Schwedischer EU-Ratsvorsitz will Missverhältnis von Qualifikationsangebot und -nachfrage angehen

The Swedish EU Presidency to attack skills mismatch

Sweden is taking steps to address the mismatch between the skills on offer and those in demand in the labour market, working towards adjusting upper secondary vocational education and training (VET) accordingly.

To enact the necessary alignment, the Swedish government has initiated several measures including amendments to the Education Act. These initiatives are in line with the priorities of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2023.

The priorities of the Swedish Presidency are security, competitiveness, green and energy transition, democratic values and the rule of law. These priorities reflect positions that Sweden has traditionally advocated in the European Union (EU), but also respond to the current geopolitical and economic challenges facing the Union.

Concerning education, the Presidency will move the work on the European Education Area forward, for example regarding mutual recognition of qualifications. It also plans to begin considering both of the Council recommendations announced by the Commission on digitalisation in the area of education.

In addition, the Presidency intends to link up with the European Year of Skills 2023, focusing on matching skillsets to labour market needs. It will highlight how education can contribute to successful transitions and upskilling and will initiate a discussion on the conditions necessary for both individuals and businesses to be able to obtain the skills they need for the green transition.

The state of affairs on the national level

Initial VET (IVET) in Sweden is traditionally provided in accordance with demand from learners. The underlying idea is that, if teenagers are empowered in their choice of education, they are more likely to do well.

There is, however, an increasing awareness that IVET provision driven by learner demand contributes to mismatches in the labour market. Since education provision is also decentralised and providers compete for students, education providers tend to offer the most popular programmes.

In 2018, the government launched an inquiry tasked with investigating this problem and proposing a regionalised model of upper secondary provision (IVET and continuing VET – CVET) to ensure that a variety of programmes are made available to learners and to safeguard better alignment with regional labour market needs.

Based on proposals from the inquiry, the government recently initiated measures aimed at supporting skills provision to industry and the welfare sector and facilitating transition from upper secondary VET to the labour market:

• Amendments have been made to the Education Act establishing a new principle for planning and dimensioning of upper secondary VET according to labour market needs.
• All municipalities are obliged to collaborate concerning planning and dimensioning of upper secondary VET.

A prerequisite for adequate planning and dimensioning of upper secondary VET leading to better alignment with the needs of the labour market is reliable and accessible information. The government, therefore, commissioned the National Agency for Education to design a model for the dissemination of information on the needs of the labour market to organisers of upper secondary VET – a final report on the model was presented in 2022.