JU student will compete at the Swedish National Skills Competition

Alexander Aronsson who is studying at the School of Engineering (JTH), Jönköping University (JU), will compete in the Swedish National Skills Competition (Yrkes-SM) on 10-12 May in Växjö.

“Great fun and exciting,” he says.

Last fall, the Swedish Retail and Wholesale Council held Trade Professional competitions to increase knowledge and insight into the importance of trade for society and highlight the professional opportunities in trade. The competition, held at Hotel Birger Jarl in Stockholm, had 18 participants in three categories: Retailers, Merchandise and Entrepreneurship and Business Development. Alexander Aronsson, a second year student at Mechanical Engineering: Industrial and Production Management at the School of Engineering, participated in the latter category with Saga Persson, who is studying “politices kandidatprogrammet” at Lund University. They were assigned different cases to develop a business idea and marketing strategy and then pitch that concept to a jury.

Avoid empty spaces in the trucks’ cargo

Alexander’s and Saga's project was about connecting the haulage industry with local trading companies to avoid empty spaces in the trucks’ cargo space, so that the transports run fully loaded. It would reduce the hauliers' transport costs and provide environmental benefits. Alexander and Saga worked on the project well into the wee hours.

“It was optional how many hours you wanted to work, but as the pitch was crucial we had to go all in to get our message across as clearly as possible. It was intense and tough, but we had a strategy for how to win and that included a complete structure for how we would spend the time,” says Alexander Aronsson.

He says that he benefited from what he has learned during a course about logistics, materials and production management at JTH with Assistant Professor Fredrik Tiedeman as the teacher.

Is looking forward to a tough challenge

Fredrik Tiedeman thinks that the problem and the solution that Alexander and Saga presented in the competition are interesting and have potential.

“Now it is important to figure out how it can be realized in practice. I look forward with excitement to that result and to their performance in the final,” says Fredrik Tiedeman.

In addition to participating in the competition, Alexander thinks it was valuable to network with the other participants representatives from the trading industry and the Swedish Retail and Wholesale Council. At the Swedish National Skills Competition in May, young people from about 60 professions will participate, and Alexander is looking forward to a tough challenge.

“Mine and Saga's goal with Yrkes-SM is to develop in our business and entrepreneurship knowledge. So the bigger the challenge, the more fun,” he says.

Read more about the Swedish National Skills Competition here (in Swedish only)