Skills Supply in Focus as Industries Met in Luleå

How can employers in Norrbotten gain better conditions to find the right skills? For the hospitality sector, this question is important both for business development and for the region’s attractiveness as a place to visit, live, and work. That’s why Arctic Sweden Visitors Board participated in the Industry Dialogue within Kompetensarena Norrbotten.

Skills supply is one of Norrbotten’s major future challenges. On June 4, Region Norrbotten gathered representatives from the hospitality sector, construction, and cultural and creative industries in Luleå to discuss how the region’s skills needs can be mapped, analyzed, and translated into concrete initiatives.

The Industry Dialogue is part of the Kompetensarena Norrbotten project and aims to develop a long-term structure for collaboration between Region Norrbotten, the industries, and other stakeholders working with skills supply and business development.

During the day, participants learned about Kompetensarena’s mapping of recruitment and skills needs, discussed what the results mean for their respective industries, and identified issues where the industries can work together.

– Through the project, Region Norrbotten has an important mandate to coordinate the work, but to move from mapping to initiatives that hit the mark, the dialogue needs to take place close to the industries. That’s where the knowledge exists about companies’ everyday realities, their needs, and which solutions can actually make a difference, says Magnus Sundling, Chief Operating Officer at Arctic Sweden Visitors Board.

A central part of the work is the recurring mapping of skills needs in the region. In fall 2025, a first joint mapping will be conducted among employers in Norrbotten, which will then be repeated every two years. The results will be analyzed together with stakeholders in skills supply and can be used as a basis for education planning, targeted initiatives, and continued dialogue with the business community.

For Arctic Sweden Visitors Board, participation in the Industry Dialogue is a way to contribute the hospitality sector’s perspective while finding common ground with other industries.

The work now continues with shaping a long-term structure where the industries are involved in driving development and initiatives, both within their own industry and together with others.