Leif Berglund
Luleå University of Technology
I work as a senior lecturer in Human Work Science at Luleå University of Technology. My dissertation was finished in 2010 and it was about validation of professional skills and skills in working life. Since the dissertation, I have primarily worked as a teacher for sociologists. I have participated in a large number of both smaller and larger research assignments, mostly with a focus on youth, education and the labor market. Since 2015 I have mostly been working with projects directed to risk and safety within the construction industry. At the moment I work in a project about the installation industry and occupational health services.
Background
I started my academic career at the Sociology program at Luleå University of Technology in 2000 and completed my master's degree in 2004. I joined Luleå University of Technology in 2005 and became a PhD student in January 2006. In spring 2008 I took my licentiate degree and in spring 2010 I became a doctor. Since autumn 2010, I work as a researcher and now also as an associate professor at the Department of Economics, Technology and Society at LTU. I studied the subject of Work Science and looked at the validation of knowledge and skills gained in working life. My focus was on how the industry itself values the skills and competences they have with their employees. After the dissertation, I have mainly worked as a teacher in the Sociology program, both basic courses in sociology and social psychology, but also quite a few courses in our two streams, Personnel and Administration, and Research. I have been involved in a quite large number of different research assignments of different kinds, both EU-financed and others. This has meant that I now have a broad experience in many areas, such as municipal activities, alcohol prevention, youth, urban construction, business and now the most recent construction industry where I supervise a PhD student. I have also been part of a knowledge compilation report for the Work Environment Authority. During the years I have participated in national networks regarding validation and have also published some work on validation. I'm also a part of the editorial board in the online magazine PLAIO, which deals exclusively with aspects of validation. I have been assigned as an occupational health officer at my institution and teaches in systematic work environment work, both in regular education programs, but also within internal BAM education. I am part of a research group within our subject that focues on risk and safety within the construction industry.
Personal
I was born in 1959 and raised in the most beautiful town, Gammelstad, 10 km north of Luleå. A town that is included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 1996 because of the more than 400 red cottages that is surrounding the church. For the past 26 years I have been living in Piteå, 60 km south of Luleå. I have had a lot of different jobs in my life which have given me experience in quite different areas of working life. I consider myself as a restless person, who strongly disregards doing nothing and therefore constantly has projects of different kinds going on. Much of the time I spend at home with my family, nowadays only my wife Carina who works as a parish assistant. Our children Amanda and Aaron have left the building. We have a great deal of involvement in the Swedish Church, and I work both ideally with choir singing and with different comissions in the chair. In my spare time I like to read, preach in churches, write, music and work at house and garden.
