Collaboration turns young people in Lund into entrepreneurs
Every summer since about ten are back arranging Lund Municipality summer holiday entrepreneurs to give young people the opportunity both for holiday internships and to develop. The work is organized, among others, by business developer Jimmy Sok.
- The young get to develop important abilities that come from working with entrepreneurship, says Jimmy Sok. Often the young come to us like a blank sheet and go out and say that “I didn't know I had this in me.” It is the journey of the individual that we want to lift. Many then may not go on to start businesses, having developed valuable skills that allow them to become entrepreneurial in other ways. Some say they've learned more in three weeks than in three years at school.
When Jimmy Sok started working at Future by Lund in 2018, he was responsible for the training and coaching of the fifteen young people who received summer internships. Since its inception, the work has been carried out by Future by Lund and the Business Department and from 2015 with the support of the Social Services Administration and the Culture and Leisure Administration. In the first years, the number of participants was about 15 per summer and 164 young people were registered for this year's event. The big increase occurred in connection with the pandemic through a package of measures. This meant that 63 places were created already in the summer of 2020, and after that there were just over 160 places available.
In order to increase the number of seats, financial support has not only been needed, but at the same time, cooperation with other administrations has been increased and actors such as: The Culture Dairy, Ideon Science Park, Venture Lab and Medicon Village are involved and support with premises and expertise in jury work and as inspirers.
- We work in a larger context when we all help each other to lift young people, says Jimmy Sok. We can now collectively empower young people more than can be done in an isolated programme.
Already in 2019, Ideon Science Park made its entrance by offering summer holiday participants coaching, pitch training and also facilities. Since then, engagement has only increased.
- It is such a joy to see the young people grow in their entrepreneurship. To challenge them in their own creativity. Many people have an idea but may not always dare to come up with it. It is so important to make young people believe in themselves, their abilities and to give them confidence that they are creating their own future. I feel hope for the future when I meet these young people,” says Lotta Wessfeldt at Ideon Science Park.
In the summer of 2022, a Life Science hub was started on the Medicon Village area. There, a group of young people worked on their projects.
- For us at Medicon Village, it is a matter of course to help young people have the opportunity to explore their entrepreneurship. Lund is, as you know, the city of ideas, but in order for ideas to become products and services in the future, the next generation of entrepreneurs needs to see that there is both support and inspiration to draw from the innovation system in Lund, says Petter Hartman, CEO of Medicon Village Innovation.
In 2022, the young people were divided into eight different meeting places/hubs in Lund, all with their own orientation or their own red thread. One of them was the dairy, where it was possible to develop cultural ideas, such as in graphic design and music. There is also a collaboration with ComUng where those who wanted to work with social entrepreneurship could create events such as dance competitions, for example. Young, however, could work with a wide palette of ideas no matter what venue they were at.
Summer 2022 was also the first time it was possible to have a big meeting with all participants from the different hubs together with summer holiday entrepreneurs from Trelleborg and Kävlinge. The young people could exchange experiences, practice pitching and take part in inspiring lectures from, among others, Ali Eftekhari, who founded the Big Slap festival and who grew up in Lund.
As a next step, Jimmy Sok is working with the Culture and Leisure Administration to take over the operational responsibility of the Summer Holiday Contractors. For Jimmy, in the future it will be more about taking a strategic role in developing the program. Drömmen is a year-round business with a special platform for young entrepreneurs in Lund.
- Among other things, I will work on how the support system can work with the program, how the program can be linked to the work of the business department and how we can cooperate with the school.
Jimmy Sok himself has a background as an entrepreneur. As a student, in 2016 he started “Hemmlis” which rented out used furniture to students. The company received a social innovation grant from the municipality of Lund.
- That journey has meant a lot to me and it was also the way in to the work I have today thanks to Future by Lund and the work that Katarina Scott did to establish the concept. I understand the needs of entrepreneurs and know what we can expect from the capabilities of young people. All this creates a legitimacy when talking to and about entrepreneurs. My big contribution to Summer Holiday Contractors is that I have expanded collaboration and scaled up the business. I am proud, happy and grateful that it has gone the way!
These are summer vacation entrepreneurs
Lund Municipality's social welfare administration gives priority young people the opportunity to receive paid holiday placements for three weeks during the summer holidays. In 2022, the Business Unit awarded four holiday internships as first prize to some young entrepreneurs who had participated in an Easter holiday program. The Cultural and Leisure Administration participates through four leisure leaders.
The youngsters are aged between 15 and 18. In 2022, that meant the yearlings of 2004 to 2006.
In short, Summer Holiday Entrepreneurs is about young people testing an idea and receiving coaching and support in developing it further over three weeks. Perhaps it will be companies from the ideas — but above all, entrepreneurs are formed.
The first week is idea generation and the young people are taught how to create an idea based on their own values and idea workshops. The theme of the second week is idea validation as the young entrepreneurs through various exercises test the business idea on their target audience before it is time for idea packaging during the third week when they package their prototype and present their work to a jury.
In the last two years there have also been activities during the autumn holidays and Easter holidays as well. As yet, the arrangements for this have not been fully established and the business will develop more in the future. In the fall of 2021, there were scholarships for some participants to participate in Ideon Science Park's pre-incubator program. Some of the participants were later included as tutors during the holiday internship.
Summer holiday entrepreneurs are a collaboration between several different actors. Within the municipality, it is the Business Unit, the Social Services Administration, the Cultural and Leisure Administration and the ComUNG. The support system also participates, such as Future by Lund, Ideon Science Park, Venture Lab, Medicon Village and Lund New Entrepreneurship Centre. The Finn and Region Skåne Savings Bank Foundation is involved in financing.
Picture: Petter Hartman at Medicon Village.