The Smart Competence Project will strengthen the skills and competences of employees within industrial companies in Eastern Central Sweden. It will also contribute to increase the participating companies access to labours force with the right skills. Region Östergötland will be the Project Owner, and will run the project together with partners from all counties in Eastern Sweden; Eskilstuna Municipality, Karlskoga Municipality, Region of Uppsala County and Region of Västmanland. In total, 58 companies and 4649 employees (women 20%, men 80%) will participate in the project. Some activities will also be available for people outside the labour market. New technology, digitization, increased internationalization and higher demands from customers on complex solutions, flexibility and speed all together create the constant need of new skills. As well as create a method for working with long-term competence development. The recruitment needs are high among the participating companies, but the right skills are really difficult to find. The people available to hire does not match the demands. One reason is that available trainings do not match the needs of the companies. But also geographical locations matters, gender aspects and the tendency to recruit based on existing norms and traditions. Regardless of where in the region or in what part of the industry the companies operate, we have jointly identified the following reasons for the need for competence reinforcement and work with long-term skills supply in the industry in Eastern Sweden: - Lack of skills and need of competence development for employees in the companies - The recruitment base is too small - The companies' strategic skills regarding long term competence development is to low - It is difficult to find relevant courses that correspond to what companies are asking for The project "Smart Competence" will be characterized by working locally and cooperate regionally. We want to maximize the benefits of a major collaborative project while at the same time creating local ownership and engagement from the participating partners and companies. The project is characterized by inclusion and non-discrimination.