Written by Andrés
25 Dec 2016
When people look for a bachelor’s, master or a PhD abroad , Sweden is not always the first option. Australia, France, Germany, England, Japan, US, Canada, Switzerland (a lot of people asked me if I was studying in Sweden or in Switzerland HAHAHA! – both are pronounced in a similar way in spanish), and many more are popular destinations for students. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that all those countries are great places for studying, and it depends a lot on what you like. But let me give you 3 non-academic reasons why Sweden is THE best country to study.
Credits: Sofia Sabel/imagebank.sweden.se
#1 Innovation
Let’s start with one of the most important reasons. Did you knew that Stockholm is one of the cities with more startups per capita? Now, what the heck does this mean. Right now you might be listening to music in one of the most important and recent ones – Spotify! Or maybe you are listening to Edite’s amazing podcast (I definitely recommend you to listen to it) or playing Candy Crush, the list keeps going but you get the point right? Anyway, in Sweden there is a constant development in terms of technology, there is a lot going on and this is definitely the place to be if you are an entrepreneur, even if you think that starting a bushiness is hard, funding may be available via VINNOVA, Sweden’s innovation agency.
Credits: Hans-Olof Utsi/imagebank.sweden.se
#2 Sustainable
Sweden is well known around the world for being an eco-friendly country, not just because how their waste-management abilities. But also because the educational system teaches people how it is possible to reduce the environmental footprint of humans. I remember an article about “Sweden buying garbage”, and my first thought was – why would someone buy trash? – but I kept reading anyway.
As a result of this sustainable culture and education, people recycle so well that they don’t have enough rubbish to incinerate to produce energy. In fact, 99% of Swedens waste is now recycled (for all of you people interested in sustainable and environmental topics, Sweden offers a lot of programmes related to sustainability) how cool is that! Sweden has become Europe’s biggest importer of trash from other countries.
Another thing that I notice is that people often tend to buy “local” products, and the main reason for this is: first, to support the local companies, and local producers, but also, to reduce the emissions. How come? Well, if you consume local products the transportation (trucks, airplanes, ships) for those products has a smaller impact since less fuel is burned to move the products around the world. Easy.
I could spend days talking about Sweden’s sustainable culture, there’s research going on that I don’t even understand, and definitely there is a lot of development going around here.
Credits: Cecilia Larsson Lantz/Imagebank.sweden.se
#3 Employment
A lot of people ask me if I would like to stay in Sweden, and the answer is simple – YES! – Explaining why is the tricky part (or at least for me). Let me beging with the fact that NO ONE will give you a job out of nowhere, if there is one sentence that sums perfectly how I feel about life is this one: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. So far I can’t complain about the opportunities that I have created and my talent has allowed me to take – I feel like I’m giving a speech in an award ceremony or something like that, but let’s just get back to the point.
Sweden has a lot to offer, companies are looking for new talent everywhere, and the opportunities to mingle and talk with future employers are many. Job fairs, lunch-seminars, lunch-lectures, fika with companies, academic tours through the facilities, thesis projects within a company, internships, summer jobs, guest lecturers, and so on. Honestly I don’t know what to expect, and this is just my perspective of what I see and what I’ve heard, Gimmy perfectly sums up everything you need to know in your job hunt.
Credits: Guillaume de Basly/imagebank.sweden.se
Credits: Sofia Sabel/imagebank.sweden.se
