Programme
jINC
Providing employability skills and careers guidance to boost prospects in tech for young people from socioeconomic disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
Supporting disadvantaged students in Sweden into tech careers
F1RST was set up to address the significant barriers to social mobility in Sweden for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnic minority groups, among others. For example, students with graduate parents are three times more likely to go to university than those without, and students with foreign backgrounds are two and half times more likely not to complete upper secondary education than those born in Sweden.
F1RST addresses these challenges by providing targeted support through workshops, mentoring, and work experience. The organisation was founded in 2022 as a partnership between the Stockholm School of Economics and the Daniel Sachs Foundation, and became an independent non-profit in 2024.
The Hg Foundation’s grant of £630,000 will enable F1RST to integrate tech-focussed workshops into its existing school interventions and launch a dedicated tech programme for university students, reaching over 1,000 young people in the next three years. Alongside this, the funding will increase F1RST’s data and monitoring capacity, enabling it to better measure and understand its impact, and provide expert feedback to refine its delivery model.
The tech industry is facing a critical need for more talent with diverse perspectives and skills. We are thrilled to partner with The Hg Foundation to ensure that students from underrepresented backgrounds in Sweden can envision themselves in the future of tech — and for the industry to find the talent it so urgently needs. This support will enable us to expand our reach, develop targeted programming, and equip our students with the confidence, skills, and networks they need to succeed in a rapidly changing job market. Together, we are not just opening doors — we are redefining who gets to walk through them.
