Dutch Chamber - The Dutch Chamber of Commerce in Sweden
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Our Team
    • Annual Report
    • Statutes
    • Contact & Payment
  • Events
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Follow us
  • Members
    • Become a member
    • Business Members
    • Doing businesss in Sweden
    • Members only >
      • Member directory
    • Member Offers >
      • Christmas Gift 2020
  • Sign In
    • Your Account
    • Your Privacy
    • Sign Out

Warchild is looking for mentors

18/11/2021

 
Picture
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. 
 
 
                                           
 


How is it going with: Charlotte de Jong?

17/11/2021

 
How is it going with...
In the 19 years since the start of the Dutch Chamber we have seen members come and go. As the idea behind the Chamber is to facilitate a dynamic network platform we try to stay in touch with members who left Sweden when possible. We are curious to hear where they are now and would like to reflect with some of them on their time in Sweden and what this experience taught them. This time we interviewed former board member Charlotte de Jong.
​Charlotte de Jong
Board member: from 2015 to 2016
Then: employed at Air France KLM and bp
Now: business advisor, bp (London)
Picture
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.


In the spotlight: Nextory

17/11/2021

 
Nextory is a Swedish streaming service for audiobooks and e-books. This year Nextory joined the Dutch Chamber as corporate member. We asked Johan Eriksson, Global Business Development Manager about their start up story and their recent expansion to the Dutch market.
Picture
What is Nextory's start-up story? How did it all begin?
Nextory was founded by the Swedish entrepreneurs Shadi Bitar and Ninos Malki. They became business partners while studying, and since then they have started several successful companies together. Shadi and Ninos are also cousins, and they both came to Sweden as refugees from Syria when they were ten years old. Books have always been of great importance in their lives, and since they’ve seen what happens when a dictator restricts access to literature it’s important to them to preserve democracy and the freedom of speech. Therefore, back in 2015, they decided to work to make books more available to enrich people's lives with stories and that’s when Nextory was founded.

Why did you expand to the Dutch Market?
The Netherlands is a digitally mature market, with a strong growth for audiobooks in general and for subscription services in particular. Only a couple of years ago, the publishers released a few audio books, but now they’re investing a lot in self-produced publishing.
We have followed this development closely, and the timing for a launch of Nextory in The Netherlands was perfect.


What is your role within the organisation? 
My role at Nextory is Head of Global Partnership, which means that I work to connect Nextory with different brands in all our ten European markets and to create successful collaborations to spread the word about the Nextory app and how awesome it is to read and listen to books.

How do you see the cooperation with the Dutch in general? Can you tell something about the differences of the streaming market between the Netherlands and Sweden?
 I see the Dutch market as a very digital mature market and very open to new things. I get the feeling that the Dutch, just like Swedes, are very eager to learn about digital products. So I actually feel Sweden and the Netherlands are very similar when it comes to the streaming market. Regarding differences in doing business, I have learned that you need to be very direct and clear on the value, when approaching a decision maker in The Netherlands.


What are the ambitions of Nextory in the upcoming year?
Nextory’s long-term ambition is to expand, on existing markets and new ones, to keep up our fantastic growth to eventually become one of the largest players in the book industry worldwide. All the while staying true to our mission to increase reading all over the world. During the next year, we’re planning to develop the Nextory reading experience further with new, innovative features and of course, to add new, amazing stories to our huge library.. 

/M.N.


Picture

How to find your dream job in Sweden

14/11/2021

 
Picture
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

How to jump-start your sales channels

14/11/2021

 
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
Picture

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    Categories

    All
    Events
    Invitations
    Jobs
    Members
    News

    RSS Feed

Picture

CONTACT

Dutch Chamber
Peter Myndes backe 9
118 46 Stockholm
​
© 2022 The Dutch Chamber of Commerce in Sweden
The Dutch Chamber of Commerce in Sweden is a registered non-profit association (Ideell förening) with its seat in Stockholm, org. nr. 802411-6082.
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Our Team
    • Annual Report
    • Statutes
    • Contact & Payment
  • Events
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Follow us
  • Members
    • Become a member
    • Business Members
    • Doing businesss in Sweden
    • Members only >
      • Member directory
    • Member Offers >
      • Christmas Gift 2020
  • Sign In
    • Your Account
    • Your Privacy
    • Sign Out