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How did a football club become Malmö’s biggest job charity?

How did a football club become Malmö's biggest job charity? It's a question Filippa Engstrand, head of Boost by FC Rosengård, gets so often that she clearly finds it a bit frustrating.

How did a football club become Malmö's biggest job charity?
The photo released by Boost by FC Rosengård to advertise the new Match project. Photo: Boost
“The most common question we get is some kind of question like that,” she tells The Local in the organization's offices in central Malmö. “It's more about why we do it than how, and I'm more into talking about how we're doing things. But the question is good. I think it's proper to ask that question.” 
 
FC Rosengård is most famous as the football club that has won the Sweden's top-tier women's league Damallsvenskan a record ten times (twice as FC Rosengård, three times as LdB FC, and five times as Malmö FF Dam). As Malmö Boll & Idrottsförening, it was also the club where the young Zlatan Ibrahimovic trained as a boy before going on to glory at Malmö FF.  
 
But over the last few years, Boost, the initiative the club started in 2003 to find jobs for the parents of some of its players has grown into one of the largest non-governmental groups working on unemployment in the city. 
 
“We have an organization that is actually as large as the whole football organization itself. I think it's even larger if you look at the budget,” Engstrand says.
 
Indeed, so successful has it become that during last year's election campaign the centre-right Alliance parties in the city pledged to close down Jobb Malmö, the municipal arm of Sweden's state employment services, and hand over all of its duties to FC Rosengård.
 
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FC Rosengård has won the Swedish women's league ten times. Photo: Andreas Hillergren/TT
 
Since 2011 Boost has sent 2,200 young men and women on to work or full-time education by providing a one-stop shop employing teachers, therapists, recruiters, and coaches, who can build up their confidence and motivation. 
 
“Full-time education is actually the result that we really, really want,” says Engstrand. She fears that the clients who are currently managing to get jobs in today's booming economy without needing to improve qualifications risk becoming long-term unemployed in a future downturn. 

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Boost receives its clients from Malmö's social and employment services, but about half of those who come have asked to join the programme after hearing about it from others. 
 
Engstrand says it is important that Boost receives a mix of people, some already more or less employable and some far from the labour market. 
 
“Our idea was that even if you are a hard case, you should be able to come here and feel like everybody else,” Engstrand says. “So we worked very hard with getting Boost a good reputation and a good image so you don't feel that it's stigmatizing, so you don't feel like 'this is where everybody that is really bad comes'.” 
 
The appeal for politicians is that the programme appears relatively cheap. 
 
“A place here at Boost costs only 25,000 kronor ($2,700). That's the total cost of going to therapists, going to teachers, help with their grades, and going to coaching,” she says.  
 
“So that's maybe what the Alliance parties were talking about: If we want to do something about youth unemployment, we can send everybody to Boost, because for 25,000 kronor, they actually succeed.”
 
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Sweden's centre-right opposition parties visited Boost in August last year. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
 
But despite a high-profile visit during the election campaign by Sweden's opposition leader Ulf Kristersson, Engstrand is in fact adamant that organizations like hers can never realistically supplant the role of the state. 
 
“I think it's very positive for us to get the attention, but I don't think it's very well thought through,” she says.
 
“You can't compare what we do at FC Rosengård with what the whole municipality of Malmö does in labour market initiatives.” 
 
FC Rosengård has a very specific niche in helping prepare people take advantage of the education, training, and recruitment services provided by the municipality. 
 
“We see ourselves in the middle, as an intermediary, because we have something that the others lack,” she says. “People who live in the segregated areas of Malmö don't trust the system, they don't trust society, they don't trust the public sector. But they do trust us.” 
 
Filippa Engstrand looks out over Rosengård from the roof of her offices. Photo: Richard Orange/The Local
 
From the rooftop of her offices in the old offices of the Pågen bread factory, she points out over the steam of the factory towards the troubled areas of Rosengård and Nydala. 
 
“We're less than 15 minutes away from the places where most of our clients live,” she said. “I think we're in the real centre of Malmö.”
 
The Boost programme is now being wound down after seven years, partly because the booming economy over the past two or three years has meant that many among Boost's target group have been able to find jobs. 
 
Engstrand is now focusing on setting up a successor project called Match, which, like Boost, is partly funded by the European Social Fund. 
 
The idea is to focus on the physical and mental health problems which she says FC Rosengård has frequently seen among its clients. 
 
“Approximately 50 percent of the young people who come to Boost, or perhaps more, have issues with their health. They have anxiety, depression, cognitive behavioural issues, and maybe addictions.”
 
She has already hired 12 therapists and trainers, who started working on the project in February. 
 
The project was formally launched on April 12th and the first participants will join on May 1st. Engstrand hopes to reach 620 people with the project by 2021, improving their mental and physical health and so removing a key obstacle to joining the workplace. 

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READER INSIGHTS

How to find a job in Sweden: Five tips from those who’ve been there, done that

The Swedish job market poses unique challenges for newcomers. The Local's readers share their best tips for cracking the career code.

How to find a job in Sweden: Five tips from those who've been there, done that

Network, network, network!

A statistic that often gets tossed around is that seven out of ten jobs in Sweden are obtained through personal connections, and there’s no doubt that a good network is crucial to your job hunt, making the labour market extra challenging for newcomers to the country.

In fact, networking was the main tip mentioned by The Local’s readers.

“The job market is quite hot in Sweden, and talent is in short supply. People hiring do not have a lot of time to find the right talent, and tips from friends, colleagues and former colleagues are the way to first, find out organisations are hiring, and secondly, get your CV on the short list,” said Kyle, a Canadian reader who works in innovation management in Gothenburg.

“If you are going for a major employer like Volvo, network gets you in the door, as HR does not have much to do with hiring… the hiring managers do all of it and have no time, due to the insane number of consensus meetings. If you are looking for smaller organisations, they have even less time to find people, and networking is their primary way to find talent,” he added.

NETWORKING IN SWEDEN:

Some of the networking tips readers mentioned were going to job fairs, getting an internship to help you establish connections in your preferred field, joining clubs (this could be anything from your local gardening association to meetups for coders, but focus on clubs that may be popular among people working in your chosen field), and drawing on your organic network of friends, neighbours and others.

Don’t neglect the groundwork

The saying “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” is getting worn out (and people may look at you funny if you turn up to interviews in a Batman suit), but there’s truth to the notion of making sure you know what you want – and preparing for it.

In other words, don’t wait for a job ad to appear before you start to customise your CV and figure out what skill set you need. Create your CV now so that you’re ready to tweak it to your dream job – you could even have a general look at job ads in your field to see what requirements are needed. And don’t forget to spruce up your LinkedIn profile so that it fits with your career goals.

“I believe that several factors contribute to successfully landing a desirable job in Sweden. It’s essential to prepare to meet the requirements beyond just having a university degree. Many individuals realise these requirements only after completing their studies when they start searching for a job, which can be too late,” said Adnan Aslam from Pakistan, who works as a food inspector.

“I recommend identifying the job advertisements for positions you aspire to hold in the future and then preparing for those requirements during your studies. For me, acquiring a basic level of proficiency in the Swedish language and obtaining a Swedish driving licence were crucial. I pursued these goals during my studies and was able to secure a desirable job before graduating,” he added.

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Felipe Cabral even has a GPT assistant trained on his own CVs and old cover letters, and said the set-up only takes ten minutes if you already have your documents. “With that in place, you can give instructions like: Read this job description and create a tailored version of my CV and letter for it. (…) Remember to always review and ask it not to create data aside from your documents.”

Be flexible and ready to adapt

Moving to a new place inevitably means having to learn not just the practicalities such as how to write a CV or which websites to use to look for job openings, but also learning how to navigate a new culture with all its unspoken expectations.

Swedish workplaces are generally less hierarchical than many other countries, but that doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want whenever you want without anyone raising an eyebrow. Swedes are usually direct, but be careful of being too abrasive or boastful: raising your voice, even during a spirited argument, or banging your own drum to show off your skills may not go down well.

“Talk, deliberate, complain like a Swede and you’ll come across like you know what the job entails, so your trustworthiness increases,” said an Indian data analyst who preferred to remain anonymous.

“Office politics are just as strong in Sweden as anywhere else. The flat hierarchy is deceiving as social hierarchy is enforced quite a bit in that lack of formal hierarchy. Take your time in learning these dynamics wherever you work before revealing your talent and capabilities. Expect those internal politics to happen, and they won’t hurt so much when they do,” said Kyle, the Canadian reader in Gothenburg.

This article about Swedish office politics may be useful.

Stay true to yourself

Adapting to your surroundings is one thing. Completely changing who you are is another.

For one thing, your happiness is as important as your career progression, and for another, your foreignness need not be an impediment: it’s also a skill that sets you apart from the rest. It means you have unique experience, and also, in the right setting, provides an opportunity to sometimes violate those social rules we mentioned above, because people assume you will, anyway.

“Trust is key. Build trust in your network, work with integrity. It’s OK to violate jantelagen if you are maintaining integrity. Sometimes your outsider and more honest/open opinion will burn bridges, especially those that may feel threatened by talent. But it will build trust with other colleagues who see it as brave and more trustworthy to work with,” said Kyle from Canada.

Hunker down for the long haul

We don’t want to scare you, because there are plenty of examples of people who quickly find their dream job in Sweden and settle into their new workplace, enjoying perks such as long summer holidays, generous parental leave and the famous work-life balance.

But if you do find it tougher than you expected: know that you’re not alone.

Several readers who responded to the survey said they were still trying to find a job in Sweden.

“I found jobs all over Europe but not here. They say they have a lack of experienced senior engineers but the don’t seem to be doing much to solve this,” said a Brazilian in Gothenburg.

A reader from Bangladesh said she was “at a loss” as to how to make a career change from her current AI role in Stockholm, despite many years of experience as an IT project manager.

“Over the past 18 months, I’ve submitted over 600 applications to various organisations. Unfortunately, despite being overqualified for some positions, I’ve faced rejections at every turn, from both large and small companies. The job market here, especially for foreign-born women, feels overwhelmingly challenging,” she said, adding that the struggle had impacted her mental health.

The Local has on several occasions reported on foreign residents’ struggle to get a foot on the Swedish job ladder, with many facing hurdles such as employers’ unfamiliarity with international degrees, discrimination, or a lack of network that can provide paths into a company.

So during the job hunt, don’t forget to care for yourself. Share your concerns with fellow job-seekers, ask for help and join networking groups – this is good not just for creating new contacts, but also in terms of your social well-being and meeting people who are in a similar situation.

And finally, as one British reader in Stockholm advised, keep looking: “Be open-minded with the opportunities that present themselves. It isn’t an easy market to enter and doesn’t feel inclusive.” But he added, “don’t give up”.

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