Changemakers from Västerås. Andreas from YOU, and Sofia and Helena from Rudbeckianska highschool. Joining us in Leksand is also young eco-farmer Viktor Wässman from Växtkraft. He had to run some machines before he could get a day or so off 
Career Plaza is a program within the Social Contract, where Mälardalen University has joined forces with the councils of Västerås and Eskilstuna to create a long term strategic partnership for regional development and growth. The project ensures that students leaving university are employable and can reach their full potential. By focusing on the individual student rather than the wider student body, we are able to help the student bring out the very skills and competences that will help him or her get a job when leaving university.
We offer the students individual coaching, group coaching, lectures and courses that give university points, to help them with anything from CV writing and communication skills to definition of skills and competences for each individual. We collaborate closely with potential employers; corporations such as ABB and Volvo, smaller businesses and the public sector, to ensure that individual students can build early relationships and the confidence necessary, to support them in the coming recruitment process. By using social media and online tools whenever possible we ensure that more students gain access to support and coaching.
Växtkraft is a biogas plant in which bio-waste from households and restaurants is digested, together with ley crops from farms and sludge from grease separators in large-scale kitchens. The biogas that is produced, since 2005, in the process can be utilised as environmentally compatible fuel for motor vehicles. Biofertilizer is also obtained as a residual product, something that farmers can spread back onto the fields as an organic fertilizer. The Växtkraft project creates a sustainable circulation of energy and plant nutrients.
Challenges is to be able to offer biogas for all the buses in the region. The regional buscompany would like to triple the amount of biogasbuses. The important thing is to retain the high quality of the bio-waste, since the organic fertilizer is used in ecological cultivation. The information to the households is important in this work. The future plan is to be able to receive wraped bio-waste. Also to get permission to receive slaughterhouse waste.
YOU (vocational guidance for young people) is an initiative that turns traditional labour market measures on their head. Employers are divided into different sector pools and notify any jobs that are available now and in the future and the qualifications required in order to access them. From this starting point, young people are offered an individual path and support at every stage of the journey. The initiative started in Västerås in 2009, where players on the employment market joined forces in an effort to reduce youth unemployment. The aim is to create a long-term functional model which can be rolled out all over the country to provide thousands of young people with jobs. Interest is now growing both nationally and internationally.
Eight municipalities are working together during the pilot phase to ensure that the model functions under different employment market conditions. The project has moved into phase two in Västerås, where a large group of participants is trying to identify better access to jobs together with those who create the employment market. Young people’s entrepreneurship is being channelled in close cooperation with the local economy. Research into the employment market and health is an integral part of the project. Starting from the actual employment market, giving young people better insight into working life and greater support from newly obtained motivation means a change in outlook. The challenge for us is to change society’s view of young people without work so that they are seen as a resource instead of a burden.
Elisabeth Unell, Chairman, city council, Muncipality of Västerås
Monica Ericsson, Executive Director, city of Västerås
Kennet Linder, Director of Employment, city of Västerås
William Möller, press contact
Theresa D’Errico, project manager, Västerås Climate Challange
Karin Lundin, Rudbeckianska gymnasiet
David Borg, teacher at Rudbeckianska gymnasiet
Sofia Berggren, student at Rudbeckianska gymnasiet
Björn Nordén, project manager Jobba i Västerås/YOU
Andreas Eriksson, YOU participant
Andreas Porswald, chairman, Växkraft AB, member of the city council, city of Västerås
Viktor Wässman, eco farmer, 21 years old, Växtkraft AB
Cecilia Vestman, project manager, Career Plaza
Anna-Maria Jonuks, press officer, Career Plaza
Anna Maron, project manager
Welcome to Västerås Rework the World blog! On 2 – 5 June, 2010, 2000 people from all over the world at The 5th Global YES Summit – Rework the World.
The focus is on 100 carefully selected initiatives rom around the world, which could provide the jobs of tomorrow and help build a more socially, financially and ecologically sustainable world.
Three of the selected projects we’re born in Västerås, 100 kilometers from Stockholm. Follow us and our friends as we go to Leksand to help rework the world.
