Sigma Young Talent and Microsoft Sweden collaborate to secure future competencies for Sweden

Sigma Young Talent and Microsoft Sweden launch a new initiative to develop young talents within the competence areas of the future; AI and cyber security.

Several reports show an urgent shortage of competencies in Sweden. According to the organization Swedish IT and Telecom Industries, there is a shortage of 70.000* people with IT knowledge until 2022. Today, many companies say they have difficulties to recruit personnel to important areas, according to Näringslivets FoU-barometer**. Two of the most sought-after future competencies are within AI and cyber security. AI and autonomous systems are expected to lead us into a fourth industrial revolution. At the same time, cyber attacks are increasingly common. New statistics from Sigma IT's upcoming Tomorrow Report show that two out of ten Swedes have been victims of cybercrime.

Cooperating to secure Sweden’s future competencies
To help Swedish companies with the shortage of digital competence, Sigma Young Talent and Microsoft Sweden partner up to accelerate the competencies of young talents within AI and cyber security. The program is called “Future Skills Program” and will be up-and-running in Q1-2021.

This collaboration is in line with Microsoft’s initiative Skill Up Sweden, aiming to elevate the digital competence in Sweden for people in job roles that need to strengthen their technical competence.

“Through digitalization, we strengthen the possibilities for individuals, companies and the society at large to make Sweden in the technical forefront. We must however act quickly and secure the right competencies to be able to develop in new areas such as AI and cyber security. In a time where continuous learning is increasingly important, we need training to quickly activates the workforce that can build our future digital solutions. This is where Skill Up Sweden and the Future Skills Program with Sigma makes an important impact”, says Hélène Barnekow, CEO Microsoft Sweden.

Sigma Young Talent is Sigma’s company aimed directly at recruiting and developing talents. After having completed a development program, the talents transfer over to the client for further development. For several years, Sigma Young Talent has delivered successful talent programs to meet companies’ need for competence.

Since Swedish companies have a great need for the future competence, Sigma have in partnership with Microsoft developed an acceleration program, Future Skills Program, aiming with develop future specialists. The program focuses on competencies, AI and cyber security in particular.

“We want to capture the incredible potential that we have in Sweden, and secure access to future competencies. As a large company at the forefront of technology, we have access to leading experts and we know which competencies that are needed. We can assist with new competence and thus contribute to success for our clients. Together we secure that Sweden can quickly take lead within AI and cyber security”, says Pernilla Johansson CEO, Sigma Young Talent.

Sigma and Microsoft have been collaborating for years and harbor great knowledge within the field. They have many experts working every day at the forefront of technology. In the new acceleration program, Microsoft’s and Sigma’s specialist units within AI and cyber security will contribute with experts who share their knowledge and experience.

“We get requests daily and are in dialogue with clients over new exciting solutions within AI and Advanced Analytics”, says David Österlindh, CEO at Sigma IoT & AI.
David continues: “I dare say we are one of the leading companies in the Nordic within applied AI, and we have some of the sharpest minds in the field. But the need is large and need more people who can work with data driven applied AI. We have for many years, in close cooperation with Microsoft, been driving and pushing the limits in the field. It is therefore, with great joy, we will share our experiences and knowledge with all the talents that join the program. It is a win-win for everyone; experts contribute and share, talents get to take part of the very latest knowledge, and we help our clients to accelerate their future competencies.

For the talents, the acceleration program will be combined with practical experience in assignments at the client. Thus we combine theory with practice in a good balance. The talents will have access to experts during their program, and even after the program has finished, the experts will be available to them for further coaching.

The acceleration program will focus on future competence areas like AI and cyber security. The first program starts in the beginning of 2021. The ambition is to train 100 specialists during 2021. More programs will start to cover additional competence areas. Through the “Future Skills Program” companies in Sweden can be one step ahead and secure their need for tomorrow’s competencies.

About Sigma Young Talent
Sigma Young Talent focuses on talents at the beginning of their careers in IT and R&D, and offers the market junior consultants, consultant recruitment and talent programs. Sigma Young Talent is part of the Sigma Group, which consists of leading consulting companies with the goal of making their customers more competitive. To reach and keep that promise, Sigma combines its technical know-how, its cutting-edge expertise and passion for constantly developing new and better solutions. Sigma has 4600 employees in fourteen countries and is owned by the Dan Olofsson family's holding company Danir AB.

About Microsoft
Microsoft is a world-leading company within cloud services, software and computers. Their goal is to help their clients reach their full potential and create new opportunities with the help of digital tools. Among Microsoft’s services are Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Cloud, Xbox, LinkedIn, Minecraft, Teams, Skype and the search engine Bing. Microsoft was founded in 1975 and their Swedish branch was started in 1985. Today Microsoft Sweden employs approximately 600 people with offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Linköping. Read more at: www.microsoft.se

For more information, contact:

Rebecka Andreasson
Microsoft AB
rebecka.andreasson@microsoft.com
Tel: +46 (0)8-55 99 00 00

Pernilla Johansson
Sigma Young Talent
pernilla.johansson@sigma.se
+ 46 703 99 67 06

Sources:

* https://www.itot.se/app/uploads/sites/2/imported/ITTelekom-Rapport-Brist-Pa-IT-kompetens-webb.pdf

** https://www.iva.se/event/naringslivets-fou-barometer-2020-pa-naringslivets-fou/