Could you spare 10-12 hours over 3 months to support a good cause? Do you want to get your company engaged or do happen to have a friend or colleague that is looking to make a difference? War Child Sweden are seeking mentors for the mentorship programme Framtidshoppet.
Framtidshoppet seeks to provide youth impacted by Gymnasielagen with the tools and support required to secure long-term employment and a sustainable future in Sweden. Gymnasielagen (‘the high school law’), established after the 2015 refugee crisis, offered youth who had received a rejection on their asylum application an opportunity to stay in Sweden and finish high school. It also provided the chance of obtaining a prolonged residence permit. However, the regulations for obtaining this permit often prove near impossible which has left many young people anxiety-ridden and depressed.
Please see the text below for further information on the programme and how you can play a pivotal role in transforming the lives of some of Stockholm’s most vulnerable. In order to participate in the mentorship programme, you need to be a proficient Swedish speaker.
For further information on how to get involved please contact War Child Sweden on 0761-745307 or Jolande Svensson-Klijn.



Background
Gymnasielagen (in English‘the high school law’) was initiated after the refugee crisis in 2015 to allow youth who had received a rejection on their asylum application to stay in Sweden and finish high school, and in the long run, possibly get a prolonged residence permit. The law affects about 7.500 youth who have suffered from lengthy processes. They all arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied children before the 24th of November 2015, which means they have lived here for at least six years.
 
The regulations for getting a prolonged residence permit are tough. The youth must find a job within six months after graduation, and the contract must be long-term (at least two years) and the salary in line with collective agreements in the specific field (or other field standards). 
 
The youth affected by this law report high levels of stress and concern for the future. A large majority of the affected youth are of Afghan origin, however, many have never lived in Afghanistan and have instead resided in countries such as Iran or Pakistan. Many of these youth do not see a future in Afghanistan as an option. Instead, they choose to flee to other European countries or stay in Sweden without a permit. 
 
The project
Framtidshoppet (Hope for the future) is a collaboration between War Child Sweden, Arbetskraftsförmedlingen and Nordisk Kompetens. Arbetskraftsförmedlingen is a civil society organization working with job matching. Through their campaign REDO, they focus specifically on finding work for youth covered by the Gymnasielagen. Nordisk Kompetens is a staffing and recruitment firm. 
 
The overall purpose of Framtidshoppet is to give youth covered by Gymnasielagen the support and tools needed for them to build a sustainable future in Sweden.
 
To support youth covered by Gymnasielagen, Framtidshoppet rests on four pillars: 
 
1) A mentorship program 
2) Support in job searching
3) Collaboration between the civil society organisations and the private sector
4) Advocacy 
 
Through the mentorship program, youth who are experiencing mental turmoil are supported by mentors trained by War Child Sweden. The support these youth receive is implemented by partner organisations. This includes supporting the youth emotionally as well as engaging companies to employ young people from this target group. As many of the youths have studied and worked in professions that are facing staff shortages, the project will also play an important role in maintaining industries threatened by a high staff vacancy rate. 
 
Throughout the project, open houses will be arranged two times per month, where the youth can receive practical help with cover letter and CV writing, LinkedIn and Yobber registration, and interview training. Once a month, joint activities for all mentors and youth will be arranged, creating a possibility for the participants to share and discuss difficulties and successes.
 
Pillars 3 and 4 aim to broaden the impact of the project, by bringing awareness to the wider public of the issues faced by the youth impacted by the Gymnasielagen. By creating a model of united action between organizations within the civil society and the private sector, the outcomes and learnings of Framtidshoppet can be scaled and spread to organizations and businesses in other areas of expertise. We will also investigate whether organizations find the model useful and how they intend to use it. This will create far-reaching benefits for the Swedish society and contribute to creating a sustainable future for other groups too. Through campaigning on youth issues, we will seek to raise awareness of the key issues affecting this particular youth population to the general public, civil society and the business sector. Moreover, it is hoped that the likelihood of this youth group receiving a job within the six-month period prescribed by Gymnasielagen will increase. Indirectly, the campaigns may also contribute to a shifted view on the legislation among decision-makers and the general public. 
 
 
                                           
 

When did you live and work in Sweden?
I worked and lived in Sweden between 2014 and 2019. I started with an HR internship at Air France KLM followed by a 1 year contract supporting Denmark and Cargo for the Nordics. After travelling New Zealand, Australia and parts of Asia I joined bp as an HR business partner for the Nordics, funnily enough in the exact same building just one floor down from KLM.

What are you doing now? And why did you move to London?
I’m a business advisor to the SVP People & Culture for Trading & Shipping & Culture in bp, which effectively is running the executive office with a broad portfolio ranging from business partnering for our trading and shipping community as well as the operational aspect of running our workplaces globally, capital projects and culture team. As you can read, I moved to London as there were some great career opportunities.

Why did you become a member of the Dutch Chamber? Was there a favourite event you joined or organised?
I joined the Dutch Chamber after having found an internship via the Dutch Chamber network and wanted to actively support this network as it helped me land on my feet when I arrived in Sweden. How great if I could do the same for other people with a Dutch-Swedish connection. 

What was your biggest learning from your time in Sweden that you would like to share with our Dutch Swedish network?
Some of you might appreciate this, we always take our shoes off indoors. Welcome to the big pile of shoes at the door entrance  On a more professional note, I’ve really come to appreciate the importance of  bringing people into the conversation, the Swedes do this brilliantly and is aligned to the Dutch “polder model”. It has helped me in my career, working in a high paced environment and with many nationalities, sometimes needs you to slow-down and make sure everyone is onboard before you speed-up again.

Do you still keep in touch with the Swedes and have you been here again since you left?
Less often than I would have liked but we’ve been back in February 2020 for some skiing (yes my cross-country skies are now in the UK, ready for our trip in March) and visiting friends.

 /M.N.

On Tuesday 19th October, The Dutch Chamber of Commerce organised the webinar “How to find your dream job in Sweden”. The many participants showed great interest in this webinar and our panelists shared their knowledge and professional experiences in the field of HR and recruitment.
Our panelists Karin Björkman from Undutchables, Chris van der Schoor from Netflix and Johannes Pastoor from Volvo discussed this theme from different perspectives, including Swedish company culture and Do's and Don’ts at interviews.
The panel discussion covered several crucial questions regarding job application such as: Is it important to speak Swedish? How to get attention from the hiring manager when you switch industries? How to network efficiently ? The webinar recording is available on demand.

/Norah Jing Chu

On Wednesday 27 th October, the Dutch Chamber together with our corporate member Optimizers Nordic AB organised the webinar “How to jump start transformation of your sale
channels?”
During the webinar, our panelists, Miguel van Bussel from ANWB, Timen van der Horn from Chronobay and Thomas van Bunningen from Ericsson discussed how digital transformation is integrated in the daily business, how this transformation has effectively improved clients’ experiences and what the
lessons-learned are.
Mike Peters, manager from Optimizers Nordic AB moderated the panel discussion. Optimizers is a cloud software provider within the Order toDelivery supply chain and their main product area in Sweden is App4Sales, a B2B digital sales platform for SME companies.

/Eventmanager
Norah Jing Chu

On 14 October we organised a networking event with a pinch of local Dutch history in Gothenburg. 
​The Dutch Chamber is all about networking, getting to know new people and enjoying exchanging business ideas. During the first live event of 2021 in Region West a group of enthusiastic (future) members walked and talked and mingled in the wine cellar. No one showed any signs of having forgotten how to small talk, many ‘hands were shaken’ and new ideas were born. The guide focused on the influence of the Dutch in Gothenburg. This collaboration started 400 years ago and will continue to develop the coming years. 

We thank everybody who joined the event. A special thank you to ambassador Bengt van Loosdrecht and deputy ambassador Kim de Jong for joining. And a big shout out to Gothenburg itself for showing itself from its best side. 

 /Viola Vergouwe, director Region West

You recently moved to Brussels. Can you tell us why you moved from Sweden to Brussels? 
Exactly after 20 years in Sweden I moved to Brussels because of work. I got the opportunity to work for the EU, something I dreamt of when I studied International Relations in Groningen a long time ago. I am seconded by the Swedish government to work for the European External Action Service (foreign affairs of the EU) for the headquarters of the 11 civilian missions the EU has outside of its borders. I work as a leadership expert and support managers in those missions, based in countries such as Somalia, Libya, Iraq, Kosovo etc, with their leadership challenges.

You were one of the very  first board members of the Dutch Chamber. How did it all start? 
I joined the Dutch Swedish Business Association (DSBA), I think in 2003. After I attended two events I was asked to become a board member. I kind of declined as I felt what the DSBA was representing and offering at that moment was not what offered me added value for my business. However, there were more people who replied the same and the then nominating committee connected us. We soon found out that we had a vision in common for the future of the DSBA and we together accepted to become the board. I think this was in 2004.
Together with amongst others Jasper van Dorrestein, Maria Trap and Arjen Bouterse, we designed a future for the DSBA and soon after launched the Dutch Chamber. I stayed on as board member for 3 more years and then became an ordinary active member.
Active in the sense that I attend events as much as my schedule allows, and sometimes also present at DC events. And it is in this role I think many members might know me. The first 16 years of my career have been solely devoted to managing cultural differences and in that capacity I supported many multinationals inside and outside of the Dutch/Swedish context with their intercultural challenges. I think over the years I have presented around 6-7 times on the topic of Swedish-Dutch cultural value patterns.

What was your biggest learning from your time in Sweden that you would like to share with our Dutch/Swedish network?
My biggest learning has been that your own cultural background never fades. If you have lived for the first 15 years of your life in the same country (in my case the Netherlands), the way one views the world will always be with the perspective of your first culture. So even though I fell in love with Sweden and connect deeply to the Swedish way of doing things, I cannot put my Dutchness aside. I pride myself being culturally competent and know how to navigate between cultures to create synergy, it still is clear to me that for example the Swedish way to avoid confrontation is not one I find easy. 

Do you have any advice you can give to Swedes who want to do business with the Dutch and vice versa?
Many things can be answered to this question. But instead of giving a list of do's and don'ts I rather recommend to reach out to each other. Too often we talk about each other instead of with each other to try to figure out behaviours that puzzle us.  Here I believe the Dutch Chamber will always have a role to play. To be that bridge between the two cultures. I read the Orange Tables are starting up again. Why not use some of those  events, for the Dutch members to bring a Swedish colleague and have meaningful exchange about experiences we have working with each other on a daily base.

/M.N.

What is your professional background? What does a service designer do?
 
I started out my career as an industrial designer, where I predominantly worked on (physical) products and spaces for clients such as HP, Coca Cola, Nike, and Philips Lighting (now Signify) in both North America and Europe. Along the way I got more attracted to the idea of working on digital solutions as well as the way services are created and offered to people. 
 
As an independent service designer I help companies to better connect to their customers and users. This human-centered mindset aids in understanding their context (such as work environment, needs, desires, and pains) and to what extent the company’s offering fits into this context. In this way opportunity areas can be identified so that a company can improve their offering in such a way that it optimizes the value exchange between them and their customer and users. Choosing the right opportunities to pursue - and how to address them - is what sets companies apart from their competitors. This means ensuring a strategical match while taking into account aspects such as viability, feasibility, and usability.
 
Sometimes improving a company’s offering can be achieved by introducing a new - or better - way for customers and users to get access to the right (actionable) information, for example through a mobile app. Other times it is more about improving the way teams and departments within a company are organized and set up in order to improve customer support in certain steps in their journey. 
 
This variety makes my work very dynamic, challenging, and relies heavily on collaboration.

 Can you tell us how you ended up in Gothenburg?
 
My wife and I both lived in Sweden during our studies and enjoyed our time here. After having lived abroad in several countries we decided to move back to Europe and thought Sweden would be the ideal place for us. We found Gothenburg to have good opportunities for the both of us and have been living there ever since. 
 
 You’ve become an SME-member recently. What inspired you to take the step to becoming a member?
 
A few months ago I happened to come across some posts from the Dutch Chamber of Commerce on Linkedin and was a bit intrigued by some of the stories shared by new members. As I run my own consultancy company I thought it could provide an interesting opportunity to extend my professional network further as well as contributing to exchanging ideas with the other members and partners.

What are your expectations from your membership?
 
Besides extending my professional network, I think it’s always good to share experiences, ideas, and opportunities with other members. I’m sure that being a member will provide multiple events and opportunities to do so. I’m very much looking forward to getting to know the rest of the members. First up is the 'Tour de Gothenburg’! Anyone who is interested can always reach out to me.
 
 /MN

What's your background?
My name is Timen van der Horn and I am a Dutch guy living in Malmö. Since I can remember I have had an interest in everything mechanical. As a child I took apart everything I could get my hands on, just to see how things work and how they were built. I have been restoring motorcycles since my teenage years, and got interested in mechanical watches a few years back. I have recently launched a company called Chronobay AB, making luxury handmade watch stands for watch collectors and watch dealerships. 
 
How long have you lived in Sweden and why did you choose to live in the Southern part of Sweden?
Since 2017, so I am approaching 5 years now. My girlfriend and I have been living in Stockholm for 3 years, but when I found a job at a startup in Copenhagen we decided to move to Malmö with the added benefit of being closer to both our families. 

Can you tell us about your Start Up Company Chronobay?
When I damaged my watch after it fell from a shelf in my living room, I felt there had to be a better way to store my watch when I am not wearing it. This is when I decided to design and manufacture my own watch stand. 
One thing led to another and after launching my company in July of this year, I am now selling handcrafted watch stands all over the world. I only use the best materials available. I use real Carrara marble and calfskin leather, handmade in Florence Italy. The steel is hand polished 316- stainless steel, the same grade of steel used in many watches on the market today.
 All parts are designed, sourced and assembled by myself right here in Malmö. I personally ship all orders, and take care of marketing and customer service. Launching the company has been an intense period but I am loving it, the response in the market has only been positive and customers love the product. 
I am currently working on expanding the product range and offering a wider choice to customers, so keep an eye on the website to see what is coming up. 

What are your expectations regarding your membership with the Dutch Chamber?
My main reason to join is to build a network, and hopefully be able to contribute with my own network to other companies as well. It has paid off already. After being connected by a Dutch Chamber member to the owner of Glashuset, a high-end furniture store in Malmö, my products are now being retailed in that store. 
I am looking forward to the coming live events and getting to know more members in the near future. If you are interested please have a look at my website and let me know what you think. 
​
/MN