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A little background information Throughout Sweden one can find a science park affiliated with most universities. Kista in Stockholm, Lindholmen in Göteborg, and Mjärdevi in Linköping are the largest parks, measured principally by the number of people employed in total on the parks. Mjärdevi’s 6050 people include 875 students attending John Bauer and Anders Ljungstedts high schools. Mjärdevi Science Park is a brand that unifies its tenant companies. The park’s premises are owned by several different realestate development firms. The largest of these are Klövern, Henry Stahl, and Corallen. Some of the premises are also owned by the municipal realestate company, St. Kors. Mjärdevi Science Park AB owns nothing but its trademark. It is municipally owned and its remit is not to show a profit but instead to create jobs. In 1984 just six companies occupied the first building, Teknikringen 1, at Mjärdevi. Three of these companies specialised in imaging, an area that has come to reflect one of the Park’s principal industries. The research park study has been conducted at the end of the year for the last 10 years. 2001-2003 were difficult years. Employment rose again from 2004-2008 and then fell again in the wake of the financial crises. Since 2010, employment numbers are showing signs of improvement once again. Of its total 190,000 square meters of premises, 10,5 percent of Mjärdevi Science Park is available for lease compared to 11-12 percent last year. |
During 2011, the number of employees in companies at Mjärdevi Science Park increased by 50, about half the number of new employees in 2010.
While the fall did not produce the numbers expected, 2011 proved to be a relatively stable and positive year for Mjärdevi's 260 companies. The problem has less to do with the economy, says Mjärdevi Science Park AB’s president, Sten Gunnar Johansson, than with finding the right competence. And it’s not a problem specific to Mjärdevi, he says. It’s a national issue.
”The facts speak for themselves” Every year, Sten Gunnar Johansson surveys companies on the Park how many they have employed and how many they anticipate employing in the upcoming year. It’s part of his role to create the kind of environment that leads to more jobs at Mjärdevi. “We need to know which companies are growing and what competences they need. When we market Mjärdevi Science Park to prospective or newly graduated engineers around the country, we want to know exactly what we’re talking about. Concrete facts attract attention,” says Sten Gunnar Johansson.
Large and small companies According to Sten Gunnar, it is as important for the large product and service companies like Ericsson, Sectra, IFS, Lawson, Motorola and Autoliv to show stable growth as it is for the newer companies like Agricam, Anacatum, Kemrisk, Linkura, and Schemagi to show their innovativeness and the possibility to move into new market spaces.
Positive prognoses Companies at Mjärdevi anticipate a good outlook for 2012. They plan to employ 365 people during the next year and just now are recruiting for 230 of those 365. Still many of the companies worry about finding the people with the right qualifications, and a lack of qualified personnel can prove to be a significant barrier to growth.
Can’t training supply the needed competence? ”Changing program offerings in the university can take years and during those years, the needs continue to change as well. For this reason, we are working all the more closely with the companies, students, researchers and university administrators to reduce competency gaps. We want to keep graduates in the region also. If they know that internships, attractive jobs, and research opportunities are available, it’s easier for them to remain in the area,” says Sten Gunnar.
Sten Gunnar Johansson and the Mjärdevi Science Park board of directors work together with a student-based ”shadow board” to seek solutions for initiatives to help meet the park’s workforce objectives. Both boards work separately on similar questions, often coming up with different suggestions. ”It’s only natural that the students are a part of the process,” says Sten Gunnar. “They understand better than those of us who are over 55 how Mjärdevi should attract new talent and keep it.”
Attracting the Finns Mjärdevi is also investing effort into attracting academic talent from other cities and countries. The municipality and the job placement center “Arbetsförmedlingen” is cooperating with the park to create activities that will support the effort. Hoping to attract people with the right competences for Mjärdevi companies, they plan to be present at a large trade fair in Finland where Nokia has recently laid off many employees.
Story translated by M. Spaeth from the original by Zenaida Hadzimahovic in Corren
