sweden and abroad. Even before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the industry needed new expertise in anticipation of future retirements - challenges that have only grown since then. There is high demand for everything from workers on the production line to PhD students in AI, and the sector is making various efforts towards universities and specialised training.

In Örnsköldsvik, BAE Systems Hägglunds has been working with both the municipality and schools. In an interview with Tidningen Näringslivet, Hägglunds HR Director, Jonas Wikman, states that they are involved from a young age and offer several points of contact:

“We are highly involved from primary school, where it is about sparking an interest in technology among children and working with scholarships in selected high school programmes. In addition to this, we naturally offer summer jobs, apprenticeships, work placements, and the like. At higher ages, we collaborate with universities on theses and other collaborative projects.”

In May, Saab signed a collaboration agreement for strategic partnership with Örebro University, which FSN previously reported on. The agreement shows that there is a demand for both workforce and research. According to the university, the collaboration agreement concerns both research and innovation as well as education, including student recruitment.

- The expertise available at the university in AI, robotics, and 3D printing will be an important part of the collaboration. But we need to develop our skills in a range of areas, and much of the new is born within the university and will also come to the industry. Hopefully, we can also recruit some students along the way. I am very much looking forward to this, says Görgen Johansson, head of Saab Dynamics, in the university's press release.

The Swedish defence industry has also advanced its positions at foreign educational institutions.

In 2015, BAE Systems Bofors entered into a collaboration agreement with Warwick University in the UK and the National Defense University in Malaysia to sponsor a master's programme in cybersecurity, in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur. According to Bofors, the agreement means that the company meets the offset requirements when selling naval guns to the country.

Last week, Bofors sales manager Nils-Ove Gustafsson, project manager Ulf Glöckner, and communications director Henrik Hedberg were present in Kuala Lumpur to award diplomas and acknowledge the newly graduated students, the company reports.

– Malaysia is a major market for us on the naval side. Thanks to a great collaboration with Warwick University and UPNM, we have managed to implement a, for us, completely unique variant of offset, says Nils-Ove Gustafsson to Försvarssektorn Nyheter.

Sweden is also investing in education in cyber capability.

On 6 September, the government announced that they are investing in a Swedish cyber campus at KTH to strengthen both competence supply and research in cybersecurity. According to the press release, Cybercampus Sweden will become a national collaboration between several universities, research institutes, authorities, and companies across Sweden.

– The government looks forward to valuable contributions from Cybercampus Sweden to strengthen society's ability to handle cyber threats, says Minister of Education Mats Persson, in the announcement.

However, it is not only technical education that is of interest to the defence sector. Recently, the Stockholm School of Economics also announced two news items.

On 29 August, the School of Economics announced that Saab has joined their partnership programme, SSE Corporate Partnership Program. The list of corporate partners is over 100 names long and includes Sweden's largest companies.

– It is with great pleasure that we warmly welcome Saab as a highly valued corporate partner to the Stockholm School of Economics. Saab's prominent position within Sweden's innovation ecosystem is highly compatible with the School of Economics' ongoing endeavour to strengthen Sweden's competitiveness, says Lars Strannegård, professor and rector at the School of Economics in a press release from the school, regarding the news.

The following day, the school announced that they have recruited a heavyweight from the defence sector: former Army Chief Major General (Ret.) Karl Engelbrektson becomes a senior advisor at the Stockholm School of Economics' research hub House of Governance and Public Policy (GaPP), according to a press release from the School of Economics on 30 August.

– The Stockholm School of Economics is the leading business school in the Nordics and has been for over 20 years. I look forward to contributing to building relationships with the defence sector, both nationally and internationally. In addition to world-leading research, I also believe that the School of Economics' Executive MBA programme with a defence focus can help foster the next generation of leaders within the Swedish security and resilience sector, says Karl Engelbrektson in the press release.