ALPHA. Demokratiskolan.se is a PROTOTYPE · Content review in progress
Demokratiskolan
The Skills card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 27 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaKnowledge & technology
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
Knowledge & technology

Skills

Skill-sets the nation nurtures

Which skills a country cultivates in its residents is a quiet but decisive political choice. Municipal adult education, Swedish for immigrants, folk high schools, vocational programmes and student finance decide who can change track mid-life. The central government sets the rules and the money, the municipality runs most of the teaching.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · komvux, sfi, vocational adult ed · approx 35 %
  • Region · folk high schools, skills analysis · approx 10 %
  • State · rules, grants, csn · approx 45 %
  • EU · social fund and comparisons · approx 10 %

The central government steers the rules and student finance, but it is the municipality's adult education you actually meet. The general election matters most, the municipal election next.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe adult school
The regionLiberal education and analysis
Central governmentRules and student finance · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige) and the committee responsible for adult education.
The regional council (regionfullmäktige). Many folk high schools are run by regions, others by associations and movements.
The Riksdag (Sweden's parliament), the Government, the National Agency for Education (Skolverket) and CSN. The Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) buys labour-market training.
What do they decide?
The responsible authority for municipal adult education (komvux), Swedish for immigrants (SFI) and vocational adult education. Decides the range, the number of places and how much is run by other providers.
Runs folk high schools and maps which skills the county's employers lack.
The Education Act's rules for adult education, the central government grants and the student finance that makes studying possible.
Where are decisions made?
In the committee's budget and decisions, which are official documents.
In the region's committees and in the regional skills-supply work.
In the Riksdag and in the agencies' regulations.
Who pays?
Municipal tax plus earmarked central government grants.
Regional tax and central government grants to adult liberal education.
The central government budget: grants, student finance and transition study support through CSN.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election Apply yourself, propose courses that are missing, a citizen's proposal (medborgarförslag) in many municipalities.
Regional election Apply to a folk high school, get involved in a study association.
General election A referral response on education proposals, views through unions and industry bodies.
EUThe EU's social fund finances skills projects in Sweden, and the union compares the skills of different countries. Shaped in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case A shortage occupation becomes a study place
  1. Region

    The shortage shows up in the analysis

    The region's skills analysis shows that the county lacks, for example, welders and assistant nurses. Employers and unions have flagged it for a long time.

  2. State

    The central government directs the money

    The Riksdag decides on central government grants to vocational adult education, and the Government steers which programmes are prioritised. CSN's student finance makes it possible to live while studying.

    Point of influence

    The general election decides how much adult education is funded and who can afford to retrain.

  3. Municipality

    Adult education starts the track

    The municipality's committee decides to start a welding programme, often together with neighbouring municipalities and local companies.

    Point of influence

    The municipal election shapes the committee. You can propose courses that are missing and ask why the range looks the way it does.

  4. Municipality

    Application and admission

    You apply through the municipality's adult education. The study and careers counsellor helps with the plan, and CSN with the funding.

    Point of influence

    This step is your own way in: the right to apply belongs to all adults.

  5. Your everyday life

    New trade, new schedule

    Eighteen months later you start at the workshop. The path there was built by a regional analysis, a central government grant and a municipal decision.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. Which skill would you yourself like to build on, and do you know what routes there are near you?

  2. Who should decide which programmes are offered: the employers, the politicians or those who apply?

  3. What does it mean for a society that adults can change trade mid-life?

  4. SFI is many new arrivals' first encounter with Sweden. What makes it a good or a bad start?

  5. Which skills should everyone have in twenty years, and whose responsibility is it that we get them?

Glossary

Komvux
Municipal adult education: courses at compulsory-school and upper-secondary level for adults.
SFI
Swedish for immigrants, the municipality's language education for newly arrived adults.
Yrkesvux
Vocational courses within komvux, often aimed at shortage occupations.
Folkhögskola
A form of school for adults with its own pedagogy, run by regions or popular movements.
Studiemedel
Grants and loans from CSN that let adults support themselves while studying.
Omställningsstudiestöd
Central government support through CSN for someone who retrains mid-career to strengthen their position.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.