Students at the Media Institute, enrolled in higher vocational programs, have used open data from jobtechdev.se and open-source code from the Swedish Public Employment Service's design system. Over a period of six months, they conducted several meetings involving teachers, course coordinators, students, and JobTechDev to lay down a solid foundation for their forthcoming projects and to outline the course. In just a few weeks, the students successfully developed seven web applications and incorporated functionalities for recommending career paths, based on educational background, visualization of historical labour market data, facilitating the process of gathering employer information, and more.

The overall objectives of this partnership:

• Providing meaningful tasks for higher vocational college students
• Fostering collaboration between the Swedish Public Employment Service, JobTech Development, and the education sector
• Encouraging the utilization of open data and open-source code
• Assessing a streamlined innovation process that can be amplified and put into practice to other colleges/career centers

Nils Carlberg, program manager at the Media Institute, points out that within the school's leadership teams and in student interviews, stories emerge frequently regarding the difficulties related to understanding codebases created by others. In his view, the significant benefit of open-source code and open APIs lies in the fact that there is no requirement for legal discussions prior to their utilization.

Nils Carlberg, Program Manager at the Media Institute

"We have used JobTech Developments open-source databases and APIs in our frontend courses and programs, during an API course, and incorporated them into the curriculum ahead of internship periods. Most students in our programs come from varied professional backgrounds, which is allowing them to bring diverse perspectives to their solutions. It has been very interesting to follow the entire process and witness the results unfolding in a short period," says Nils Carlberg.

Open Documentation and Recommendations

The tasks were described in Swedish and are accessible here. JobTech Development provided mentorship and support for the students throughout the project, including technical guidance and feedback. All acquired knowledge and lessons learned have been openly documented in Swedish in the forum.

Nils Carlberg emphasizes the importance of students being able to submit a list of improvement suggestions for the design system of the Swedish Public Employment Service after their work. Particularly, what it refers to enhancing clarity in documentation. According to him, the students have assisted Jobtech Development by creating pilots for new services, working with use cases, and interpreting tasks independently with a tangible result in the form of seven applications.

Open Data as a Source for Innovation and Problem-Solving

The collaboration demonstrates the potential of finding innovative approaches through partnerships with the education sector. It has raised awareness of labour market challenges within higher vocational education and fostered collaboration across sectors. It also illustrates that making open data and resources available is crucial for effective collaboration and achieving results.

Jonas Södergren, Technical Product Manager at JobTech Development

"The insights gained from this project emphasize that, with the right conditions—clear problem descriptions and accessible open data—it is possible to rapidly develop valuable e-services that contribute to the overall improvement of the labour market. I am particularly impressed by the fact that students have achieved tangible results in just a few weeks. The students' work is now part of their open portfolios, serving as micro credentials they can refer to while applying for job.”, says Jonas Södergren, Technical Product Manager at JobTech Development.

Below, you may find the results (mainly in Swedish and in no particular order):

• Yrkesvägledarn
• YrkesOraklet
• Harness the Potential of Historical Job Data
• MatchMyCareer
• Arbetsgivardata
  
  

UX/UI Interns from Changemaker Education

JobTech Development have an ongoing partnership with the higher vocational college Changemaker Education and welcome UX/UI interns. Over the years, the students have been assigned various tasks to work further on concept development with ongoing projects.

In 2023, as part of the ongoing project Digital Vocational Career Guidance, we invited 20 UX students specialising in gamification to assist in creating prototypes for a platform. Their task was to develop these prototypes in a structured, engaging, and user-friendly manner, enabling the platform to offer guidance, inspiration and job suggestions to job seekers. The suggestions were outlined, based on resumes (CVs), interests, life experiences, and skills.

Here, you can take a look at their prototypes (in Swedish).

The value of open data

So far, the partnership with higher vocational colleges has demonstrated the potential of open data and open source as a driving force in a long-term innovation process. By developing new services, solutions, and concepts, we can more effectively tackle upcoming labour market challenges.