Program för unga ledare från Sverige och Finland

Finland and Sweden have a shared history. Our countries have gone through big changes that have affected society, the economic structure and the modernization.  Looking at the big picture we have similar infrastructure when it comes to governance and business life. On their own, both countries are relatively small but together they comprise a strong and influential entity. Above all, Finland and Sweden have a very unique relationship since almost 700 000 people in Sweden have connections with Finland and 400 000 of them speak and understand Finnish, whilst in Finland the other official language is Swedish. 

Finnish companies employ the second-highest number of Swedes among the foreign-owned companies operating in Sweden. Nearly 60,000 Swedes are employed in about 700 Finnish-owned companies. The number of Swedish-owned companies in Finland is about 700, in total these enterprises employ about 50 000 Finns. Hence, the Swedish-Finnish industry has much to gain by increased co-operation.

Tandem's Leadership Academy is a program intended for young professionals in Finland and Sweden. The aspiration of the program is to increase the knowledge of Sweden and Finland’s coming leaders regarding the countries' opportunities and future challenges, and create new networks of tomorrow's leaders in Sweden and Finland. The program offers a great platform to build and strengthen the co-operation between Finland and Sweden and will help to renew traditionally strong ties between the countries' coming leaders.

The program will gather young potentials aged 25-35 from different educational backgrounds and industries.  Each year, every class will have participants from different areas of expertise, such as members of parliament, state secretaries and special advisors; young professionals in corporations; and top academics. Other areas of expertise may also be included to enable the Leadership Academy to incorporate current themes and topics of society.

The whole program will be based on bilateral co-operation and networking. One of the major advantages of this program is that the participants will come from different areas of society. This gives an extensive opportunity to find new solutions to old problems and also offers different perspectives on current topics. 

The content of the Leadership Academy will focus on Finland and Sweden’s future competitiveness and creativity. The program will also concentrate on Sweden and Finland in an international context, and stress questions regarding how to finance the Nordic welfare model in the future and how to create a sustainable society with clean energy and technology.

The program stretches from about one year, and includes up to three gatherings with one potential study trip. The program should contain high level meetings with presidents, politicians and CEOs. Keynote speeches will be offered by specialists from different fields of society. In addition to visits and expert speakers, a significant part of the program will be based on the experiences of the participants.

The program will be funded by Ekon. dr Peter Wallenbergs Stiftelse för Ekonomi och Teknik and the Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation.