Citi Foundation and NyföretagarCentrum to accelerate youth employability and create 1,200 new jobs for youth in Sweden
STOCKHOLM – Citi Foundation announces NyföretagarCentrum Sweden as one of the 2025 Global Innovation Challenge recipients, where 50 community organizations around the world will receive $500,000 each to pilot or scale up innovative employment solutions for low-income youth. NyföretagarCentrum will use this grant to pilot and scale up the “Young & Your Own” program with the goal of creating 1,200 new jobs for young people in Sweden within two years.
Youth unemployment is a global challenge. According to estimations by the International Labor Organization (ILO), 65 million young people are unemployed globally, and in Sweden the situation is even more critical with youth unemployment among the highest in the EU. At the same time, the labor market is undergoing rapid structural transformation. The World Economic Forum estimates that 39% of current skill sets are expected to be outdated within the next five years, creating an acute skills mismatch. The Citi Foundation is tackling this dual challenge – high youth unemployment and new skills mismatch – through its global philanthropic innovation initiative.
NyföretagarCentrum's initiative is to scale up the successful “Ung & Eget” program. Through a new collaboration with STARTcentrum, an organization that promotes entrepreneurship among young people, they are taking a unique holistic approach where they follow development from the first idea to an established company. The support is particularly aimed at young people aged 15–24, with a focus on women and people with a foreign background, as well as low-income youth. The goal is to start 750 new companies and strengthen 250 existing ones, laying the foundation for the 1,200 new jobs.
“It is incredibly important to give young people faith in the future and concrete opportunities. I am proud that through our Citi Foundation we can be part of NyföretagarCentrum's important and innovative initiative,” says Erik Savola, Head of Nordics and Head of Europe Corporate Banking. “Collaborating with STARTcentrum also shows a new and powerful way of thinking. By creating the conditions for 1,200 new jobs for these youth groups, we are building a more inclusive and dynamic economy in Sweden.”
“This is a fantastic milestone for us! This new initiative and grant through the Citi Foundation's innovation program ‘Global Innovation Challenge’ changes the playing field for ‘Young & Your Own’,” says Harry Goldman, CEO of NyföretagarCentrum Sverige. “Now we can accelerate our work and capture young people as early as 15 years of age, implement new initiatives, including the ‘Future Entrepreneur of the Year’ award, and reach out even more widely throughout Sweden. We are ready to build Sweden's next generation of job creators.”
The collaboration between NyföretagarCentrum and Citi Foundation began already in 2015, and has contributed to over 3,500 new companies through the “Young & Your Own” program - a result that far exceeded the original goals. With this new grant from the “2025 Global Innovation Challenge,” a new, innovation-driven phase is now underway to further strengthen low-income youth’s opportunities in the job market. Over the next two years, Citi employees in Sweden will also be involved as mentors, trainers and jury members for the “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” awards and the new “Future Entrepreneur of the Year” award.
For more information and a full list of recipients of this year’s “Global Innovation Challenge,” visit www.citifoundation.com/challenge and follow #InnovationChallenge on social media.
About The Citi Foundation
The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyse job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant communities. The Citi Foundation's "More than Philanthropy" approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfil our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation. For more information, visit www.citifoundation.com.
About NyföretagarCentrum
NyföretagarCentrum, founded in 1985, is Sweden's leading force for new entrepreneurship and the largest organization for developing entrepreneurship. With operations in 230 municipalities, NyföretagarCentrum provides free, confidential advice to new entrepreneurs. With over 80 local offices in 228 of Sweden's 290 municipalities, NyföretagarCentrum provides free, confidential and impartial advice to new entrepreneurs. They help them succeed in starting and developing businesses. Every year, NyföretgarCentrum advises over 12,000 people and participates in the start-up of 6,000-7,000 companies, which is more than 10% of all new businesses in Sweden. For more information, visit: www.nyforetagarcentrum.se.
Citi
Citi is a preeminent banking partner for institutions with cross-border needs. Citi does business in nearly 160 countries and jurisdictions, providing corporations, governments, investors, institutions and individuals with a broad range of financial products and services. Citi has been established in the Nordics for more than 50 years with offices in Denmarmk, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://new.citi.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi
Media contact
Anneli Sundström Head of Communications & Public Affairs, Nordics, Citi Anneli.sundstrom@citi.com +46 70 250 35 91
Harry Goldman, CEO NyföretagarCentrum Sverige, harry.goldman@nyforetagarcentrum.se +46 70-661 04 54